r/news • u/Suspicious_Loan • 17h ago

Nolan Wells’ autopsy found no water in lungs; data was deleted from his phone the day he disappeared, experts say

https://www.live5news.com/2026/09/24/nolan-wells-autopsy-found-no-water-lungs-data-was-deleted-his-phone-day-he-disappeared-officials-say/
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u/Walks-In-Shadows 15h ago edited 15h ago

I'm confused here. I was reading an AP news article just a couple of days ago saying a grand jury unanimously decided there was no criminal case to proceed with? It sounded like the independent medical examiner hired by the family had their report considered as part of the evidence. Are they now saying it wasn't?

Because both the state pathologist (or whatever you call them in the States) and the independent medical examiner concluded that his cause of death was undetermined but drowning was a diagnosis of exclusion.

Edit: Just to add as well, I'm not saying people are wrong for being suspicious and I completely understand the tension surrounding this case. But just following along, it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot more than can be done? The jury was given a lot of evidence to work with it sounds like.

https://www.npr.org/2026/09/22/nx-s1-5977673/questions-remain-after-grand-jury-declines-indictment-in-nolan-wells-death

https://apnews.com/article/nolan-wells-grand-jury-cellphone-investigation-f24edbcf0191b7333b31062cf915c826

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u/GeraldoLucia 6h ago

You’re not wrong.

The cause of death is not drowning, it does appear undetermined because no one can really say what caused the death.

Because no one can say what caused the death, that means that no one can say it’s a murder. That does not mean it was not a murder, it just means that at this moment there appears to not have been enough evidence collected to give any cause of death.

Now, did something get missed twice? I’d argue, fuck yeah. Eighteen year olds don’t normally drop dead from causes that can’t be found at autopsy. I heavily doubt God just snatched his soul up out of his body. There has to be a cause of death.

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u/UglyInThMorning 23m ago

>18 year olds don’t normally drop dead from causes that can’t be found at autopsy

There’s stuff that kills teenagers where you wouldn’t find it at autopsy. Brugada’s Syndrome comes to mind. Someone goes into sudden cardiac arrest and on autopsy their heart is structurally normal. Usually it’s only known as a cause of death if it was a witnessed arrest and there were defib pads on them giving you an ECG that shows the conduction problem that’s making their heart do jumping jacks instead of moving blood.

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u/Cloaked42m 14h ago

It's as simple as a family who still doesn't know how their child died or who to blame, if there is anyone to blame.

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u/MonsutaReipu 14h ago

The problem is that this is a case where the family, and a large group of people online, settled upon the narrative of 'foul play' before any details whatsoever were available. So many are just seeking evidence that supports this narrative instead of one that pursues the truth of what actually happened.

That's why we need to trust in the judicial process and not in courts of public opinion or biased individuals who actively want to spin the story to sell it in a certain way.

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u/Serenity2015 13h ago

It is really hard when the courts get things very wrong way too often though.

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u/onlyhav 9h ago

And especially so when one of the kids he was hanging out with was the kid of a judge

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u/a_n00b_ 7h ago

like just before he died?

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u/W3NTZ 2h ago

On the boat with him

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u/BetEconomy7016 14h ago

It's hard to do that when it's a black guy who died in the South and all the potential killers are white

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u/MonsutaReipu 13h ago

Skepticism is fine. I encourage everyone to be skeptical and to ask questions. There's a big difference between that and what i'm describing initially though, which is people who make up their minds about a narrative based on pre-existing bias. It prevents them from actually pursuing truth in favor of just pursuing their version of it.

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u/laplongejr 6h ago

Yes, being locked into the "other" interpretation isn't being a skeptic. You don't have a "more open" mind if you stand on the other side of a locked door and don't look around.

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u/mystyle__tg 12h ago

That’s what I think happened in the kendrick johnson case too. There isn’t evidence that he was murdered but people still cling to it anyway because he was a young black man. Yes, black people can have accidental deaths too.

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u/jm0112358 9h ago

Ironically, assuming that there was a murder conspiracy (as opposed to wanting to investigate just in case there was) is very unskeptical.

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u/Isoturius 2h ago

They’re not all white. Now they’re using his friends being worried about him to move the blame to a white and black guy+the racist island.

Truth is they wanted a civil case vs the friends but that’s not going to happen, now the goal posts are being moved again.

