00:00We are watching attorneys for Nolan Wells' family releasing the results of their independent autopsy
00:04report. 18-year-old Wells died after a July 4th boat trip with friends off the coast of Mississippi.
00:10His body was recovered on July 6th, and authorities say they believe he drowned and that there was no
00:15indication of a crime. But Wells' family says they have a lot of questions. And the family's
00:20attorney now says an independent autopsy found the cause and manner of death to be undetermined
00:25pending more investigation. Let's bring in ABC News chief investigative correspondent Aaron
00:29Katursky and legal contributor Brian Buckmeier for more. So, Aaron, walk us through Ben Crump's
00:36arguments here. Why release these results if they're saying they don't have a result without
00:40more investigation? Because he promised they would. And the family ordered it. And this is an
00:45expectation. They want to keep the case in the public eye. They want to add pressure to Mississippi
00:50authorities to conduct what they've called a fair and thorough investigation. And here, the independent
00:57autopsy does nothing at the moment, seemingly, to be at odds with the initial suspicion that Nolan
01:08Wells drowned off the coast of Mississippi. And as I think Ben Crump's comments reflect,
01:15the circumstances of what led him into the water are still unclear. This independent autopsy
01:22can't determine. And state investigators have not released their findings yet. But it's based on
01:28more than an autopsy. It's interviews with eyewitnesses and video and image analysis to try
01:36and understand what led Nolan Wells to go into the water and what were the circumstances that led to
01:44that. And those questions still have not been answered. Brian, Crump is saying the reason this
01:49independent autopsy couldn't find, couldn't determine the manner and cause of death is because the state
01:54has not handed over enough to their expert in order to be able to do that. How much pressure does
02:00that now put on the state to release their autopsy results and also maybe give the family and this
02:05independent expert more to work with here? How much? I think it might be hard to quantify,
02:11but it definitely increases the amount of pressure. Because I think while Ben Crump and his team are not
02:15providing us with answers in terms of what was the manner of death, what was the cause of death,
02:19it at least gives enough to say, okay, this is what's missing for us to be able to do the
02:23analysis
02:23because simply having a deceased person or a dead body doesn't give you all the answers. But I think
02:28what it does do is he's pinpointing, okay, the throat is a place we need to investigate. Okay,
02:33the manner in which his body was found fully clothed when we see videos of him without a shirt on,
02:38that is another point that we need to investigate to further our understanding of this. Because like any
02:43medical examiner, they're not just taking the individual's body, they're also taking the
02:47circumstances and the information they have surrounding the body to come up with a cause
02:51and manner of death. And Ben Crump, I think, is attempting to put pressure on the state and have
02:56other people kind of have this unsatisfactory feeling of we need to put pressure on the state
03:00so they can get those answers. I think that is part of the motivation here. And yet, Diane and Brian,
03:06the independent autopsy revealed no fractures or deep tissue injuries. And so that does sort of
03:15suggest, even if it's not conclusive, that he wasn't beat up. He may not have been thrown overboard.
03:23I mean, there are things that this can rule out. There were no gunshot wounds. There were no stab wounds.
03:28It doesn't seem like a violent end, at least before he went into the water. So there's still
03:37a lot of questions and a lot of circumstances to understand. But the absence of fractures or
03:42deep tissue injuries does seem like a significant point. But that's not including the throat,
03:46which is what Ben Crump is talking about. Yes, the occipital bone, which we can get Dr.
03:51Sutton here to do a better job of it. But we're talking about the back of the head here,
03:54which you typically talk about, like, did he fall on the boat and hit the back of his head and
03:57lose
03:57consciousness? And that, yes, absolutely rule that out. But I think what Ben Crump is attempting to
04:01do is here's a piece that is important, the throat, that we don't know. And I don't know if that's
04:07going to win him the day, but at least he's trying to apply pressures, I think, the tactic there.
04:10Yeah. And Crump's also not a doctor, but he's trying to explain this in layman's terms. Listen,
04:14you know, you're trying to say someone drowned. You need to be able to see if the body has water
04:18in it.
04:18You need to be able to see that person's throat. They've got this red mark on the back of the
04:21head.
04:21What does that mean? Aaron, how much of the state's autopsy is expected to answer some of these
04:27questions that Crump is now posing? Not clear. You know, it depends on the findings,
04:32I suppose, and how much of it is going to be released. We rarely get detailed autopsy results.
04:38That's something that typically only the families of the decedent end up getting. We'll get a basic
04:44cause and manner of death. But the kinds of details that you get in this independent autopsy,
04:50apparently with the concession of the family are rarely released, um, uh, rarely released
04:58in, in official autopsies, but they're still not finished with it. So we'll see. And we'll also
05:03see what the toxicology says about what may have been in Wells's system at the time. All right.
05:08Erin Katursky, Brian Buckmeyer. Thank you both.
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