Crime or Tragedy? What Nolan Wells’ autopsy did (and didn’t) reveal – National & International News
Crime or Tragedy? What Nolan Wells’ autopsy did (and didn’t) reveal
Today the family of Nolan Wells shared the preliminary report from the independent autopsy conducted on their son. Wells traveled by boat to Horn Island near the Mississippi Gulf Coast with friends on July 4, but did not return with them. Two days later, a park ranger found his body in the water on the northwest side of the island. Law enforcement currently believes that Nolan drowned and that there are no indications of foul play, but his family has questioned that narrative.
Wells had previously been autopsied by the Mississippi State Medical Examiners office. A second autopsy, commissioned by Wells’ family, was conducted by Dr. Roger A. Mitchell, a board certified pathologist based in Washington, D.C. Only the preliminary report from Mitchell’s autopsy has been released.
The results of the autopsy were shared during a press conference at the national annual conference of the NAACP in Chicago on Wednesday morning. Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing Wells’ family, read out some of the conclusions from the report.
What did the report say?
Dr. Mitchell described the cause and manner of death as undetermined pending further investigation.
One thing Dr. Mitchell considered noteworthy was an 8″x 12″ area of discoloration in the deep tissue covering the occipital bone on the back of Wells’ head. Dr. Mitchell noted that the cause of the discoloration could not be determined and that there was no apparent injury to the skin above it or the skull bone below it. Due to the state of decomposition, Mitchell’s report said he could not determine whether the discoloration occurred before or after Wells’ death, nor whether it was indicative of any contributing factor in Wells’ death.
A Texas medical examiner consulted by CNN said the discoloration “could represent decompositional changes of the musculature, or it could be from blunt force injury to the back of the head and neck”. Mitchell’s report did not describe the discoloration as an injury.
Mitchell also noted that parts of the front of Wells’ neck were not present when he received the body. This, the report noted, was likely because the original medical examiner had removed them for further analysis, a common practice in forensics.
Because the internal organs had been previously dissected, Mitchell could not determine whether water was present in Mitchell’s lungs or airways, nor did he have access to the stomach contents. Mitchell stated that these contents and the toxicology analysis (which is not yet complete) could shed further light on Wells’ death once they are published.
Misconceptions, misrepresentations and misreporting
Much of the media attention surrounding this case was aroused by a perception that Wells was the only Black man among the group of friends traveling to the island that day on various boats. This turns out not to be true. Other Black friends of Nolan’s were also present and have spoken publicly to give their version of events. They were part of what has been described as a tight-knit and diverse friend group, many of whom were former high school classmates congregating on the island to celebrate July 4.
During the Wednesday press conference, attorney Ben Crump claimed that Wells had been found facedown in the water wearing both the swim trunks he’d been seen wearing that day and a T-shirt. Crump said the family had gotten this information from the United Cajun Navy, a volunteer rescue group who was assisting with the search. However, the United Cajun Navy responded right after the press conference saying that they had not said anything about Nolan wearing a T-shirt and that he was wearing only swim trunks when found. They also asked Attorney Crump to not “misrepresent” their words.
Some news outlets reporting on the release of the preliminary autopsy report have described the discoloration on Nolan’s head as a “head injury”. This conclusion is not represented in Dr. Mitchell’s report, which is careful point out that the cause of the discoloration could not be determined and that there were no clear signs of injury.
