|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
JACKSON COUNTY, Miss. (BFMG) — Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Wells’ family, announced the preliminary findings Wednesday during the 117th annual NAACP National Convention in Chicago. Crump said the independent examination by forensic pathologist Dr. Roger A. Mitchell concluded that both the cause and manner of Wells’ death are “undetermined – pending investigation.”
Wells, a former Ocean Springs High School football player and wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College, vanished July 4 during a boat outing with friends to Horn Island, a barrier island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast. His body was found in the water off the island’s northwestern tip on July 6.
Second autopsy details: head finding, no fractures
Mitchell’s preliminary report, addressed to Crump’s law firm, describes a second autopsy conducted July 10 after Wells’ body was transported for independent review. The pathologist reported “marked decompositional changes” but found no fractures and no deep tissue injuries to the face, skull, neck, ribs, pelvis, back, buttocks, arms or legs.
However, Mitchell documented a “focal area of red discoloration” measuring about 12 by 8 inches in the deep soft tissue at the back of Wells’ head, over the occipital bone. There were no lacerations of the overlying skin and no fractures of the underlying skull, leaving the etiology of the finding unclear and inconclusive for a perimortem injury, the report said.
Missing neck structures and limits on drowning evidence
Mitchell wrote that key internal neck structures — including the tracheal and laryngeal cartilages, thyroid horn and hyoid bone — were not received with the body because they had been retained by the Mississippi Medical Examiner’s Office during the initial autopsy. Without reviewing those structures, the posterior neck dissection was “incomplete,” and the pathologist said he could not rule out neck injury as a contributor or cause of death.
The report also notes that because the state’s first autopsy removed and dissected Wells’ organs, the second examiner could not directly assess the airway and lungs for water or the stomach for contents, limiting his ability to evaluate a possible drowning. Toxicology testing for the independent autopsy was not performed, and Mitchell said the original state toxicology results had not yet been received at the time of his July 19 report.
Questions about how Wells entered the water
Mitchell emphasized that in suspected drowning cases, it is critical to know how a person entered the water, particularly when the individual could swim, as Wells reportedly could. He wrote that he did not know whether Wells was conscious or unconscious, forced or unforced, before entering the water, and listed several unanswered questions that must be resolved to determine the manner of death.
Among them: the circumstances that led Wells into the water, his body position when found, whether water was present in the airway, any injuries to the anterior neck structures, possible intracranial hemorrhage, stomach contents and the outcome of toxicology testing. “For these reasons, this pathologist cannot rule out if any intervening non-accidental factors contributed to or caused the death of Nolan Wells,” Mitchell concluded.
Ongoing investigation and reward for information
Authorities in Jackson County say the investigation into Wells’ death remains active and are seeking photos, videos and eyewitness accounts from people on or near Horn Island on July 4. Sheriff John Ledbetter has previously said there is currently no evidence to suggest a crime was committed but stressed that investigators are still working to establish the facts.
Wells was last seen around 3 p.m. on the island’s northwest tip and did not return with friends when their boat left later that afternoon. A separate state autopsy conducted by the Mississippi Medical Examiner’s Office is still pending, with officials saying it could take weeks to complete, including toxicology results.
Civil rights leaders have joined the family’s call for information. According to local coverage, Rev. Al Sharpton, Tyler Perry and Pro Football Hall of Famer Terrell Owens have offered a $125,000 reward for tips leading to an arrest and conviction if foul play is confirmed. The independent autopsy, Crump said, was paid for by former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick.
