Nolan Wells’ state autospy has been completed and the results have been sent to the local sheriff’s office, according to a report.
The results from the Mississippi medical examiner’s office are not yet available to the public, and Wells’ own family has yet to see them, NBC News reported.
But they have been sent to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
An independent autopsy report previously commissioned by the Wells family’s legal team found the teenager’s cause and manner of death were “undetermined” and was unable to determine whether he was unconscious when he entered the water.
Connecticut’s chief medical examiner, James Gill, called the “undetermined” conclusion “a little misleading” because it was incomplete — lacking a toxicology report or police data relevant to the investigation.
“We only use undetermined when we got all the results back … but to say undetermined in a case that’s pending, I mean, it can be a little misleading,” Gill told the outlet last week.
Wells, 18, was found dead July 6 after vanishing during a Fourth of July boating trip to Horn Island, Mississippi, police said.
The Southwest Mississippi Community College football player was visiting the remote island with friends, all of whom were white, but Wells decided to stay behind while they returned inland due to a mechanical issue with the boat, according to the mother of one of his friends.
State officials have said nothing in the evidence so far suggests foul play, but Wells’ family has retained civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who has been turning over every possible rock in the hopes of proving the teen was murdered.
Wells’ legal team sent letters to the families of his friends on the boat trip on the day of his funeral, July 20, instructing them to retain any evidence possibly pertaining to the case, including text messages, social media data, phone calls photos and more.
“You are hereby placed on notice that litigation concerning the death of Nolan Wells is reasonably anticipated. Accordingly, you have an immediate legal duty to preserve all materials of all kinds within your possession, custody, or control that may be relevant in any way to the claims or defenses.”
Despite no official indication Wells was murdered, close associates and even family members of his friends have been subject to horrifying online abuse and death threats.
A California man was arrested after sending social media messages threatening to kill Jackson County Chancery Judge Ashlee Cole, whose stepson, Warren Hudson, was on the boat with Wells for the Fourth of July celebration, according to a criminal complaint.
The message, sent through Facebook, warned that a package was going to be sent to Cole’s office and said “it’s gonna blow you away when you see it.”
Joseph Alfredo Vasquez Dumarce was charged with interstate transmission of threatening communication, according to court documents.
After the sheriff’s office concludes its death investigation, the findings will be presented to a Jackson County grand jury to determine if charges are warranted.
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