🚨 “Nolan Wells Autopsy Raises New Questions: What Happened to the Neck Examination?”

Somebody saw something.

Somebody knows something.

Why is Nolan Wells ᴅᴇᴀᴅ?

>> That question has hung in the air since July 4th, since 18-year-old college football player Nolan Wells vanished from a remote island only to be found days later under circumstances [music] that still don’t add up.

The independent autopsy results for Nolan Wells are now in and what they found, [music] I’m going to break it all down with you with an expert who can tell us what [music] this all really means.

Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law&Crime.

I’m Jesse Weber.

>> Here’s what happened.

An 18-year-old kid disappeared from an island on July 4th, found days later under circumstances that still don’t make sense.

His family hired their own pathologist to take another look at the body.

And when that doctor opened him up, critical pieces were just gone, missing.

The trachea, the larynx, the hyoid bone, all the structures you need to determine if someone was strangled.

So, the question is why?

And more importantly, who wasn’t told about it?

This is the story of the Nolan Wells case.

And we need to talk about what the independent autopsy just revealed because this isn’t just sloppy work.

This is a procedural breakdown that raises real questions about what authorities were trying to hide.

Let me back up.

First, the basics.

Nolan Wells was a college football player, 18 years old.

He was on a remote island on July 4th, and then he was gone.

Days later, his body turns up.

The state conducts an autopsy, standard stuff, right?

Except the family doesn’t trust what they’re being told.

So, they commission their own exam, independent pathologist, second opinion.

And when that pathologist gets the body, huge pieces are missing.

The state had removed them, and they never told anyone.

This week, the family held a press conference.

>> exist.

>> I want to thank you all who have called the call sooner.

I want to thank Reverend Al Sharpton.

I want to thank Mr.

Tyler Perry.

I want to thank Mr.

Terry Owens for putting up the $125,000 reward for anybody out there who have information so we can get to the truth >> [snorts] >> of what happened.

I mean, any videos and we’ve gotten so many videos, President Johnson, from that day from young people and we want them to have the courage to come forward with the pictures, what you heard.

I know people say there were a lot of disturbances out there.

Some believe they it involved Nolan.

All of those things are important to get to the truth of what happened.

And so that’s why I thank you all for BEING HERE BECAUSE THIS news is is important as any news in the United States.

>> Their attorney laid out what they found.

Tyler Perry was there.

Reverend Al Sharpton was there.

>> Losing a child, it’s truly breaks your heart.

It is a pain that is just you can’t measure it.

Um especially someone like Nolan who brought so much joy and and light and life to everyone.

Um you don’t find too many genuine people like him.

So to lose that light at such a young age under these circumstances has been absolutely difficult.

Um which is why we’ve gone this route.

There’s so many people out in the public asking all of these questions.

But the only question that we have is what happened to our son.

That that is the question.

And so, it is our hope that our local authorities will do what they need to do.

Because us having the preliminary autopsy results and hearing nothing from them, it it’s heartbreaking and it’s concerning, which again is why we are here, why we have asked >> put together a $100,000 reward, 50 from Sharpton, another 50 from Perry matched on the spot.

That’s how serious this is.

The FBI got involved.

A grand jury might happen.

But first, we need to understand what went wrong with that autopsy.

Here’s the thing about forensics.

The state has to do the first autopsy.

That’s the law.

The local coroner can’t just opt out.

But in this case, they did.

They said, “I want no parts of it.”

Sending this to the state.

Okay.

So, the state does it.

And when they do a full autopsy, they hold back tissue.

They send samples to the lab.

They examine things under a microscope.

That’s normal.

That’s how it’s supposed to work.

But there’s a rule.

If you’re keeping pieces of the body, you tell the family.

You tell the attorney.

And most importantly, you tell the second examiner if one’s coming.

Nobody told Dr.

Roger Mitchell any of this.

>> Preliminary report, second autopsy, death of Nolan Xavier Wells.

Cause of death undetermined pending investigation.

The manner of death undetermined pending investigation.

Focal area of red discoloration in the soft tissue of the back of the head, the occipital region.

He said the ideology is unknown at this time.

He said the body was received after the initial autopsy.

He said the body had marked decompensate comp- decompensation.

>> When Mitchell got the body, he went to open it up and certain structures just weren’t there.

