Less than 24 hours after Mississippi announced that no one would be indicted in the death of Nolan Xavier Wells, his parents walked into a church outside Atlanta with a very different message:
This case is not over.
Christine and Elmore Wonsley appeared Tuesday alongside attorney Ben Crump and members of their legal team after a Jackson County grand jury returned a “no true bill,” finding insufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime in Nolan’s death.
But if anyone expected Nolan’s family to accept the decision, pack up and go home, Tuesday’s press conference made clear that isn’t happening.
“We’ll never stop until we get to the truth,” Crump said.
And now another development is coming.
The legal team says it will hold a separate press conference Thursday in Orlando focusing specifically on the forensic examination of Nolan’s cellphone — including data that has not yet been publicly explained.
That could be important, because the phone has become one of the biggest disputes between Nolan’s family and Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath.
But before we get there, let’s talk about what happened Monday night.
Christine Says She Got Two Minutes' Notice
According to Christine, she received a text from McIlrath at 7:54 p.m. Monday, informing her that the grand-jury report had been filed.
At approximately 7:56 p.m., the DA’s office posted its 15-minute video statement and the redacted grand-jury report publicly.
Two minutes.
“To me, that action showed a lack of empathy and a need to get this case done and over with,” Christine said Tuesday.
She became emotional while talking about what that moment felt like as Nolan’s mother.
The family says that after months of asking for an honest, transparent investigation, the report still does not tell them the one thing they have wanted to know since July:
What happened to Nolan?
Christine put another question directly on the table:
How could the grand jury conclude that the circumstances were consistent with drowning when both medical examiners still list Nolan’s cause and manner of death as undetermined?
That distinction matters.
The grand jury did not change Nolan’s official cause of death to drowning.
The Mississippi medical examiner says undetermined.
The family's independent forensic pathologist, Dr. Roger Mitchell Jr., says undetermined.
Nolan's death certificate says undetermined.
The grand jury concluded that the position, condition, time of discovery and location of Nolan's body were consistent with drowning. It also acknowledged that drowning is a diagnosis of exclusion.
Those aren't quite the same thing.
And Now We Know More About Nolan's Injuries
The family's complete independent autopsy has now been released.
Dr. Mitchell documented recent unexplained blunt-force injuries to the back of Nolan's head and additional areas of his back. According to Crump's office, the discoloration previously observed on Nolan's head was confirmed as blood and corresponded with two contusions identified by the original Mississippi pathologist.
Neither autopsy determined that those injuries killed Nolan.
But neither investigation has definitively explained how Nolan got them.
The grand-jury report provides one possible piece of the puzzle.
A witness testified that around 3:30 p.m. on July 4, Nolan was seen slipping awkwardly from the side of a boat. The witness could not say whether Nolan struck his head and reportedly said Nolan continued socializing afterward without appearing injured.
The grand jury couldn't determine whether that incident caused the bruising.
Dr. Mitchell went further in explaining what remains unknown: the available evidence does not establish whether Nolan entered the water voluntarily or was forced, whether he was conscious or impaired when he entered, or why he was unable to get himself out.
That is why his conclusion remains undetermined and why he recommends the investigation remain open.
The DA Said Some Narratives Were Not Just Wrong — She Called Them “Lies”
This is where Monday night's announcement became much more than simply a grand-jury update.
For months, McIlrath said she could not publicly address much of the evidence while the investigation was active.
She repeatedly cautioned people against believing everything circulating online and said the evidence would ultimately be presented through the proper process.
Monday night, with the grand-jury proceedings concluded, she responded.
And she didn't mince words.
McIlrath accused the Crump team of allowing several false narratives to spread and characterized them as “all lies.”
Among the issues she disputed were claims or impressions that:
the state medical examiner withheld Nolan's lungs and stomach when his body was released;
information had been deleted from Nolan's cellphone before it reached his family;
the DA refused to cooperate with an examination of Nolan's phone;
and Nolan's autopsy results were withheld from his family.
