An independent autopsy of the body of Nolan Wells was inconclusive as to the cause of death of the 18-year old who was left on a Mississippi island by friends on July 4th.
Transcript
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
There are new details today but no clear answers in the case of Nolan Wells. The Black college student was found dead in Mississippi after he vanished during a Fourth of July celebration. During a press conference today, the Wells family and their attorney released results of an independent autopsy. Now, the findings don’t point to a cause of death, but the family says that they hope the autopsy will lead to a wider investigation. NPR’s Brian Mann joins us now with the latest. Hi, Brian.
BRIAN MANN, BYLINE: Hi, Ailsa.
CHANG: So wait, did this independent autopsy show anything different here? Because there already has been an autopsy in this case, right?
MANN: Yeah, that’s right. But here’s what’s interesting. After Nolan Wells’ body was recovered July 6, that official autopsy was performed by a medical examiner, but the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department in Mississippi still hasn’t released those results. In their last public statement, they said they’re still waiting for toxicology results. So with support from celebrities in the Black community and civil rights leaders, Wells’ family arranged to have their own autopsy performed. The family’s attorney, Ben Crump, said at a press conference today in Chicago at an NAACP gathering that their pathologist’s findings were inconclusive but raised more questions.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BEN CRUMP: He’s said, based on the examination of the body, he cannot rule out foul play. That is significant.
MANN: Now, it’s important to note this pathologist who conducted the autopsy, Dr. Roger Mitchell, was not present, so the findings were described and interpreted by Crump. And again, the examination found no clear physical evidence or sign of trauma showing that Wells’ death was the result of any kind of violence.
CHANG: Well, I do want to ask Brian, because this case – it’s drawn so much national attention. Can you talk about, like, what seems to be driving that attention?
MANN: Well, there’s really a mystery at the heart of this. You know, Wells was 18 years old. He was celebrating off the Gulf Coast with friends. All of his friends there were white. They all came home safely that day. Wells, the one Black teen, didn’t make it home, and that’s led to a lot of speculation on social media about the circumstances. Civil rights leaders, again, have taken on this case. They’ve linked it to Mississippi’s troubled racial history.
The Wells family, meanwhile, has been increasingly critical of the local investigation by the Jackson County Sheriff. At this press conference today, Wells’ mother, Christine Wells-Wonsley, said she was especially troubled by the sheriff’s department initially telling the public that there was no evidence that her son’s death was the result of foul play. She said those statements were made before a thorough investigation was complete.
(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)
CHRISTINE WELLS-WONSLEY: I sat there and asked them, please take this case as if this is your child…
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: Yes.
WELLS-WONSLEY: …Your family member, your whatever. And they promised that they would. But when you make statements like that straight out the gate, that’s an issue.
MANN: So while this press conference didn’t add a lot to what we know about Nolan Wells’ death, it was clearly intended to ramp up this pressure on local law enforcement. The family and the NAACP have also called on the U.S. Justice Department to help with this investigation.
CHANG: Well, what is the sheriff’s department in Jackson County saying right now?
MANN: Yeah. So NPR reached out to Sheriff John Ledbetter after this press conference. We haven’t heard back, and he’s made no new statements today online, and there really hasn’t been a lot of information. In a Facebook post on July 8, he said they are sorting through leads, trying to find out exactly what happened. But the family, as you’ve been hearing, is clearly frustrated. They say they want more information about that initial autopsy, and they want a more aggressive probe of the other young people who were at that party, including a review of their cellphones.
CHANG: That is NPR’s Brian Mann. Thank you so much, Brian.
MANN: Thanks, Ailsa.
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