A Jackson County grand jury has declined to charge anyone in the death of Nolan Xavier Wells, the 18-year-old from Ocean Springs, Mississippi, whose body was found on Horn Island after a July 4 boat trip with friends. The panel returned a “no true bill,” meaning it found insufficient evidence to indict. In a report released with District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath, jurors said the position, condition, time of discovery and location of Wells’ body were “consistent with drowning,” and that there was no credible evidence of criminal conduct or a racially motivated killing.

Wells’ parents, Christine and Elmore Wonsley, do not accept that as the end of the story. At a news conference the day after the report was released, Christine Wonsley said she and her husband had read the document page by page and still had no answers. She said the report reinforced their view that their son did not receive a thorough, transparent investigation, and that they “do not believe” he “simply and accidentally drowned.”

Their attorney, Ben Crump, struck the same note. Hours after the grand jury result became public, he wrote that a “no true bill does not resolve how Nolan Wells died.” The family later released the final independent autopsy by Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., which kept both cause and manner of death as undetermined. Mitchell documented a large area of discoloration on the back of Wells’ head that the family’s team has described as consistent with blunt-force injury, and said he could not rule out intervening, non-accidental factors without more information about how Wells entered the water.

McIlrath has rejected the suggestion of a cover-up or racial motive. She said Wells chose to stay on the island that day, that friends loved him, and that months of online speculation — including the claim that he was the only Black person present — were false and had fueled threats against witnesses. The grand jury reported reviewing witness testimony, physical and digital evidence, GPS data and cellphone material before reaching a unanimous decision. Both the state medical examiner and the family’s pathologist treated drowning as a diagnosis of exclusion while listing the official cause as undetermined.

That gap is the core of the family’s reaction. They are not claiming a completed criminal case against named suspects; they are saying the grand jury’s refusal to indict does not tell them how an 18-year-old football player who could swim ended up dead in the water with unexplained injuries to the back of his head. Crump has said the family will keep pressing for answers, including further review of digital evidence.

A “no true bill” closes the path to criminal charges on the evidence presented to this grand jury. It does not close the family’s questions. Christine Wonsley’s public message has been consistent since July: they want to know what happened to their son, and they do not believe the current official narrative has supplied that answer.

Sources

The New York Times: Grand jury finds insufficient evidence of crime in death of Nolan Wells — https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/22/us/nolan-wells-death-case-grand-jury.html
CNN: Grand jury finds no evidence of criminal wrongdoing in Nolan Wells’ death — https://www.cnn.com/2026/09/21/us/nolan-wells-grand-jury-hnk
NPR: Grand jury finds no evidence of criminal conduct in the death of Nolan Wells — https://www.npr.org/2026/09/22/nx-s1-5911804/nolan-wells-investigation-grand-jury
USA Today: Grand jury declines to indict anyone in case — https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2026/09/22/nolan-wells-mississippi-grand-jury-crime-investigation/91884775007/