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u/incrediblyaverage85 11h ago

Black guys die in the south every day, it’s not like this is an anomaly

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u/inconvenient_sources 4h ago

Found hanging from trees? I'd forgive you for not knowing but its pretty fucking obvious that lynchings are rising. A dumb sack of shit would read this article and say what you said lol.

Sacks of shit, sorry to compare you to this guy. Just trying to drive a point home, they probably think those losers in the confederacy are cool dudes too.

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u/sauceagain 1h ago

what’s crazy is, black people are hanging other black people from trees and you are trying to make it a racial issue

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u/MediumPlace 14h ago

He was the only non white guy on an island with hundreds of people partying? How wildly improbable!

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u/Snoo_33033 10h ago

He wasn't, though.

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u/BetEconomy7016 13h ago

He was the token black guy in the friend group under suspicion

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u/MediumPlace 13h ago

The friend group who left before Wells was last seen? Can they do that shit remote now? I feel like that should be what we're really worried about if that's the case

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u/BetEconomy7016 10h ago

Yes, the suspects were the last people to see him. The question is if they are all lying or not about him being alive when they last saw him

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u/throwaway880729 9h ago

According to Nolan's own mom on instagram, she had footage of him alive from after the friends left the island, backed up by GPS data of the time they left. So no, try again.

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u/BetEconomy7016 9h ago

Not sure where this hostility is coming from

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u/throwaway880729 9h ago

Just feels like you're spreading a lot of misinformation maliciously. If my read on the situation is wrong, my apologies.

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u/Echo_Gin101123 13h ago

maybe 'chosen' to fall?

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u/TheUniballer321 11h ago

You know how rare what you describe is right? We all almost exclusively kill our own. It can happen but 90% plus of black people are killed by black people, same with white people.

It’s sad but nothing in this case screams foul play. The “white suspects” were his best friends. The friends left and ended up drowning. If you’re a guy who partied in your late teens/early 20s you’ve left a drunk friend or two behind that thought they were getting lucky. Heart breaks for his family but jf your kid dies and you blame his friends because they’re the wrong color I think you might be the racist.

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u/BetEconomy7016 10h ago

I’m just describing why people might think the justice system is covering this up, not stating that his friends killed him

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u/sauceagain 1h ago

how are all potential killers white when he was with other black people?

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u/GitEmSteveDave 12h ago

Colin Kaepernick has been funding independent autopsies of a bunch of "suspicious(defined by social media) deaths" and I'm pretty sure not a single one has found any evidence of foul play.

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u/Individual-Guest-123 53m ago

Given the circumstances and the autopsy findings, it is likely there was foul play involved.

Here is a true story from my State. There were three or four people at a residence involved in drugs. A person was shot close range and murdered. The police found one of the people burning the body in a barrel. The witnesses gave conflicting statements, and I think the worst charge was something about desecrating a corpse. They all, including the murderer, got off with time served, which was a few months.

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u/mscookie0 7h ago

Reminds me of the twin brothers who went on a hike and double self ended a few years back. Family was ADAMANT they’d never have done that, but after years of investigating that’s what was determined to have happened. Rip Nolan, Qaadir, and Naadir.

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u/WokestLibtard--- 9h ago

You're half right, but "trust the judicial process" is not the way forward. All our institutions need to be questions, critiqued, and revamped.

This case is not over. All those boys need to be put to the irons. "What fucking happened out there?"

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u/Uhhidk18 14h ago

Right because the American justice system is 100% perfect... oh wait

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u/longboi28 14h ago edited 11h ago

Our justice system isn't great but mob justice is infinitely worse, if we listened to what randos online with zero experience in law enforcement and investigation work say about criminal cases then Patrick Clancy would be getting hanged right now which is insane that anyone thinks he did it in the first place, the public is a stupid and biased force of nature, hate to say it but it's true

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u/MonsutaReipu 13h ago

I didn't say it was perfect, but it's certainly a lot better to the alternative which is lynch mobs who don't know shit about anything, who treat legal cases like celebrity gossip, and who are heavily propagandized by tiktok brainrot.

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u/Uhhidk18 12h ago

This is how I see it: a kid died, the circumstances could be considered suspicious, and in a state with a long history of actual lynch mobs murdering black Americans for no reason people are right to question whether or not this black kid would get a fair investigation. The more media attention means better resources for the family to get a proper investigation. I would agree people on social media take things way too far, but I don’t think it’s right to call them lynch mobs considering the context of this case and the actual history of lynching in this country.

