Attorney Ben Crump is set to release preliminary Nolan Wells autopsy findings Wednesday morning in Chicago, giving the first public medical findings in the death of Mississippi teenager Nolan Wells. The news conference is scheduled for 8 a.m. at McCormick Place, with Christine and Elmore Wonsley expected to appear alongside him.
The release comes after authorities did not announce a cause or manner of death in Wells’ case. The family and its legal team are now moving ahead with an independent examination, bringing a medical account to the public before the investigation has reached its final public stage.
McCormick Place in Chicago
Crump is expected to speak at the 8 a.m. event and present the preliminary findings from the independent autopsy. That step puts the family’s medical evidence in the open at a point when the case still has no announced cause or manner of death.
Wells was 18 when he disappeared on July 4 after traveling by boat with friends to Horn Island. His body was found on July 6 near the island’s northwestern tip after a two-day search.
Christine and Elmore Wonsley
Christine Wonsley and Elmore Wonsley are expected to join Crump at McCormick Place. Their appearance gives the family a public role in the release, rather than leaving the findings to move through lawyers alone.
Rev. Al Sharpton has also added pressure around the case, offering a $50,000 reward through the National Action Network for information leading to an arrest and conviction. During Wells’ funeral Monday, Sharpton said, “He was not on that island by himself.”
NAACP and Department of Justice
The NAACP has called for a thorough and transparent investigation into Wells’ death by local, state and federal authorities, including the Department of Justice. That demand sits beside the family’s own medical release, creating two parallel tracks: an independent autopsy and an ongoing investigation.
What the preliminary findings will actually say about how Wells died is the central unresolved point. Wednesday morning is when that gap first narrows, and the family is choosing to answer it in public, in Chicago, before the official account has been laid out.
