Exposed Investigates: The Nolan Wells Case

0:19 Hey, everyone, Welcome back to Exposed Scandalous Files of the Elite. I am your host, Jim Chapman, and today I am investigating what we know as it relates to the case that is absolutely everywhere right now, and that is the case of Nolan Wells. Now, for those of you who may not be familiar with this case, Nolan Xavier Wells was an eighteen year old from Ocean Springs, Mississippi. He was a recent graduate of Ocean Springs High School and he was a college freshman and also a wide receiver at Southwest Mississippi Community College. He was very well respected, very popular, very well put together young man in the prime of his life.

1:07 Now. On July fourth of twenty twenty six, he joined some friends on a boat trip to what is known as Horn Island. This is a popular, undeveloped barrier island. It's about eight to ten miles off the coast of Mississippi. He was last seen around three PM near the northwestern tip of that island, wearing blue swim trunks. Later that afternoon, his friends returned to the mainland without Nolan Wells and his mother, Christine Wansley. She reports him missing later that night, after a friend called around eleven PM. This would launch a multi agency search involving the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, the US Coast Guard, National Park Service, and volunteers like the Cajun Navy, and on the morning of July, a park ranger would discover a body matching Wells description, face down in the water near a shoreline at the island's northwestern tip. It was positively identified through his dental records the following day. Now, what has occurred since, well a frenzy to get answers, and in the midst of all of this, in my opinion, the memory of this young man is getting tarnished along the way that again, in my opinion, has been launched by people who, despite what they are saying to me, it does not appear as though they have the family's best interest at heart. And

2:40 that's just my thoughts on the outside. So today what you're gonna hear is a complete other side of this, based completely off the witnesses that were there that day, not conjecture, not hyperbole, just the facts as presented by those who are in the center of this case, a case that they never thought they would find themselves in, and It's important to say that this is the direct account of Nolan's best friend and his exact recollection of these events. So let's get into it, and we're going to start off on the day of July fourth, twenty twenty six, and Nolan Wells with a group of twenty to thirty friends. They were all excited to bring in America's two hundred and fiftieth birthday by heading out to a popular spot called Horn Island. Now, this trip had been planned for weeks and everyone was excited. They had been there before, as a matter of fact, July fourth of the previous year, all of them, including Nolan Wells.

3:49 They were a very tight. Knit group, and it consisted of both white kids and black kids. And I mentioned this because there are so many inaccurate, frustrating reports going around right now that Nolan was the only black kid among this group of friends. That is what we call in the industry a lie. It's not true. There were mixed race kids and there were other black kids in that friend group, this large friend group, not a small friend group. Now amongst this large group of friends was his best friend, who is in fact white, and they head out to this island.

4:31 So that day, three boats in these twenty plus peeps, they all had that way, all great friends. And this was after they all met up at what is known as Fort Wyatt boat launch. They all leave that boat, they arrive at the island at the very same time. And when they get there, it is freaking packed. We're talking three thousand plus people on this island, completely circling in and y'all. This to to miles is how big this island is. And it was so packed. The boats alone that were out there, they were parked three deep, if you will, completely circling this island. And the area of the island where Nolan was with this massive group of friends, there was approximately one thousand people in that area.

5:21 And that's important because when you. Hear reports from certain individuals, they allude to or they caused people to believe Nolan Wells was on this deserted island with three or four white dudes, and that is a total lie because it just ain't true. Thousand people just on his side of the island. So the boys get there in it's party city, right. All of these kids, I am sure, are loving it. You're having some beers, You're seeing pretty ladies and bikinis. You're eighteen years old. What could be better? You got great music, you're having a great time on the water, which incidentally great day for both. Water was relatively flat and calm. On the way in, there was plenty of sunshine. And when they get there around ten thirty am, the party's already hopping.

6:10 Thousands of people. And this is a massive island, y'all. I keep pressing that, but keep that in mind. This is not a little sandbar. That's a football field wide. So they tie up the boats and some people stay on the boats, and most people jump right in the water, which it's about waste deep to chest deep depending on where you're standing in that water. There are some steep drop offs as you walk along that island, and. These kids they do what kids do. The crowd gets larger. Other friends would arrive in different boats, and so everyone is kind of traveling throughout the water.

6:52 Picture of that boats everywhere, kids waste deep water to chest deep water, walking from boat to boat. Hey man, I ain't seen you since high school. Those sorts of things, talking to everybody. And again, these are people from this area, a lot of them from the Ocean Springs area, and they knew these islands. They didn't just party there. They fished there during the weekend, some of them even during the week Everyone's drinking, having a good time, including Nolan. According to reports, they're taking selfies, they're smiling from ear to ear, nobody pissed, nobody having a bad time. So let's fast forward to about three o'clock or so that day and the boat Nolan was in, out of the three associated with their friend group, starts taking on water. Now, to explain this, what basically occurred is when you have these parties, or if a bunch of people are getting in and out of your boat, Okay, you're going to take on water into that boat as people step in and out, and as people are stepping in, water's coming in with them. And the more people you have in the boat, the more the boat sinks in to the water. Right, that water would kind of splash into the bilge area of that boat, where the motor is located and the transom and all those sorts of things. The bilge area is where the batteries are located. And this is completely normal with any boat that you got to kind of watch that, and that's why they make bilge pumps because it pumps the water out of the bilge. It just

8:24 flushes it out of there. So one of these kids goes back there during this time and he notices, huh, there's a lot of water back here. And he also notices that this water is getting really close to the batteries, which you definitely do not want. That's kind of an emergency that we need to get this water out of here. The boat is sinking. So they also tried to trim the boat motor down, which basically means put the boat motor into the water and it wouldn't trim down. So they've got a problem. Now their motor won't trim down, and it's panic city. These kids are like, holy crap, this boat is actually sinking. So at this point, one of the friends looks over at Nolan and he's got a girl in his arms and her name is Katie, beautiful girl, his age, and they had just met from what I understand that day, and he tells Nolan, hey, we got to go, bro, the boat's about to sink.