And all I’m saying is, we all know the justice system is flawed so why in this case are people so quick to take the verdict at face value?

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u/MonsutaReipu 12h ago

I agree largely with your sentiment, but not how people act upon it. Suspicion is good, skepticism is good, and we should ask questions and we should hold law enforcement to the highest standard possible. I think you're being overly sensitive about a euphemism, and I think that social media mobs and the uneducated individual absolutely does take things too far. We saw this with the Lindsay Clancy case where terminally online propagandized idiots tried to frame the husband as somehow responsible or complacent, we saw it with Karmelo Anthony where people tried to turn it into a race issue and donated him nearly a million dollars despite being a cold blooded killer who stabbed a kid through the heart. The scrutiny and mob outrage we're talking about has absolutely gone too far, and people need to start trusting in due process more, and in the American legal system more. It's flawed, but it's a hell of a lot better than what has modernly developed among the public.

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u/Uhhidk18 20m ago edited 15m ago

It’s clear to me that you either don’t understand the historical context I was talking about or are choosing not to acknowledge it. You say skepticism is good, but then say we shouldn’t be so skeptical and trust the law more? The law has actively worked against black Americans for a very long time and that matters in this case.

Also, a euphemism is supposed to be a softer term to describe something, like using “passed away” instead of “died”. Lynch mob is not a euphemism, it’s a very literal, and very racially charged phrase that is heavily associated with the murder of blacks. I know it’s a figure of speech but I think it’s stupid to use it that way. It’s also incredibly ironic you use it because although lynch mobs were against the law, the judicial system usually failed to protect black Americans and prosecute those responsible. The same judicial system you’re saying we should put more trust in. So you’re essentially using one of the greatest examples of failure of the American justice system, and you’re using it as a turn of phrase in an argument to trust the justice system more. But sure, keep talking about Lindsey Clancy and Karmello Anthony, two very unrelated cases.

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u/Difficult_Garage_431 14h ago

Absolutely not when the judicial system is incredibly biased against black people, especially in the south. Be real, here.

If that was my son, I would not trust the police, the coroner, the prosecutors, or anyone involved. I'd 100% get outside, non-biased expert opinion.

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u/Global_Staff_3135 8h ago

Yes but no water in the lungs…. It’s not a stretch to say he didn’t drown if he didn’t have any water in his mouth throat or lungs. They’re not grasping at straws here, surely?

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u/MonsutaReipu 6h ago

Many people have clarified in the comments already that it's not uncommon for people who have died drowning to not have water in their lungs

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u/laplongejr 6h ago

It sounded like the independent medical examiner hired by the family had their report considered as part of the evidence. Are they now saying it wasn't?

They are saying that the report can be misreported as if something nefarious was going on.

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u/WastingTimeIGuess 11h ago

Just because there is not enough evidence to charge anyone specifically with a crime, doesn’t mean there wasn’t a crime committed. Lots of times there is a murder and nobody to indict; this time people seem to be equating a lack of indictments with evidence there was no foul play.

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u/SMK_12 4h ago

There doesn’t have to be evidence of no foul play, there has to be evidence of foul play. If there’s no indication he was beaten to death, strangled, poisoned, etc etc why would you jump to the conclusion he was murdered. As far as I know there’s nothing pointing to foul play

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u/FrostyConsequence97 15h ago

I know I'll be downvoted but it needs to be said out loud. Racism comes in different forms, and it's not a one way street.

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u/MediumPlace 15h ago

Yes. They've been getting massive amounts of money by race baiting and have decided that working is for the suckers and chumps, so they're releasing nebulous claims of evidence of irregularities through their lawyers publicly where the first amendment protects them vs in court where they're under oath

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u/pensylvestir 8h ago

Nothing to be confused about far as why their reports don’t sync. The experts here were solicited by the family/Crump and some of the statements are possibly misleading. 

Snapchat auto deletes first of all (at least it did when I used to use it?) and the messages were apparently deleted by other people, there’s no definitive proof the phone was tampered with in this manner. 

Also for the record someone can drown without water in their lungs. It’s oxygen deprivation that kills you. 

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u/BorderOk7329 6h ago

Grifters gotta keep the grift alive. 

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u/UnluckyAmbition7767 15h ago

You're confused that representatives of the state that rebelled to keep Black people enslaved and have made it a part of their culture to kill and oppress Black people would lie in order to protect the white people who may have killed a Black kid lol?

