JACKSON COUNTY, Miss. — A Mississippi grand jury on Monday found that there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges in the case of Nolan Wells, the 18-year-old who was found dead after a boat outing two days after he went missing on July 4.
The panel in Jackson County unanimously ruled that the circumstances and conditions of Wells’ body were “consistent with drowning,” according to a copy of its report posted on social media by the county district attorney’s office.
Officials added that there was no credible evidence of criminal wrongdoing by the people who traveled with Wells to Horn Island off the coast of Mississippi, The New York Times reported.
“There is absolutely no evidence to support the allegations that Nolan’s disappearance and death were racially motivated,” Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said in a video posted on social media along with the grand jury report. “Nolan’s friends loved Nolan, and Nolan loved them. Nolan chose to stay on the island that day, and there is not a scintilla of evidence to contradict that.”
The 23 people on the grand jury included five Black members, according to the Times.
According to WLOX, Wells’ body was discovered in the water just off the northwestern tip of the island, located 10 miles from the mainland, Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said in July.
The report noted that Mississippi’s chief medical examiner and a forensic pathologist hired by the Wells family said the cause and manner of death were undetermined, the Times reported, adding that drowning was a “diagnosis of exclusion.”
The grand jury found that while there was bruising on the back of Wells’ neck, it was not a fatal injury and its cause was uncertain, according to the newspaper.
According to WLOX, the grand jury found that Wells rode on The Triton, which was one of three boats used by the group.
The boat later took on water due to a bilge pump and motor failure while returning to the mainland, WLOX reported. It had to be towed to shore by one of the other vessels.
The jury found that Wells remained on the island, adding that his phone ended up on one of the boats; jurors also ruled that other passengers’ phones returned on different boats.
A witness who testified said Wells slipped awkwardly off the side of a boat, but continued socializing and did not appear to be hurt, according to WLOX.
The grand jury also rejected social media speculation that Wells was the only Black person celebrating on Horn Island that day, the Sun Herald reported.
The report did not include the results of toxicology testing, but it said Wells did not have cocaine in his system. The grand jury reviewed evidence showing Wells had used a fake ID to buy the alcohol he drank the day he went to Horn Island; the report said an adult had not provided him with alcohol, according to the newspaper.
The grand jury concluded its investigation into Wells’ death on Friday, Sept. 18, the Sun Herald reported.
Wells’ family had retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump while the investigation progressed.
Crump’s team did not immediately respond to a request for comment early Tuesday, NBC News reported. However, he posted on his official Instagram account a brief statement noting: “No True Bill Does Not Resolve How Nolan Wells Died.”
“Today, the state of Mississippi is attempting to close the chapter on Nolan Wells’s death without getting to the truth,” Crump said. “We don’t know how Nolan died, and neither does the State of Mississippi.”
On Monday, Myers McIlrath said that Crump and his team previously told her office that they had not found any evidence of a crime, NBC News reported.
“I’m not suggesting that a grieving mother police the rumors surrounding her child’s death,” McIlrath said. “What I am suggesting is that the Crump team knew better but did not do better.”
Wells played football at Ocean Springs High School and was a wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College, WLOX reported.
The grand jury’s report noted that there is no statute of limitations in Mississippi for homicide cases, the Times reported. If any evidence surfaces suggesting that Wells’ death was not an accident, it should be referred to the grand jury, according to the newspaper.
© 2026 Cox Media Group
