A Mississippi teenager left for a Fourth of July celebration and never came home. The rush to say what didn't happen tells us everything about what still does.

I’ve been a Black boy in a white space. Most of us who look like Nolan Xavier Wells have been, too.

We know the internal calculus — how loud to laugh, which water to drink, and when to leave.

We know the ache of loving people who may never love us back fully.

And we know the particular grief of a mother who taught her son "how to move in certain spaces," as Christine Wonsley told CNN, yet still had to bury him.

Nolan was 18, a wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College. Six-foot-one, wearing blue swim trunks, with a smile his mother said could "lift your confidence with just a few words." 

On July 4, he boarded a boat to Horn Island. On July 6, a National Park Service ranger found his body face down in the water off the northwest shore.

Somewhere between those two sentences, a country is arguing over whether we are allowed to ask what happened.

In this edition, I want to name what the record actually shows — and what a certain chorus of "don't jump to conclusions" is really asking us to accept.

In solidarity,

Rev. Dr. Jason Carson Wilson

Independent autopsy came back "undetermined" 

On July 22 at the NAACP National Convention in Chicago, civil rights attorney Ben Crump released the preliminary findings from a second autopsy conducted by Dr. Roger Mitchell, a board-certified forensic pathologist and president of the National Medical Association.

Cause and manner of death: undetermined pending investigation. Crump said Mitchell couldn’t rule out foul play. The pathologist noted red discoloration on the back of Wells' head and — critically — reported that the body lacked internal neck structures, including the trachea.

The state's autopsy remains unpublicized. Jackson County Coroner Bruce Lynd Jr. told the Mississippi Free Press on July 8 that dental records confirmed the body was Wells and that a full autopsy would be conducted at the state medical examiner's office. As of the family's July 15 meeting with District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath, no state findings or toxicology results had been released.

The case is heading to a grand jury. Crump said after the DA meeting that once the Jackson County Sheriff's Office completes its investigation, the case will be presented to a grand jury — standard practice in Mississippi for unnatural deaths, according to McIlrath's office, and not an indication of a suspected crime.

A video, a phone, and a girl who says something different. Crump has cited "glaring contradictions" between the boys' account and that of a young woman on the island who was said to have been talking with Wells.

A viral video captures an argument in which Wells can be heard yelling, "Give me my freaking phone." Two of his friends, Jayvon Williams and Tracetin Shepherd — both Black — told Rolling Stone, ABC News, and TMZ that the audio was from Shepherd on a nearby boat, not from Wells, and that race played no role. The FBI has confirmed to WJTV that it is supporting the sheriff's investigation and separately addressing interstate threats connected to the case.

Horn Island lies within Gulf Islands National Seashore, a federally protected unit of the National Park Service. That single fact places this local tragedy within a lattice of jurisdictions — Jackson County Sheriff's Office, Mississippi Department of Marine Resources, U.S. Coast Guard, National Park Service, FBI Jackson, and the state medical examiner. Each agency operates under its own timelines, protocols, and disclosure rules.

Sheriff John Ledbetter said his office had "no reason to suspect foul play" while also requesting original photos, videos, and eyewitness accounts of "an argument, disturbance, or other unusual activity" on July 4.

Both statements cannot be equally true. When public officials speak, precision isn’t a preference. It’s a duty. Coroner Lynd himself has said that toxicology is pending. In a case already saturated with speculation, the state's silence has become its loudest statement.

For state legislators watching this unfold: Mississippi remains among a shrinking number of states where death investigations are handled by elected coroners rather than appointed forensic professionals. That structure will be tested in the coming weeks.

Scripture is unyielding on this. "You shall not spread a false report," says Exodus 23:1. But the very next verse is the one white America keeps forgetting: "You shall not follow a multitude to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a dispute so as to turn aside after a multitude to pervert justice."

The prophet Amos was more direct: "Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream" (Amos 5:24). Not a trickle. Not a leak. A flood — because the truth has always demanded more moral courage than silence.

James H. Cone, the father of Black liberation theology, wrote in The Cross and the Lynching Tree that America has never fully reckoned with the theological meaning of a Black body found in water, in trees, or on roadsides.

Kelly Brown Douglas, in Stand Your Ground, calls it "the crucifixion of the Black body." When we are told not to grieve too loudly, not to ask too pointedly, and not to name what we already know, we are being asked to make the crucifixion polite.

The Rev. Al Sharpton put it plainly at the July 10 news conference: "We're not bringing race into it. But we're not discounting race, either, because we don't know what it is."

Deep Dive: The Asymmetry of "Don't Jump to Conclusions"

Consider a thought experiment. Imagine a white 18-year-old football player who spent the Fourth of July on a boat with a group of Black friends. Now imagine he never came back. 

Imagine his phone was found at one of their houses. Imagine his mother had to track it herself on Life360. Imagine the Life360 location data didn't match the Snapchat data.

Imagine a video surfaced showing him yelling, "Give me my freaking phone." Imagine that part of his neck was missing from the autopsy.

Now imagine anyone — anyone — telling Fox News hosts, cable pundits, small-town sheriffs, or the president of the United States not to "jump to conclusions."

We do not have to imagine. We have a national memory. We know what happens when the racial script is reversed. Arrests come quickly, and perp walks are televised.

Governors issue statements. Grand juries are convened within days, not weeks. The presumption of innocence, so rigorously enforced when Black grief demands answers, evaporates when white grief demands answers.