Those are serious accusations.
But Tuesday, Nolan's legal team responded — and their version of events isn't identical to the DA's.
So Who Had the Autopsy Results?
McIlrath says it is false that she withheld the autopsy and toxicology findings from Nolan's family.
According to the DA, after receiving the results she attempted to contact Christine directly. When Christine did not respond, McIlrath says she spoke with one of Nolan's Mississippi attorneys and shared the autopsy and toxicology results.
Crump presented a different picture Tuesday.
He said the family had been told “very clear up front” that they would not receive information concerning the state autopsy until the grand-jury proceeding had concluded.
The state autopsy itself still has not been released publicly.
That leaves an important distinction worth clearing up:
Were findings verbally communicated to one Mississippi attorney while the family was still being denied the actual report?
Because “the family had access to the results” and “an attorney was verbally told certain results” are not necessarily the same thing.
The DA says she provided the results.
The family’s team says it was told the information wouldn't be provided until after the grand jury.
Both statements are now part of the public record.
Documentation should be able to resolve exactly what was communicated, to whom, when and in what form.
And Then There's Nolan's Phone — And This Got Even More Interesting
We've followed this issue from the beginning because Nolan's phone came back from Horn Island.
Nolan didn't.
Originally, the family and investigators discussed conducting a joint forensic examination of the device.
McIlrath now says a date was actually scheduled.
According to her account, on the morning the joint extraction was supposed to occur, investigators were contacted by the family's privately retained experts at Garrett Discovery and informed that the mutual extraction would not proceed because a private extraction had begun the previous evening and was incomplete.
McIlrath says she respected the family's decision and requested the results.
She says that on August 28, Crump's team supplied a 14-page preliminary report indicating something extremely important:
The phone had not been accessed by anyone other than Nolan's family after Nolan's last use, and nothing had been deleted from the phone since Nolan last used it.
That is a major piece of information because deletion and tampering became a huge part of the public discussion surrounding this case.
However, McIlrath says she was promised the complete extraction data within 48 hours and never received it.
She says that after the grand jury convened, Crump's team instead provided a 282-page selection of reports from Nolan's phone, which the grand jury reviewed.
Now here comes the other side.
Mississippi attorney Ahmad Smith, who is working with the Wells family, said Tuesday that the family did not agree to the state's proposed arrangement because, according to him, authorities wanted Nolan's family to drop off the phone and leave it with law enforcement.
That wasn't the type of joint examination the family was willing to accept, according to Smith.
So once again, the underlying facts are more complicated than simply:
“The DA refused to inspect the phone.”
Or:
“The family refused to cooperate.”
There was a disagreement about how the examination would happen and who would maintain control of the device.
And we apparently haven't heard the last of it.
Crump announced Tuesday that the family's forensic findings from Nolan's phone will be addressed at a separate press conference Thursday in Orlando.
“We think it's going to be enlightening,” Crump said of going through the extraction and phone data.
That is now something I will be watching very closely.
What Did the Grand Jury Actually Find?
Strip away the arguments for a moment and here's what happened legally.
A 23-member Jackson County grand jury unanimously returned a no true bill.
Jurors considered information generated through 132 subpoenas and 43 witnesses, including direct testimony, sworn statements and recorded interviews. They reviewed cellphone information, forensic reports, photographs, video and GPS/location evidence.
The grand jury found no credible evidence that anyone traveling aboard the Triton, Palm Beach or Tideline committed a crime related to Nolan's death.
It also found no evidence supporting allegations that Nolan's death was racially motivated.
That finding matters.
But it is important to understand exactly what it means.
A no true bill means the grand jury did not find sufficient evidence to establish probable cause for criminal charges based upon the evidence presented.
It is not an acquittal after a criminal trial, because nobody was tried.
And importantly, the report itself leaves the door open.