The anterior inner neck structures, that’s the trachea, your windpipe, the larynx, your voice box, the thyroid cartilage, the hyoid bone, that little horseshoe shaped bone at the base of your tongue.

These aren’t random pieces.

>> make a really good point about why that wasn’t communicated to um Dr.

Mitchell, right?

The person who is conducting this independent autopsy, but why would those pieces of a body be typically or I don’t know, is it typical to remove them and for what purpose?

>> Yes, it is typical to remove them.

Whenever an autopsy is performed, we are removing those internal structures so that we can further examine them not only from a visual standpoint from standpoint, but from a microscopic standpoint as well.

Now, when we look at
The neck muscles, we look at what’s called the strap muscles.

So, if you kind of just to give you kind of an an idea, these are your strap muscles, okay?

But right here sits your esophagus, sits your trachea, sits your hyoid bone.

They specifically mentioned that the hyoid bone was not included in the body when the independent examiner received it.

That’s a significant point for me because that means that they are checking to see if the strap muscles had hemorrhaging, meaning signs of strangulation.

Petechial hemorrhaging is very important, but also bleeding into those muscles.

The hyoid bone, examining that bone, being able to remove the soft tissue from it to check for signs of trauma like a fracture to that bone is crucial when you’re thinking about possible strangulation or something >> the places where you look for strangulation.

You look for bleeding in the muscles, fractures, signs that someone was choked or hit in the neck and they were gone.

Dr.

Nate Rutherford is a coroner herself.

>> What do we mean by this?

What do we take away from this?

>> Number one, given the circumstances surrounding this case, I am extremely disappointed that an independent autopsy was not performed from the beginning.

Yes, the state has a has a responsibility to perform the autopsy, but even the county coroner said, “I want no parts of it.

I’m sending this to the state ME’s office.”

So, if they were going to do that, they should have given this family the option from the beginning to have an independent autopsy because things are missing from this independent autopsy that as a mother, as a community member, don’t sit right with me.

Number one, if you were going to hold back any parts of the body, I feel as if the independent examiner should have known that from the beginning and a report of what those findings were should have been sent to him.

Yes, it is customary to hold back pieces of the body if you’re going to examine them further, but why?

What was there that you needed to examine?

And why have you not discussed this with the family?

>> about this on the record and she was direct about what it means.

If the state pathologist removed those structures, they had a reason.

They were checking for something.

They suspected something.

The question is, what did they find and why didn’t they tell anyone?

Mitchell’s report says it straight up.

The anterior inner neck structures were absent, not received with the body.

Therefore, this pathologist cannot rule out injury to the neck as a contributing factor or a cause of death.

Let that sink in.

He can’t rule it out, meaning foul play is still on the table.

Now, here’s where it gets messy.

>> This is where it gets interesting.

So, according to Ben Crump, he claimed the United Cajun Navy found Nolan fully clothed, face down, even though Crump pointed out that the last picture we have seen of Nolan wearing the swim trunks with his friends that’s been circulated everywhere, he’s not fully
Clothed, right?

He’s not wearing a shirt.

And you have this last video of him or a uh potentially of him, this newly surfaced TMZ footage recorded at 2:23 p.m.

On July 4th, which appears to show a man arguably matching Nolan’s description on a boat wearing the same blue swim trunks that he had on in that famous pH๏τo.

Again, shirtless, if that is him.

However, this just came out.

So, the United Cajun Navy took to X and they said, “Attorney Crump, we didn’t say Nolan was fully clothed when found.

He was wearing only swim trunks.

Please don’t misrepresent >> initially said the rescue team found Nolan fully clothed.

Fully clothed, face down.

But the rescue organization, United Cajun Navy, they pushed back immediately.

They went on social media.

They said, “No.

We said he was wearing swim trunks.

Just swim trunks.

Please don’t misrepresent our words.”

And that matters because in every picture from July 4th, Nolan’s shirtless.

He’s got blue swim trunks on with his friends at the water.

There’s new footage that came out, TMZ footage from 2023 that afternoon, shows a guy matching his description on a boat, still shirtless, still in those same blue trunks.

But then the body’s found, and suddenly authorities are saying he’s fully clothed.

That’s not a small detail.

That’s basic accuracy falling apart right from the start.

If they got that wrong, what else isn’t right?

The cause of death from the independent autopsy, undetermined.

