Arabic version: هيئة محلفين كبرى في ميسيسيبي ترفض توجيه اتهام في وفاة نولان ويلز

According to ABC News, a grand jury in Jackson County, Mississippi, unanimously declined to indict anyone over the death of Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old Black man whose body was found on Horn Island after a trip with friends during the Fourth of July weekend.

Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath’s office released the grand jury report on Monday, local time. It said there was no credible evidence that people who travelled to or from Horn Island on July 4, 2026, on the Triton, Palm Beach or Tideline had engaged in criminal conduct related to Wells’s death.

Wells went missing on July 4 after travelling from nearby Ocean Springs, Mississippi, with friends. His body was found on July 6 at the north-west end of Horn Island, a barrier island off the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The grand jury said the position, condition, time of discovery and location of his body were consistent with drowning.

The report said the Mississippi Chief Medical Examiner and another forensic expert found the cause and manner of death undetermined, while describing drowning as a diagnosis of exclusion. It said neither expert had ruled out accidental drowning. McIlrath said the investigation had been thorough and exhaustive, and that there was no evidence supporting claims that Wells’s disappearance and death were racially motivated. Civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, representing the Wells family, said the death still demanded answers and that the decision did not resolve how Wells died.