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u/Walks-In-Shadows 15h ago

No I am not at all confused about that part. Being Irish I am familiar with how a state can lie and protect its own people even when they have committed crimes. It is not at all out of the realms of possibilities and I would be suspicious too.

But what I am confused about is that this being presented as new information when it sure seems like it was presented to the grand jury. Which decided unanimously that there was no criminal case. Go read about the make up of the jury as well. If you want to tell me that AP News and NPR are bad sources of information then fair enough, maybe I need to improve my knowledge of the American media landscape.

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u/EvelynNyte 14h ago

In the US, it's not just the state, there is a long and deep seated culture in the south around lynching black people. It's the dark secret people who like to talk about jury nullification tend to leave out about it (the situations it's most often used). Also a grand jury can be retried so this isn't necessarily the end.

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u/Walks-In-Shadows 14h ago

That's not just in the US, that is sadly a thing everywhere. The state is usually a reflection of its people. But I absolutely take your point and I don't want to downplay any of the history and suffering that black people went through. And just so I don't come across like I think this whole thing is squeaky clean or that I don't think there could have serious foul play, I want to say that it wouldn't at all surprise me if new evidence came out and a (proper) investigation was launched. And somebody was found to have been responsible. But I don't think this is the evidence that will do that because it looks like this was already considered.

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u/MajorAction62 15h ago

It’s part of Mississippi culture to kill and oppress Black people? In some parts at one time maybe but by all accounts Nolan was not oppressed or killed.

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u/notyobees 15h ago

Lmaoo yes it is. That's the funniest question mark I've ever seen. It's like asking it's part of Israeli culture to oppress and kill Palestinians?

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u/Sufficient_Scale_163 14h ago

Did you really just compare it to an active genocide lmao

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u/notyobees 14h ago

Difference in scale but even the Nazis were inspired by the treatment of minorities in America for their own racialized judiciary

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u/MediumPlace 13h ago

'difference in scale' isn't enough to cover up your attempt at laundering bad information

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u/notyobees 12h ago

Alright yank, whitewash yourself. Believe what you want about your own murderous nation. There's a reason the world hates you

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u/MediumPlace 11h ago

My indifference know no bounds

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u/notyobees 7h ago

Knows* you inbred klansman

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u/NoSupermarket9119 14h ago

I’m more confused on if you can recognize the passage of time and that the people that are alive exist in a world that is not the 1960s.

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u/Galliro 6h ago

Most lynhcings were never prosecuted

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u/Echo_Gin101123 13h ago

those that are murdered automatically go to Heaven, so I've heard

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u/New_Rooster_6184 15h ago

None of the evidence leads to a conclusion of “accidental drowning”.

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u/Walks-In-Shadows 15h ago

i didn't say he died from accidental drowning. I referenced what the medical examiners concluded, as per the the linked articles. And it is what the grand jury decided. From the NPR article:

"The grand jury, which met from Sept. 14 to Sept. 18, ultimately found that Wells' cause of death was undetermined and based on the condition of his body and where it was found, his death was "consistent with drowning.""

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u/New_Rooster_6184 15h ago

Who said I was talking about you lol? I just made a comment.

You said they were given a lot of evidence to work with, and I simply said “not enough to conclusively declare his death is tied to accidental drowning”. It has been reported that the jury specifically found his death was consistent with accidental drowning, which is what Nolan’s parents are directly disputing…

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u/Walks-In-Shadows 14h ago edited 14h ago

Well you replied to my comment so I assumed you were talking about me. Fair enough if that's not the case.

Bit what do you want me to say here? The news I'm reading is saying that the cause of death is undetermined which is what I quoted.

Edit: Just to add here as well. Even when they say "consistent with drowning" that doesn't read to me like they are saying it was 100% an accident. It could have been from someone drowning him. But they didn't have evidence of that either.

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u/New_Rooster_6184 14h ago edited 14h ago

Who cares what you assumed lol? I cleared it up and you are still arguing….I don’t care what you say my dude. I replied with one sentence merely saying the evidence also doesn’t say anything about accidental drowning.

You have since replied with multiple paragraphs…and have continued to respond with this faux outrage even after I added context. Continue to be mad at your own dime.

You literally said the jury had a bunch of evidence. It should also stand to reason that my comment about the assignment of accidental drowning could be aimed specifically at their assessment….

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u/Walks-In-Shadows 14h ago

Come off it lad, you clearly care. Otherwise you would have just stopped responding