NEW YORK — The family of Nolan Xavier Wells has flown his body to Washington for an autopsy as part of an independent investigation seeking clarity on how he died off the Mississippi coast.
Appearing at a news conference Friday, Wells’s parents said they have retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump to lead an investigation into Wells’s death over the Fourth of July weekend. The death of the 18-year-old Black man has unnerved civil rights leaders who question whether Mississippi officials have adequately scrutinized the circumstances behind his death.
Wells is presumed to have drowned near Horn Island, a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico, after he took a boat trip to the area with several White friends from his high school.
After they spent July 4 on the island, Wells did not return to the mainland with his friends on the boat that evening. A video suggests Wells may have been involved in a scuffle on the island.
Wells’s parents reported him missing the night of July 4, and authorities recovered his body near the island two days later. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office has said it does not suspect foul play but it continues to investigate the matter. An official cause of death has not been determined.
But Wells’s parents, Elmore and Christine Wonsley, said Friday they have deep misgivings over whether their son’s death is being investigated fairly.
They said Wells, a high school football player who graduated last year, was an experienced swimmer who was familiar with Horn Island. His parents also question why he would stay behind on the island and why his phone was discovered in the possession of one of his friends.
“We are just asking for any help, to receive any help, to get answers,” Christine Wonsley said at the news conference alongside Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton. “At the end of the day, that is all we want. We just want to know what happened.”
Crump said his office will be conducting a “full, complete thorough and impartial investigation.” He said Wells’s parents “distrust of Mississippi law enforcement” agencies is well-warranted given the state’s complex racial history.
“Imagine if the roles were reversed and you had three young Black men on a boat and one White man ended up dead,” Crump said. “What kind of investigation would be conducted by Mississippi officials?”
As part of Crump’s investigation, Wells’s body was flown to Washington on Thursday so Roger A Mitchell Jr., D.C.’s former chief medical examiner, can conduct an independent autopsy. Former NFL player Colin Kaepernick is paying for that autopsy, Crump said.
A spokesman for the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to a request for comment. But in a statement Wednesday, the sheriff’s department said it was still seeking witnesses who were on Horn Island that day.
“Even information that may seem insignificant could prove valuable to investigators,” the statement said. “We encourage anyone with firsthand knowledge to come forward.”
Crump said a key discrepancy in the investigation is differing accounts from Wells’s friends and a woman who was on the island that day.
Crump said she stated that Wells told her he was getting back on the boat with his friends for the ride home. But Crump said the friends told investigators that Wells had told them he planned to stay behind with the woman.
“What teenager would leave their phone behind if they are going to stay on the island,” Crump asked. “And if he is drowning, no one sees him drown?”
In the coming days, Wells’s parents plan to work with Sharpton and his National Action Network to hold a funeral for Wells in Mississippi. Filmmaker Tyler Perry is covering the costs of those services, Sharpton said.