Nolan Wells was the 18-year-old Black kid from Mississippi who went missing on a Fourth of July boat trip to Horn Island and was found dead on the island two days later. His death became a national story, his family never accepted the official shrug, and a grand jury declined to charge anyone last month. Now the case has reached the White House.
A reporter asked President Trump outside the White House on Wednesday whether he would push the FBI to open its own investigation into Wells’ death. “Well, we’re looking at that,” Trump said. “Yes, we are.”
The question came two days after Wells’ parents held a press conference demanding exactly that. His father, Elmore, said their son was found on federal land and asked the FBI to step in and do a full investigation. “We’re not asking for special treatment,” he said. “We’re asking for what any father would do for his child, and that’s to find the truth of what happened to his child.”
The family’s doubts start with the autopsy. The state medical examiner found no water in Wells’ lungs or stomach, listed the cause and manner of death as undetermined, and noted bruising on his skull and back without calling the injuries fatal. A private autopsy the family commissioned through civil rights attorney Ben Crump also came back undetermined.
The Congressional Black Caucus wrote to the attorney general and the FBI director back in August urging a deeper look, with the NAACP and the Rev. Al Sharpton behind them. To be clear, Trump saying “we’re looking at that” is not an investigation, and no formal federal probe has been announced. But it is the biggest new development in this case since the grand jury walked away.