Nolan Wells Autopsy Results Will Be Withheld Until Grand Jury Sees Them First, DA Says

Ever since the body of 18-year-old Nolan Wells was discovered on the morning of July 6, the student-athlete who went missing during a Fourth of July trip to Horn Island has not stopped garnering national attention, and for Black people across the U.S., he’s become a cautionary tale for “Black friends” who travel with all-white friend groups. All in all, everyone, especially his family, just wants to know what happened to the teen. How did he die, and why didn’t he return with the people he left with?

Well, on Thursday, the office of District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath confirmed the autopsy report of Nolan Wells’ death has been completed, but it will be withheld until a grand jury can review it, according to WLOX 13.

“Every death in the county — except those of natural causes and non-criminal car wrecks — is presented to your grand jury,” McIlrath said in a video released Thursday. “Many people don’t know that we have handled death investigations in this manner my entire career.”

Earlier this week, we reported that Wells’ family stood with civil attorney attorney Ben Crump during a news conference at the 117th NAACP National Convention, where they revealed the preliminary findings from their independent autopsy done on Wells.

Ultimately, Dr. Roger Mitchell, who performed the independent autopsy, ruled that Wells’ manner and cause of death remain “undetermined pending investigation,” because he just didn’t have the information he needed regarding the circumstances surrounding his death. Mitchell also noted that he conducted his examination after the initial autopsy and that the body had undergone significant decomposition by the time it arrived at his office, and that many of his internal organs had already been removed.

From our previous report:

He noted the body had already undergone a standard forensic autopsy, including a coronal scalp incision, removal of the brain, a Y-shaped incision to the torso, and examination of the internal organs. As is customary, the organs had been removed, examined, and placed back inside the body cavity so they could be available for a second pathologist’s review.

One of the most notable issues Mitchell encountered, however, was that the anterior internal neck structures were missing when the body arrived for the second autopsy. According to Crump, those structures, including the trachea, laryngeal cartilage, thyroid horn and hyoid bone, were not included with the remains sent to Washington, D.C.

So, before the independent medical examiner can make sense of his own findings, the initial autopsy has to be revealed, and that won’t happen until the results go to a grand jury first. In the meantime, we’re still left with more questions than answers.

According to McIlrath, the time Wells’ family and the general public have to wait for results isn’t arbitrary; it’s necessary.

“These rules exist to search for the truth, not prevent it,” she said. “We are not taking time for time’s sake. We are taking time for the work this investigation demands.”

We shall see.