Manner of death, also undetermined.

It’s not a conclusion, it’s a placeholder.

It means the pathologist couldn’t figure it out because he didn’t have all the pieces, literally didn’t have the pieces.

And here’s what bothers me.

Authorities called this an accidental drowning from the jump before the autopsy was even finished.

Dr.

Rutherford said that flat out.

How can you ᴀssume there’s no foul play?

How can you ᴀssume it’s an accidental drowning when you haven’t finished the autopsy?

That’s not how this is supposed to work.

You don’t commit to a theory before you examine the evidence.

You examine the evidence first, then you pick a theory.

But they did it backwards.

There’s also this mark.

>> This red discoloration on the back of Nolan’s head in this this issue this tissue area.

I believe they call it the focal, you would know better than me, the focal they they they call it the focal um >> They called it a focal discoloration, meaning that this was it wasn’t a diffuse discoloration.

I mean, it didn’t cover a wide area.

It was very specific to that area.

So specific in fact that they could measure it to determine that it didn’t spread anywhere else.

So I think that’s really important because that could be a point of impact.

>> Now, could that be from the examination, the first examination, the way the body was placed, or could that be because remember when the body was ultimately examined, right?

I think it was July 10th they say the body was examined unless I I I think I’m correct about that.

But the could that be someone hit
Nolan, something happened to him, and that mark would still be there um just ᴀssuming, or do you think it could be something that happened after he died?

>> I think it’s probably before, especially because there seemed to be um the the discoloration as it was described.

And again, you have some someone who is a non-medical professional reading an autopsy report, which I also completely disagree with um because it it muddies the waters.

He really should have had Dr.

Mitchell or an ᴀssistant, someone with training and knowledge to read this autopsy report, but I digress.

The discoloration that they discussed, just want to make sure I’m quoting them correctly in in what they stated.

Said it was a 12 by 8 inch red disco red discoloration overlaying the occipital bone.

So I think that’s significant because this shows a blow from behind.

No matter whether or not it caused intracranial hemorrhage or not, we know that there was no underlying skull fracture ᴀssociated with it.

So, the fact that this um happened to him, we know that this was a antemortem thing that happened to >> on the back of Nolan’s head, the occipital region.

That’s the lower back of the skull, 12 by 8 in.

Specific measurements, that’s not random bruising.

That’s focused, localized, and it happened before he died.

You don’t bruise after you’re ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.

So, whatever hit him, whatever caused that mark happened while he was alive.

The autopsy just says the cause is unknown.

What I find really interesting >> questions about this.

Number one, the fact that those I hate to say those pieces of Nolan’s body are missing, does that mean you can’t even determine whether this was an accidental drowning?

>> Exactly, because I need to know when they when they received that body at that first examination, was there water in the airway?

Was there debris in the airway?

What were the contents of his stomach?

Were there pills there?

Was there alcohol there?

Was there food there?

That gives me a timeline on when Nolan may have last eaten.

What was he drinking?

I’m examining the contents of his stomach.

How was his body found?

Was he found actually in a body of water, truly inside of the water, or was he just on the shoreline?

All of these things matter greatly when you are doing a water death especially.

>> So, if they remove if the first examiner, right, removed those uh those body parts, does that suggest that they may have a conclusion?

>> That when the state ME’s report comes out with the toxicology findings, they may have a conclusion whether or not there was foul play, whether there was
Uh trauma to the that that region, whether there was drowning.

That the fact that they removed those pieces would suggest they may have an answer?

>> What doesn’t get talked about enough is that we don’t actually know basic facts about how he died.

Was the body in the water?

On the shore?

What was in his lungs?

Water?

Air?

What was in his stomach?

That tells you when he last ate.

It tells you a timeline.

What did toxicology show?

Drugs?

Alcohol?

We don’t know any of this.

Authorities haven’t released any of it.

The independent examiner couldn’t determine a timeline because all that information was missing.

Ben Crump spelled out seven questions that are still unanswered.

>> This pathologist cannot rule out if any intervening non-accidental factors contributed to or caused the death of Nolan Wells.

Understand?

He said based on the examination of the body, he cannot rule out foul play.

That is significant.

With the following questions still outstanding, number one, what were the circumstances that led to Nolan Xavier Wells ending in the water?

Number two, what was the body position when it was found?

