Ben Crump And Nolan Wells’ Family Continue To Raise Questions About Teen’s Death

Nolan Wells' family have renewed their calls for transparency after a Mississippi grand jury found no evidence of criminal conduct in the teen’s death.

Cellphone forensics and an autopsy report are raising new questions about the death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells in Mississippi this summer.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Wells’ family, released details Thursday from a forensic examination of the college student’s cellphone just days after a Mississippi grand jury concluded that there was no evidence of criminal conduct in the teen’s death, reports the Associated Press.

Wells, a resident of Ocean Springs, vanished during a Fourth of July boating excursion to Horn Island. The African American teen was last seen with a group of friends who were mostly white. His body was discovered two days later.

Investigators reviewed 282 pages of Snapchat conversations as part of the grand jury proceedings. A forensic examiner also analyzed location data and messages connected to Wells’ phone from before he disappeared until his family recovered the device. The analysis found that Wells opened his phone using facial recognition while aboard a boat around 2:17 p.m. July 4. The device was subsequently locked but continued receiving messages as it traveled from the boat to the mainland. Some Snapchat messages had been deleted, but the forensic examiner said there was no evidence pointing to who deleted them or why. There also was no evidence that someone unlocked Wells’ phone after it left the island and before his family received it.

“The messaging, as I said, was very telling … some of his own friends were concerned about (how) people on Horn Island can be racist,” Crump said at a press conference.

The grand jury concluded that Wells’ death was “consistent with drowning” although both the official and independent autopsies listed the cause and manner of death as undetermined.

“What this means is that there is no water in the stomach, there is no water in the lungs and there is no water in the throat,” family attorney Liza Park said.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Crump continued to raise suspicions about his death, pointing to an unexplained injury found on the back of his head during an autopsy.

“It just doesn’t make sense that he’s just gonna drown. He’s in good condition, it’s broad daylight, and all these people out there and nobody sees anything? Nobody knows anything. It doesn’t add up. And that’s all we’re saying,” Crump said.

Wells’ mother, Christine Wonsley, also challenged the grand jury’s conclusion that her son had accidentally drowned given the autopsy findings.

“How can a jury come to the conclusion of drowning, despite knowing that there was trauma to his body, and despite hearing many inconsistencies?” she said at the press conference, according to The HuffPost.

Wells’ family has asked for the grand jury materials and official autopsy report to be released and has called for additional scrutiny of the case. AP previously reported that the grand jury reviewed testimony from 43 witnesses and evidence obtained through 132 subpoenas.

Mississippi District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath has defended the investigation and said the family’s legal team should provide authorities with any new evidence indicating Wells was murdered.

For now, the cellphone provides pieces of a timeline, but the circumstances surrounding Wells’ death remain disputed. His family and investigators continue to interpret the available evidence differently.