Nolan Wells' parents make emotional plea for justice after no charges filed in death

Nolan Wells' family and their attorneys said they will not give up on finding justice a day after a grand jury found that no criminal charges are warranted in his death, they said at a press conference on Tuesday.

The 18-year-old vanished after he and friends had gone out celebrating the Fourth of July holiday on barrier islands off the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. His body was recovered in the waters off Horn Island two days later.

The Mississippi State medical examiner performed the initial autopsy on Wells' body. The teen's family commissioned a private autopsy before results from the state autopsy were released.

The grand jury that reviewed the evidence in Wells’ death found unanimously that therethat there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges in the case, according to the Jackson County Grand Jury Report.

The report said that the "position of, condition of, time of discovery, and location" of the 18-year-old's body off the coast of Mississippi this July is "consistent with drowning."

The report also said there was no credible evidence of criminal conduct by the friends, who are white, who traveled with him to an island off the Mississippi coast on July 4.

The grand jury heard from 43 witnesses and reviewed materials including physical evidence collected at the scene, the state medical examiner's autopsy, digital evidence, police reports and interviews, videos, images and maps collected during the investigation.

"Please remember that both medical examiners, as well as his death certificates, states that the cause and manner of his death is undetermined," Christine Wonsley, Wells' mother, said at the press conference. "So, my question is: How can a jury come to the conclusion of drowning, despite knowing that there was trauma to his body?"

"Later, the independent autopsy conducted for the family by forensic pathologist Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr. found that Nolan sustained recent, unexplained blunt force injuries to the back of his head and additional areas on his back," the family attorney said.

The grand jury's report however found that the bruising on the back of Wells' head was "not a fatal injury" and it was unclear how he got it.

One witness testified under oath that around the time of his last being seen, they saw Wells "slip awkwardly off the side of a boat" but "could not say whether Mr. Wells struck his head during the fall," and that he "continued to socialize after the fall and did not appear injured," according to the grand jury report.

The state medical examiner has not released their official autopsy, but the grand jury report said that the "position of, condition of, time of discovery, and location" of Wells' body off the coast of Mississippi this July is "consistent with drowning."

The grand jury of 23 people, convened last week, found "no credible evidence to support the public allegations" that anyone riding to or from the island that day surrounding Wells "engaged in any criminal conduct related to" his death.

That Wells drowned is a conclusion by the process of elimination, the grand jury report said, adding that the condition of the body made it harder to figure out.