Grand jury finds no criminal wrongdoing in death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells

Nolan Wells was eighteen years old when he went to Horn Island on July Fourth to celebrate with friends. He never came back. Two days later, his body was found in the water off the Mississippi coast, about ten miles from the mainland. The circumstances of his death—why he stayed behind, how he ended up in the water, what exactly happened in those final hours—became the subject of intense speculation online, with social media users advancing theories of foul play and worse. On Monday, a grand jury in Jackson County put those theories to rest, at least officially. There was no criminal wrongdoing, the jury concluded. No one had harmed him. He had drowned.

Wells had traveled to Horn Island with a group of friends to mark the holiday. According to what those friends told authorities, he chose to remain on the island after the boats departed that afternoon, saying he wanted to speak with a young woman. He was last seen at three o'clock. His mother reported him missing that evening. When his body surfaced the next day, the cause of death was not immediately clear. An autopsy commissioned by the family could not determine how he died.

But the grand jury, made up of twenty-three Jackson County residents, reviewed the evidence available and concluded that the position of his body, its condition, the timing of its discovery, and where it was found all pointed to one explanation: drowning. The jury also found that the people who had traveled to and from the island on three boats—the Triton, the Palm Beach, and the Tideline—had cooperated fully with investigators, providing GPS data, surveillance footage, cell phone records, and statements. There was, the jury stated plainly, no credible evidence that any of them had engaged in criminal conduct related to Wells' death.

The grand jury's language about the social media allegations was sharp. "The allegations against the occupants of the Triton, the Palm Beach, and the Tideline are not based in truth, and are solely the result of public clamor and private malice," the report read. Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath reinforced the point in a video statement, emphasizing that there was no evidence the disappearance and death were racially motivated, and that Wells' friends had loved him and he had loved them in return.

But the family and their attorney, Ben Crump, are not accepting the conclusion. Nolan's parents, Christine and Elmore Wonsley, have said they do not believe their son would have chosen to stay behind on the island. His father told CBS Mornings that Nolan always stayed with the group, and that as a parent, he would never have allowed a young person in his care to remain behind without assurance they would return safely. Crump has pointed to what he calls glaring contradictions in the accounts given by Wells' friends—conflicting versions of what Wells said about whether he would stay or return to the boat. He has called on the district attorney to keep the investigation active and open, and suggested that if Mississippi will not pursue it further, the Department of Justice should. "We don't know how Nolan died, and neither does the State of Mississippi," Crump said in a statement released Monday evening. The grand jury's decision, he argued, leaves more questions than answers. The family, he said, will not rest until they know what happened.