Preliminary findings from an independent Nolan Wells autopsy are set to be released Wednesday morning in Chicago, giving the family of the Mississippi teenager its first public medical readout since he died after a two-day search near Horn Island. Attorney Ben Crump is expected to disclose the findings at an 8 a.m. news conference at McCormick Place, where Christine and Elmore Wonsley are also expected to appear.
The release matters because authorities have not announced a cause or manner of death, and the official autopsy has not been made public. For the family, that leaves the independent examination as the first chance to put hard medical details on the record. The news conference comes after the family’s legal team said it would share the first public medical findings from the 18-year-old's death, a step meant to answer at least part of what remains unknown.
Wells disappeared July 4 after traveling by boat with friends to Horn Island, and his body was found July 6 near the island's northwestern tip. The investigation remains ongoing, and the NAACP has recently called for a thorough and transparent review by local, state and federal authorities, including the Department of Justice. That push has only grown as the case has stayed short on official answers.
There is also the question of what the evidence can and cannot yet prove. Rev. Al Sharpton, who announced a $50,000 reward through the National Action Network during Wells' funeral on Monday, said, “He was not on that island by himself,” and urged anyone with information to come forward, adding, “Somebody saw something and knows something. So I didn't come to make money. I came to give money. Stand up and tell the truth.” He also said, “We cannot say it was racist, but we cannot say it was not racist,” before adding, “So let's not judge either way until all the evidence is in.”
Wednesday's announcement will not end the case, but it should move it from uncertainty toward a clearer public accounting of what happened to Wells. If the findings point to a defined medical cause, they will mark the first concrete answer in a death that has so far produced more questions than certainty.