Number three, was there water in the airway?

Remember he talked about the lungs and the airways where they filled with water.

Number four, is there any evidence of injuries to the interior neck structure?

We got the autopsy without his neck.

We got the body without his neck at the time of the second autopsy.

Number five, is there any evidence of any intracranial hemorrhaging?

He said that is going to be very significant.

Things that he could not observe at autopsy that the initial medical examiner would have been able to observe.

Number six, what was the composition of the What was the composition of the stomach contents?

He talks about that being important because when was he found How long had he been in the water?

How long had it been since his last meal?

All those things become relevant factors when you’re trying to do a thorough and impartial autopsy.

And number seven, what was What are the toxicology report findings?

>> Seven.

>> What were the circumstances that led to him entering the water?

What was his body position when found?

Was there water in the airway?

Any evidence of neck injuries?

Any signs of internal bleeding in the brain?

What was in his stomach?

And what do the toxicology results say?

Those seven questions exist because at every single stage, the investigation has been incomplete or opaque or both.

The state hasn’t publicly responded to the independent autopsy.

They haven’t released their own toxicology results.

They haven’t explained why the neck structures were removed or what they found in them.

The family had to hire Ben Crump.

They had to commission their own autopsy.

They had to put up a hundred thousand dollar reward just to get anyone to talk.

And authorities are silent.

>> I’m imagining they’re still waiting for toxicology resort results for for their own autopsy, but do they respond to this?

Um how do they respond to this?

When do we receive the official autopsy from the state medical examiner’s office?

What’s going to happen next there?

I mean, I’m really curious about the law enforcement’s response to this.

>> I think their option is to respond.

I think it’s the only right thing to do.

The The fact that they have chosen not to respond, the fact that they’ve chosen not to be transparent and to share information is is not just a failure of duty, but it’s a betrayal of public trust.

The [snorts] public trust you to tell the story about how people died, whatever that truth may be.

And if they have something they need to talk with the family.

They don’t need to have a press conference about it.

They don’t need to to talk to anyone else but that family.

And tell the family, “Hey, I want to share this with you, but I need you guys to not share this until we get all the >> Here’s what I want to know.

The state removed those neck structures, never explained why, never said what they found.

So, when they concluded it was an accidental drowning, was that conclusion reached before they examined what they’d removed or despite what they’d already found in those structures?

Those are two totally different things.

One’s a mistake, the other’s a choice.

What do you think?

I actually want to know.

Leave it in the comments.

Because here’s what we actually know for certain.

An 18-year-old kid disappeared.

His body was found.

An autopsy happened.

Critical pieces were removed and kept from a second examiner.

That examiner can’t rule out foul play.

There’s a bruise on the back of his head that happened before death.

The family is asking for answers.

The public is asking.

The FBI is asking.

And the people who know what happened are saying nothing.

The state needs to release their full autopsy.

They need to release toxicology.

They need to explain why the independent examiner wasn’t told about missing body parts.

The family’s done everything they can do.

>> This is a student athlete.

This is someone who who prided himself on his athletic ability and staying healthy to play football.

This was a a first love for him.

I’m you hear his dad speak so pᴀssionately about his son’s football career and what he was trying to do.

So, I can’t imagine that this is a kid who’s just out here, you know, doing drugs and drinking.

And if someone saw him doing those things, then step forward.

Say something.

Because we know as parents that our children don’t tell us everything that they do.

He’s a college kid.

Maybe he he does do something every now and again, but someone needs to say something.

Someone needs to >> I I think even, you know, as we talked about having that video come out that could potentially be Nolan, that’s a piece of the puzzle, right?

More video coming out, establish a timeline.

There’s something to this idea about so many people being there and you don’t know who spoke to who yet and what those interviews were like.

>> one of the best attorneys in the country.

They got national attention.

They put up serious money for information, but the investigation, that belongs to the state and the state has not been transparent.

We’re going to follow this as it develops.

Toxicology should come back soon.

If it contradicts the drowning story, everything changes.

If it doesn’t, we need answers about why those missing organs didn’t seem to matter.

Thank you for watching.

Subscribe if you want updates on this case.

Drop a comment with your thoughts.

And if you know something about what happened to Nolan Wells on July 4th, the family is asking you to come forward.

That’s the story.

We’ll keep tracking it.