Nolan Wells.
Undetermined.
An eighteen-year-old is dead. Two forensic pathologists examined him — one for the State of Mississippi, one retained independently of it. Neither would state a cause of death. Neither would state a manner of death. Both found an injury to the back of his head, and neither has explained it.
On September 21, 2026, a Jackson County grand jury returned a unanimous no true bill. The report released to the public is redacted. The testimony is sealed. A file was closed. A death was not explained.
Every claim on this page is drawn from the publicly released grand jury report or the on-record findings of the two pathologists. Nothing here is alleged.
§01 The RecordReleased report · Sept 21, 2026
What the file says — and where it stops.
July 6, 2026
Jackson County, MS
Eighteen years old
Cause and manner
Pending investigation
43 witnesses · 7 invited
Sept 21, 2026
Not public
Nolan Wells was eighteen years old. He was found in the water off Horn Island on the morning of July 6, 2026. Two forensic pathologists examined him. One worked for the State of Mississippi. One was retained independently, by counsel for his family.
The Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office ruled cause and manner of death undetermined. Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., the independently retained forensic pathologist, reached the same conclusion — undetermined — and found that Nolan “sustained recent unexplained blunt-force injuries to the back of the head and additional areas of his back.”
Both examinations found injury to the back of his head; the State's own pathologist reported it as two contusions, and the red discoloration in the preliminary findings was confirmed as blood. Neither report explains how it got there. The State medical examiner did not photograph the back of Nolan's head.
On September 21, 2026, the office of District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath announced that a grand jury of twenty-three had unanimously returned a no true bill. It had issued 132 subpoenas. It had heard 43 witnesses. Seven people were invited to testify. No charges were returned against anyone.
The report released to the public that night is redacted and the testimony of the 43 witnesses is sealed. The grand jury found the position, condition, time of discovery and location of the body consistent with one cause; both pathologists called that cause a diagnosis of exclusion — reached by ruling other things out — and the death certificate records cause and manner as undetermined.
This page will not fill that gap with a theory. It sets out what the released record says, and where the released record stops.
§02 The FindingsSourced · nothing alleged
Six things the record says out loud.
The Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office ruled both the cause and the manner of Nolan Wells' death undetermined. Its report found no evidence of any fatal injury or organic disease.
Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., retained independently of the State, found cause and manner undetermined, and concluded the investigation “should remain open and active.” Two pathologists, two files, one answer: not stated.
The independent autopsy found recent unexplained blunt-force injuries to the back of the head and additional areas of his back. The State's own pathologist reported two contusions to the head early in the investigation. No one has explained how they got there, and the State medical examiner did not photograph them.
Both pathologists describe the one cause not ruled out as a diagnosis of exclusion — reached by eliminating other causes, not by affirmative evidence. Dr. Mitchell noted every other cause must be excluded first. The death certificate records cause and manner as undetermined.
Twenty-three grand jurors. 132 subpoenas. Forty-three witnesses. Seven people invited to testify. One unanimous no true bill.
An inquiry that large does not produce a blank. It produced one the public is not allowed to read.
The report released to the public is redacted. The testimony of forty-three witnesses is sealed. The full autopsy file has not been released.
§03 The SilenceOpen questions · unanswered
A file can be closed without being answered.
These are not allegations. Every one of them is a question the released record leaves standing. We put them in public because a question in public is harder to seal than a question in a drawer.
Updated as the record moves. If the office releases more, this section changes.
What caused the injury to the back of his head?
Both pathologists found it. The State's report says it was not fatal. The grand jury reported it found no other evidence to explain the bruising and could not say with certainty what caused it. That is the whole of the public answer.
Why is the publicly released report redacted?
The inquiry is over. No one was charged. No prosecution stands to be prejudiced by disclosure. What interest does redaction protect now, and from whom?
Why is the testimony of forty-three witnesses sealed?
Forty-three people told the State what they knew, under oath. The public that convened the grand jury, paid for the investigation, and is asked to accept its result is not permitted to read a word of it.
Why has the full autopsy file not been released?
Two pathologists reached the same conclusion from it: undetermined. One of them called his own conclusion pending further investigation. Further investigation requires the file.
Why were the injuries to the back of his head never photographed?
The State's own pathologist reported two contusions to the back of Nolan's head early in the investigation. According to the family's legal team, the State medical examiner did not photograph them. A contemporaneous photograph is the cheapest evidence in forensic pathology, and it does not exist.
Does the record establish how he entered the water?
According to the family's legal team, Dr. Mitchell wrote that the record does not establish whether Nolan entered the water on his own or was forced, or whether he was conscious when he went in. That is the independent pathologist's own account of what the file cannot answer — not a theory, and not an accusation.
Why were his social media apps not part of the preliminary investigation?
The legal team says its forensic experts will address the complete examination of Nolan's cell phone in the days ahead — specifically the social media apps that, it says, were not examined in the preliminary investigation. A phone is not an exotic piece of evidence in 2026.
What is an eighteen-year-old's death worth, as a matter of procedure?
This is the question underneath the others. A system that can spend 132 subpoenas and forty-three witnesses and still hand the public a redacted page has not run out of capacity. It has run out of will.
BLM was born, we were born July 13, 2013, the day George Zimmerman was acquitted.
A movement was born out of a courtroom declining to name accountability. A no true bill is that same sentence, written in a different hand.
The condition of truth is to allow suffering to speak.
Justice is what love looks like in public.
§04 The Family's Legal TeamStatement of Sept 21, 2026
What the family's lawyers have asked for.
On September 21, 2026 the legal team for the family of Nolan Xavier Wells — attorneys Ben Crump, Liza Park, Eric Hertz and Kristen Clarke — issued a statement on the grand jury decision and released Dr. Mitchell's independent autopsy report in full. These are their asks, in their terms. E5 Enclave stands behind them and adds none of its own.
Release the full autopsy report.
The legal team requests that the District Attorney release the full autopsy report from the State medical examiner.
Keep the investigation open and active.
Dr. Mitchell concluded that an undetermined cause and manner of death are the most appropriate and scientifically supportable findings, and that the investigation “should remain open and active.” The legal team is calling on the District Attorney's office to keep it so.
Release the investigative file.
The legal team is calling on the District Attorney's office to release the investigative file.
Open the independent federal review.
The family is renewing its request that the U.S. Department of Justice open the independent federal review sought by the Congressional Black Caucus in August.
The statement itself
Read it rather than take our word for it. Two pages, issued on Ben Crump Law letterhead from Pascagoula on September 21, 2026, reproduced here in full so it can be linked and cited.
We don't know how Nolan died, and neither does the State of Mississippi.
Reproduced from the statement published by Ben Crump Law, PLLC on September 21, 2026. A news conference with the family and the legal team was announced for Tuesday, September 22, 2026 at 12 pm ET, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, Stonecrest, Georgia.
A death the record does not explain.
The file is closed and the question is not. This page keeps what the record says, and what it leaves standing, in public.