A grand jury in Jackson County, Mississippi, has decided not to bring criminal charges in the death of Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old who was found deceased two days after a July 4 boating trip with friends. The unanimous finding declared that the evidence was insufficient to pursue any charges, concluding that the circumstances and condition of Wells’s body were consistent with drowning.
According to the grand jury report, released by the county district attorney’s office on Monday, there was no credible indication of criminal wrongdoing by those who accompanied Wells on the outing to Horn Island, a remote, uninhabited island off the Mississippi coast. The report acknowledged that both the state’s chief medical examiner and the forensic pathologist hired by Wells’s family recorded the cause and manner of death as undetermined, describing drowning as a "diagnosis of exclusion." Bruising observed on the back of Wells’s neck was noted, but it was not deemed fatal, and its cause remains unclear.
Wells’s disappearance and subsequent death drew widespread attention amid questions raised by civil rights advocates, elected officials, and social media users. Discussions around the case were influenced by Mississippi’s legacy of racial injustice and concerns about the adequacy of investigations into crimes involving Black victims. The grand jury report countered several circulating claims, pointing out that Wells was not the only Black individual on the island that day and rejecting allegations suggesting racial motivation in his death.
Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath emphasized in an accompanying video statement that “there is absolutely no evidence to support the allegations that Nolan’s disappearance and death were racially motivated.” The 23-person grand jury included five Black members, according to the report.
Ben Crump, the civil rights attorney representing the Wells family, criticized the report for not clarifying the cause of the neck injury or its contribution to Wells’s death. He stated that Mississippi was “attempting to close the chapter on Nolan Wells’s death without getting to the truth,” and called for continued investigation, underscoring that the exact circumstances behind Wells’s passing remain unknown.
Wells, a 2025 graduate of Ocean Springs High School and a wide receiver for Southwest Mississippi Community College’s football team, was last seen alive on July 4 when he and friends traveled by boat to Horn Island. The group of friends—whose names were redacted in the report—arrived on three boats, with some choosing to remain on the island after others departed. One friend later said that Wells stayed behind because he had met someone on the island.
After Wells did not return that evening, his mother reported him missing. His body was discovered two days later by a park ranger. The grand jury addressed earlier concerns regarding Wells’s personal belongings, including his phone, which friends returned to the mainland without him. The report stated that it was not unusual for individuals’ items to be transported separately from their owners and that Wells was not the only person whose belongings were brought back without them.
The report also noted that Mississippi has no statute of limitations on homicide cases. The district attorney’s office indicated that if new evidence emerges suggesting the death was not accidental, the case could be referred back to the grand jury for review.