Mississippi has no statute of limitations on homicide. The grand jury said that if credible evidence later emerges suggesting Nolan's death was non-accidental, the matter should be presented to a Jackson County grand jury again.
The Grand Jury Believes Nolan Chose to Stay — But That's Still an Important Part of This Story
McIlrath has gone further than merely saying there wasn't enough evidence for prosecution.
She said there isn't credible evidence contradicting the account that Nolan chose to remain on Horn Island.
That's important because this has been one of the biggest questions surrounding the case from the beginning.
Why would Nolan intentionally stay?
Who heard him say it?
Who saw him after his original friends departed?
What transportation did Nolan believe he had?
And did he know his phone had left the island?
The grand jury evidently found the witness evidence supporting the “Nolan stayed” account credible.
But that conclusion still does not tell us what happened to Nolan after that point.
And that's the distinction that can get lost when “NO CHARGES” becomes the headline.
What About the Family's Own Investigation?
There is something else in the grand-jury report that deserves to be included, even though it may be uncomfortable for people on either side of this case.
The family was given an opportunity to provide evidence developed through its independent investigation.
According to the grand-jury report, the family's attorneys advised prosecutors that their investigation had uncovered no witnesses or evidence they reasonably believed possessed information relevant to potential criminal activity warranting referral.
McIlrath has pointed to that heavily.
But that statement does not mean the family's experts determined how Nolan died.
Their own forensic pathologist still says undetermined.
It means something narrower: according to the report, the family's legal team did not provide evidence it believed warranted criminal referral.
That distinction matters too.
“Your Job Is Not Done”
The family is now asking for several things.
They want Mississippi to keep the investigation open and active.
They want the state's complete investigative file.
They want the state's full autopsy report.
They want the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct an independent federal investigation — something the Congressional Black Caucus previously requested.
And the NAACP has joined that call.
“Your job is not done,” NAACP general counsel Kristen Clarke said Tuesday.
The legal team also pointed out that Horn Island is primarily federal land managed by the National Park Service as part of Gulf Islands National Seashore, adding another argument for federal involvement.
Elmore's Words May Have Said It Best
Nolan's father made a point Tuesday that shouldn't disappear beneath the lawyers, grand juries, social-media arguments and competing narratives.
Nolan isn't a case file.
“He's not a hashtag. He's our son.”
Elmore said people from different backgrounds loved Nolan and continue to want the same answer his parents want:
What happened to their child?
And that is where this case stands tonight.
No indictments.
No identified suspect.
No finding of racial motivation.
No forensic determination that another person caused Nolan's death.
But also:
No official cause of death beyond undetermined.
No definitive explanation for the injuries on Nolan's head and back.
No definitive determination of how or when Nolan entered the water.
And no definitive explanation for why a young man who reportedly knew how to swim was ultimately found dead two days later.
I think there are two things we have to be careful not to do now.
We shouldn't turn a grand jury's decision into something it isn't.
If 23 jurors reviewed this evidence and found no probable cause to charge Nolan's friends or anyone else with a crime, that matters. People should not continue presenting accusations against those young people as established facts when criminal evidence has not supported them.
But we also shouldn't turn “no indictment” into an answer to a completely different question:
How did Nolan Wells die?
Because after 132 subpoenas, 43 witnesses, GPS information, videos, phone records, two autopsies, national attention and a grand jury, the official answer to that question remains:
Undetermined.
And now I'm especially interested in Thursday.
The DA says Nolan's phone wasn't altered after his last use.
The family's forensic team apparently has considerably more data from that device.
Crump says we're going to hear about it.
So before anyone closes the book on Nolan Wells, I think we should see what that evidence actually says.
Because after everything we've heard from both sides, I don't need another narrative.
I want the records to speak.
UPDATE TO WATCH: The Wells family legal team says it will hold another press conference Thursday in Orlando addressing the forensic extraction of Nolan's cellphone. City Chic Island Kick will update this story if that presentation reveals materially new evidence.
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