This is what the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr called "the moral illusion" in an unequal society: the pretense that the same words mean the same thing when spoken to different people.

"Don't jump to conclusions" is not, in this context, a neutral appeal to due process. It’s a demand that Black families slow down while evidence goes cold, phones are wiped, neck tissue goes missing, and the state medical examiner takes her time.

I want to be careful here. Wells' Black friends have publicly stated that this is not about race, and their statements deserve weight. However, these Black friends have to live and survive in Mississippi.

Contradictions in witness statements are not the same as guilt. Drowning happens; Horn Island's currents are documented killers. Coroner Lynd may be, as he presents himself, a professional doing careful work under an impossible spotlight.

But careful work looks like transparency. It looks like a completed autopsy report. It looks like an intact chain of custody for a boy's trachea. It looks like a sheriff whose public statements align with his investigators' active pursuit of a possible altercation. It looks like a state that treats the mother of a dead Black son the same way it treats the mother of a dead white son.

Anything less isn’t caution. It’s the same old ritual dressed in courtroom clothes.

•   If you have firsthand information from Horn Island on July 4, submit tips directly to Jackson County investigators at 228-769-3065 (business hours) or 228-769-3063 (after hours).

•   Send tips to the family's legal team at bencrump.com or at 800-350-5777.

•   Contact the Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch's office at 601-359-3680 and request that the state medical examiner's report be released promptly and completely.

•   Support the family through the verified GoFundMe page linked from Christine Wonsley's public social media accounts — the family has warned that scam campaigns are circulating.

•   Pray, then act. As James 2:17 reminds us, faith without works is dead.

Resources

•   Jackson County Sheriff's Office public statements: facebook.com/jacksoncountymssheriff

•   Ben Crump Law press releases: bencrump.com/press

•   Gulf Islands National Seashore, Horn Island unit: nps.gov/guis

•   Mississippi Free Press ongoing coverage: mississippifreepress.org/tag/nolan-wells

•   Kelly Brown Douglas, Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God (Orbis, 2015)

•   James H. Cone, The Cross and the Lynching Tree (Orbis, 2011)

•   National Medical Association: nmanet.org 

Nolan Wells made his mother salmon for dinner on July 3. He hugged and kissed her, then said, "Hey, mom, I'm about to go. I love you."

Every Black mother in America knows that goodbye. We rehearse it with our sons before they can drive. We layer it with instructions for traffic stops, pool parties, and boats. And still — still — we lose them.

The gospel doesn’t promise us that our sons will come home. It promises us that God grieves when they don't. It promises us that the truth, however slowly, will out. And it commands us to be the ones who bring it into the light.

So I won’t stop asking. Neither should you.

About the Author

Rev. Dr. Jason Carson Wilson is a United Church of Christ minister, a North American Old Catholic Church priest, a journalist, and a public theologian exploring the intersection of faith, politics, race, LGBTQIA+ liberation, and social justice. Wilson is the founder and executive director of the Bayard Rustin Liberation Initiative and the publisher of Politically Pastoral, where he helps readers make sense of today's political landscape through the lens of progressive Christianity and public theology.

Wilson earned a Master of Divinity from Chicago Theological Seminary and a Doctor of New Theology from The New Theology School, where he developed Chosen Family Systems Theory and Chosen Family Theology. He is currently a Doctor of Ministry candidate at Pacific School of Religion, researching how journalism and public theology can collaborate to create lasting social change.

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Sources

1 CNN, "Nolan Wells' death has sparked scrutiny and speculation. Here's what's happening with the investigation," July 11, 2026 — https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/11/us/nolan-wells-investigation

2 CNN, "Nolan Wells' body was found after a July 4 boat trip. His death has fueled speculation, grief and racial tension," July 9, 2026 — https://www.cnn.com/2026/07/09/us/nolan-xavier-wells-what-we-know

3 NBC News, "Nolan Wells' independent autopsy results in 'undetermined' cause and manner of death," July 22, 2026 — https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/nolan-wells-independent-autopsy-results-undetermined-cause-manner-deat-rcna588578

4 PBS NewsHour, "What to know about the Nolan Wells independent autopsy results," July 22, 2026 — https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/what-to-know-about-the-nolan-wells-independent-autopsy-results

5 Mississippi Free Press, "Officials Seek Public's Help in Nolan Wells Death Investigation as Misinformation Spreads," July 9, 2026 — https://www.mississippifreepress.org/officials-seek-publics-help-in-nolan-wells-death-investigation-as-misinformation-spreads/

6 NPR, "Family of Nolan Wells retains lawyer Ben Crump," July 8, 2026 — https://www.npr.org/2026/07/08/g-s1-132521/nolan-wells-mississippi-ben-crump

7 Clarion Ledger, "No autopsy findings, new clues released after Wells family meets DA," July 15, 2026 — https://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2026/07/15/nolan-wells-family-meets-da-but-gets-no-new-answers-in-horn-island-ms-death/90927649007/

8 Clarion Ledger, "Friends say race isn't factor in Nolan Wells' death," July 13, 2026

9 WJTV, "Nolan Wells case to be turned over to grand jury, Crump says," July 15, 2026 — https://www.wjtv.com/news/state/nolan-wells-case-to-be-turned-over-to-grand-jury-crump-says/

10         New York Post, "Nolan Wells' frantic plea during argument with friends before vanishing revealed by family lawyer," July 10, 2026