Key Takeaways
- At a press conference, Ben Crump and forensic examiner Andrew Garrett alleged that messages were deleted from Nolan Wells’ phone between his last use and its return to his parents.
- Crump said an autopsy report documented head injuries and no water in Wells’ lungs or airways, while the cause and manner of death remained undetermined.
- A grand jury previously declined to pursue charges after investigators issued 132 subpoenas and heard from 43 witnesses.
Just days after a grand jury decided not to pursue charges in Nolan Wells’ death, Ben Crump is laying out new findings about what may have happened to the Mississippi teen. On Thursday (Sept. 24), the civil rights attorney and forensic examiner Andrew Garrett held a press conference in which they alleged that messages were deleted between the time he last used his phone and when his parents ultimately received the device.
“We wanted to make sure that we continued to try to be very transparent and laser-focused on what really happened to Nolan Wells. It’s what everybody’s talking about all across America,” Crump told reporters, adding that diplomats from England, France, and “many African nations” approached him at the United Nations General Assembly wanting to know what happened to the 18-year-old.
According to TMZ, Crump and the digital-forensics team said Wells last used his phone at 2:18 p.m. ET during the Fourth of July trip to Horn Island with friends. Garrett later presented a map of GPS coordinates tracing the phone throughout the day, including the student-athlete stopping at McDonald’s and picking up a friend that morning before the group reached the island at around 11:18 a.m. ET.
TMZ noted that Wells used Instagram and Snapchat for roughly 95 percent of his communications, with the 282 pages generated by the examination "mostly" consisting of data from the latter social media platform. The outlet added that, at one point, Crump brought up messages suggesting Wells’ friends were “concerned [that] people on Horn Island can be racist.” Take a look below.
Ben Crump cites head injuries and no water in Nolan Wells’ lungs in autopsy report
After the press conference, Crump shared on X a Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s autopsy report completed just days after Wells’ death. As the attorney pointed out, the document showed that examiner Staci Turner “found no water in his lungs or airways, despite the grand jury report suggesting Nolan Wells' death was an accidental drowning.”
Crump continued, “The cause and manner of death remain undetermined, with documented evidence of head injuries noted in the report.” Wells’ mother, Christine Wells-Wonsley, also pushed back on the idea that her son’s death was the result of an accidental drowning.
"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 on Tuesday (Sept. 22), per PBS.
What the grand jury found in Nolan Wells’ death investigation
As REVOLT reported, District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath announced on Monday (Sept. 21) that investigators didn’t have enough evidence to charge anyone with a crime in Wells’ death. “There is absolutely no evidence to support the allegations that Nolan’s disappearance and death were racially motivated,” she said in a video statement posted to Facebook. “Nolan’s friends loved Nolan, and Nolan loved them. Nolan chose to stay on the island that day, and there is not a scintilla of evidence to contradict that.”
The DA’s office also shared a partially redacted copy of the grand jury report, revealing that investigators issued 132 subpoenas and heard from 43 witnesses. The document also described the “cross section of citizens” from Jackson County tasked with considering the case, a group of 23 people ranging in age from 27 to 68.