Questions remain after grand jury declines indictment in Nolan Wells' death

Christine Wonsley and Elmore Wonsley, mother and stepfather of Nolan Wells, stand on a stage with a photo of their son as they appear at the National Urban League's annual conference to share updates on his death on Thursday, July 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. John Amis/AP Photo hide caption

A Mississippi grand jury has decided there's not enough evidence to bring charges in the case of Nolan Wells, a Black teenager who was found dead off the Mississippi coast in early July. However, activists, attorneys and Wells' family are continuing to push for answers.

During a press conference Tuesday, civil rights attorney Ben Crump highlighted a detail mentioned in the medical examiner's report: the bruising on the back of Wells' head, which the report said was not a fatal injury.

"Nolan Wells' parents deserve answers," said Crump, who is representing Wells' family. He urged the district attorney to keep the investigation open. "What really happened to Nolan Wells? What caused the blunt force trauma to his head? That is the crux of the matter."

The fact that the grand jury didn't find enough evidence to charge someone with a crime "is not an answer to how 18-year-old Nolan Xavier Wells left for an outing with friends and never came home," the Rev. Al Sharpton, who led Wells' eulogy, wrote in a statement. "We will not confuse the absence of an indictment with the presence of an answer."

Following Crump's release of the independent autopsy report, the NAACP is pushing the district attorney's office to release its own report to the public.

"Nolan's family deserves nothing less than a full, fair, and independent investigation that is exhaustive and leaves no stone unturned," wrote Kristen Clarke, NAACP general counsel, in a statement. "We urge the District Attorney to continue the investigation, release the full autopsy report from the state's medical examiner, and make the investigative file public."

The grand jury, which met from Sept. 14 to Sept. 18, ultimately found that Wells' cause of death was undetermined and based on the condition of his body and where it was found, his death was "consistent with drowning."