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OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss. — <\/span>The family of Nolan Xavier Wells is still grappling for answers<\/a> about what exactly led to the 18-year-old elite athlete’s death during a July 4 boat trip with friends off Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. <\/p>\n Though Wells traveled by boat with his friends to Horn Island, he didn’t return with the group that afternoon as planned. His body was found two days later off the island’s coast. <\/p>\n An independent autopsy commissioned by the family was inconclusive, civil rights attorney Ben Crump<\/a> announced Wednesday, and the Mississippi sheriff\u2019s department investigating Wells\u2019 death hasn\u2019t made a public statement about the case in recent days. <\/p>\n Wells’ parents say the tragedy is riddled with conflicting stories<\/a> and missing details. That distrust has been deepened by the state’s long legacy of racism. Wells was the only Black person in the group that day \u2014 everyone else on the outing was white.<\/p>\n Here’s a look at what’s known and what’s next in the search for answers. <\/p>\n Wells’ mother Christine Wonsley became concerned<\/a> when one of his friends called around 11 p.m. on July 4. After trying to track her son down on her own, she reported him missing to police. One of Wells’ friends had also reported him missing to the U.S. Coast Guard. <\/p>\n Wells didn’t make it back to the mainland, but his phone and car keys did. Wonsley used an app to track Wells’ phone, and, after a friend went to where it was on land to pick it up, noticed that some of his messages appeared to be deleted. Wells’ father, Elmore Wonsley, went to retrieve his son’s keys from the boat, which was at the home where Wells had stayed with his friends the night before their trip. He said his son’s car was still parked in the yard. <\/p>\n The day after Wells’ body was found, Jackson County Sheriff John Ledbetter said Wells’ friends were cooperating with authorities and that investigators did not suspect foul play. Ledbetter said people interviewed by investigators said Wells chose to stay on the island with the assumption that he was going to ride back to the mainland with someone else. <\/p>\n Crump said bystander video from the island showed a person he said was Wells arguing with someone to give him his phone back. Crump said another witness reported Wells had planned to leave on the boat with his friends. <\/p>\n The independent autopsy report showed no evidence of fractures or deep tissue injuries, and described a \u201cred discoloration” on the back of Wells’ skull as \u201cinconclusive\u201d and meriting further investigation, Crump said. <\/p>\n Dr. Robert Mitchell, the forensic pathologist who performed the autopsy, wrote in the report that he could not rule out the possibility that \u201cnon-accidental factors contributed to or caused the death.\u201d He listed the cause of death as \u201cundetermined\u201d pending further investigation. <\/p>\n The autopsy was complicated by a few factors. The body had decomposed and had already undergone one autopsy, which meant that the organs including the lungs and the neck structures were already removed. That’s not an unusual practice for autopsies, but makes it impossible to determine if Wells had a neck injury or if water had entered his lungs, according to Mitchell’s report.<\/p>\n Crump has called on state officials to provide that evidence for the family to review. <\/p>\n The Mississippi medical examiner has not released the results of the state autopsy, and did not return messages left Wednesday asking for a timeline of when those results would be released. <\/p>\n Toxicology tests can often take weeks, and those results have also not yet been released.<\/p>\n Lawyers for the family said they spoke to the prosecuting attorney last week about procedural matters, but they said officials with the sheriff’s department have not shared any updates on the investigation’s findings in the days since Wells’ body was discovered. <\/p>\n Crump said he is working alongside the local prosecutor<\/a> to inspect Wells\u2019 phone. The prosecutor has agreed to present the results of the investigation to a grand jury once it is completed, according to Crump.<\/p>\n The Jackson County Sheriff\u2019s Department has been soliciting video, photos and firsthand accounts from people who were on the island. But the sheriff\u2019s department has not made any public statements about the investigation in more than a week. <\/p>\n