A Mississippi grand jury has declined to issue any indictments in the case of Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old college student found dead off the Mississippi coast in early July 2026.

"The Grand Jury finds no credible evidence to support the public allegations that any persons who rode to or from Horn Island on July 4, 2026 on the Triton, the Palm Beach, or the Tideline engaged in any criminal conduct related to the death of Mr. Wells," the grand jury report states.

The jury met from September 14 to September 18. The 23 jurors heard from more than 40 witnesses and reviewed evidence including GPS data, cellphone extractions, and photos and videos from Horn Island.

The grand jury concluded that Wells' cause of death was consistent with drowning, based on where his body was found and findings from multiple autopsies. The official cause of death remains undetermined, but the absence of other identifiable causes makes drowning a likely "diagnosis by exclusion."

Wells was found dead on Horn Island on July 6 after traveling there by boat two days earlier with a group of friends to celebrate Independence Day. He was the only member of the group who did not return from the trip to Mississippi's barrier islands.

The grand jury found that Wells chose to remain on the island on the afternoon of July 4, describing it as "not unusual or suspicious for individuals to return from the island on boats they did not travel on." The report found the accounts given by occupants of the boats that went out that day to be credible, including reports that one vessel, the Triton, took on water and had to be towed a short distance.

"Nolan chose to stay on the island that day, and there is not a scintilla of evidence to contradict that," District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath said in a recorded statement released Monday night alongside the grand jury report.

The grand jury also found that a thorough search of Horn Island was conducted on July 5, the day before Wells' body was discovered. "The Grand Jury is confident that had his body been on the island at that time, it would have been discovered during the extensive search," the report states. The report does not explain why his body was found a day after that search.

In her statement, Myers McIlrath said: "The family, the Crump team, and anyone close to Nolan knew that his disappearance and death were not the result of racial hate or violence."

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Wells' family, responded to the report hours after its Monday release. "No True Bill Does Not Resolve How Nolan Wells Died," Crump wrote on Facebook, referring to the grand jury's decision not to indict anyone.

The forensic pathologist who conducted an independent autopsy, Dr. Roger Mitchell, reached the same conclusion as the state medical examiner: that the cause and manner of death is "undetermined" and that "drowning is a diagnosis of exclusion."

Crump had previously claimed that Mitchell was denied access to parts of Wells' body during the independent autopsy. The grand jury report states that Mitchell confirmed he received all body parts, with the exception of internal neck structures that remained in the custody of the state medical examiner.

Bruises were found on Wells' body but were not considered fatal injuries. Crump addressed the findings regarding head injuries following the report's release.

"Mississippi's own pathologist found two bruises on the back of this young man's head and informed investigators of them early in this investigation," Crump wrote. "An independent autopsy documented traces of blood and recent blunt force injuries to the back of Nolan's head and his back. To this day, not one person has explained how they got there."

Crump also released the independent autopsy report on Monday night. That report recommends keeping the investigation open, citing uncertainties surrounding the circumstances of Wells' death.