What Nolan Wells' Second Autopsy Couldn't Rule Out

Nolan Wells' family paid for a second opinion the state clearly wasn't hoping for. Ben Crump stood up at the NAACP National Convention and announced it: cause and manner of death, undetermined, with one line the independent pathologist would not walk back, that non-accidental factors could not be excluded. 
Nolan was eighteen, on Horn Island for a Fourth of July boat trip, and never came home. A park ranger recovered his body from the water two days later at the island's northwest tip. What the state's own autopsy did next is the part that should bother you. They retained his throat, trachea, hyoid bone, and laryngeal cartilage, tissue examined specifically when there's concern about compression, and they have said nothing publicly about what any of it showed, or when that might change. 
There's also the video that's been circulating, the one most people believe captures Nolan's final recorded moments. One of the men who was standing in that water that day is now telling investigators the voice on it is his, not Nolan's, and he gave that statement before it ever became public. 
Tonight we go through what's actually on the record in this case versus what's still locked behind Mississippi statute, including one autopsy-access law that keeps getting skipped over. The DA's referral to a grand jury changes everything, subpoena power, sworn testimony from every person on that island, phone data that can't be spun after the fact. Retired FBI Special Agent Jennifer Coffindaffer breaks down what investigators are likely working with, and why Rasheem Carter's case and Rankin County's history are the reason nobody in Mississippi gets the benefit of the doubt anymore. None of this closes tonight, and the grand jury still has work to do. 
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Disclaimer 
This publication contains commentary and opinion based on publicly available information. All individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Nothing published here should be taken as a statement of fact, health or legal advice. 
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