A private autopsy of Nolan Wells, a Black college football player whose body was found in the ocean near an island off the Mississippi coast, raised questions about the cause of his death, a family lawyer said on Wednesday.
The pathologist who conducted the private autopsy “cannot rule out foul play” without more information, said civil rights lawyer Ben Crump.
The private autopsy requested information about Wells' neck and head from the initial autopsy conducted by the Mississippi medical examiner, Crump told a press conference during the NAACP's National Convention in Chicago.
Wells' body was found fully clothed and face down in water off the island on July 6. He had traveled there over the Fourth of July weekend with three white friends who returned to the mainland without him, Crump said.
Wells, who played wide receiver for Southwest Mississippi Community College, was found off the northwestern tip of the barrier island along the Gulf of Mexico after he visited it with friends he had known from high school in nearby Ocean Springs, Mississippi. His phone was not found with his body but with one of the friends, Crump said.
Pathologist Roger Mitchell, who carried out the private autopsy, reported red discoloration on the back of Wells' head was of "great concern," Crump said. To determine the cause of the discoloration, Mitchell requested additional information from Mississippi authorities who carried out the first autopsy.
“Based on the examination of the body he cannot rule out foul play,” Crump said.
Mitchell said in his report he was unable to directly examine Wells’ stomach and airways for the presence of water as they were removed from his body by the first autopsy. He found no fractures and no evidence of deep tissue injuries.
Among outstanding questions regarding Wells’ death were the circumstances that led him to enter the water, his body position when he was found, whether there was water in his airways and whether there was evidence of injuries to his neck and head, Mitchell wrote in his report.
“This pathologist cannot rule out if any intervening non-accidental factors contributed to or caused the death of Nolan Wells,” Mitchell wrote.
The family's calls for answers, amplified by civil rights leaders and social media, have fed the larger debate about race in America.
Wells' mother, Christine Wonsley, expressed concern that less than an hour after the recovery of her son's body, Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said the death was an accidental drowning, and ruled out foul play.
"When you make statements like that right out of the gate, that's an issue," Wonsley said at the press conference.
The Jackson County Sheriff's Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Crump said there were between 300 and 400 people on Horn Island at the time Wells went missing, and someone must have seen something.
The main question, according to Crump, is that the group who traveled with Wells to the island said Wells told them he wanted to stay there with a young woman when they left on the afternoon of July 4, but the young woman said Wells was going to get back on the boat. Crump also questioned why Wells’ cellphone was in the possession of the boys who left the island.
“It's not adding up, and so we're going to keep fighting and digging until we get the answers, the transparency, the truth, the accountability, and justice for Nolan Wells," Crump said.