9:22 And Nolan, being like any other eighteen year old in the world who has a beautiful girl that he just met, that he's trying to talk to. He's like, y'all, go ahead, I'm gonna stay on the island. I'll catch a ride back with somebody else. Something important to mention here. All these kids knew each other. Obviously, that thirty person friend group were really good friends. But there were people all over that island they knew and they were talking to, and so it is common for these guys and gals to get rides back with other boats. And I don't blame Nolan. He's got a beautiful girl there he's trying to talk. To y'all go ahead, I'm gonna stay behind and see what's up his friends. Meanwhile, they were kind of in real trouble there with this boat. So they do some working on the boat. This takes some time. Nobody's concentrating at this point on Noling. He's already decided he getting back on the boat. So they're focusing on keeping this boat from sinking. They call some friends of theirs who had other boats, and they're like, hey, can you tow us kind of out a little bit away from all this frenzy of people, And they had a plan. Their plan was we're going to pull the plug out of the boat and we're going to like floor this thing, not floor it, but you know, full throttle because you have a boat, we're going to go full throttle. We're going to do what is known and boating is planing out and that water is going to run out of that plug. And at that point you stop the boat

10:54 and then you jump in the water and you put the plug back in and your gut. How do I know this so? Well, many years ago, as a matter of fact, I might have. Been eighteen at that time. Me and my best friend at that time, we're going fishing. And what is none as Lake Verrett in South Louisiana, and we go out there and we go fishing. Now, one thing about Lake Verrette is it's full of gators. I mean full of gators, but it's got great fishing. So we're out there, we're fishing in Lake Verrett. I'm not kidding you when I say every two feet there was an alligator sunning on the banks of this massive Lake Verrette. But we're South Louisiana boys, right, Alligators don't bother us as long as they're not chewing on us.

11:39 And so we're fishing. We're having a great time. Well, both of us get a bite at the same time. And we're fishing in what's none as all well boats. This is like a. Fifteen foot all welled aluminum boat. My friend is on the back of the boat. I'm on the front, and I make a big mistake, and that is I went to the back of the boat to try to catch my should roll it in. My friend was already back there, and the whole back of the boat sunk. The whole motor almost went underwater. Now my friend, who was smarter than me then and smarter than me now, knew exactly what to do. And the first thing he says to me is get to the front of the boat now. And to explain to you, we were both big guys at that time. My friend was actually a strong safety for LSU. He was playing for LSU at that time. My best friend and I was about two hundred and twenty pounds at that time, built like a brick shit house, and so we were a lot of weight back there. When you have us and a boat motor. So I run to the front of the boat. He jumps out of the boat with the ongerators in the water, pulls the plug, jumps back in and we full throttle and planed out and all that water went out of that plug. We did the exact same thing they did. Now, the time that had passed between the time that they noticed the boat was sinking and they got to a point where they could plan out and get that water after they took off was about an hour and a half. They actually left

13:11 at four thirty from that island, and that's important because the last time that they saw Nolan was around three o'clock. And these are from all reports of these kids of this friend group. All of them say three o'clock. There's no conflicting story there. So they leave, and again I need to say, Nolan elected to remain on the island, and that island at the time still not deserted. When they left, there was as many people there as when they got there. And it's at this point I want to address something else that has been totally misrepresented by the people who apparently have never been boating before and partied on a sand bar. And when you're doing this, you don't take your cell phone.

14:00 Off the boat. Yes, it's true cell phones or waterproof, but I don't know many people that want to test that theory. Number one, especially in salt water. But I'll take it even a step further. If you drop your phone ten miles off shore into the ocean where the water you're standing in is waist deep to chest deep, depending on where you're standing, it's gone bye by a cell phone. And everybody who boats with any regularity, and Nolan would be included in that, knows that. The fact is, at the point that boat was about to sink, no one, including Nolan, was thinking about Nolan's cell phone. So that's why the phone was still on the boat. Now, no one stays behind his friends at the time they get that idea to get another boat to tow them away. Of course they pull the plug and they head back to mainland. So the day goes into night and no One's bestie at some point he's like, man, no one never came by to get his cell phone or his keys, which he didn't take his keys with him booting, because again, you're not gonna risk losing your keys out there. What if you drop your keys in the water.

15:20 These things are. Thought of by people that grew up in boats. They know those things. You don't need your keys out there. Your car's not out there. You're in a boat. It makes complete sense, but of course some of the media and some of the people involved in this case bring that up as if something nefarious is going on with that. It is not as completely normal for people that actually boat. But around eleven o'clock PM, his best he gets really concerned. He tells another friend. He says, I'm gonna call Nolan's mom and see if she knows what's up. Now, he didn't have Nolan's mom's cell phone number. He actually called someone else to get that. He then calls Nolan's mother, tells her, hey, we don't know where Nolan's at. If you heard from him his mother. I don't know exactly how she responded back, but I'm assuming she said no, I didn't realize he was missing. And so they have that conversation. He hangs up, and then the second thing he did his best he was he called the coastguard. And it's important to note at this point he is not thinking Nolan is dead. He's more along the lines of thinking that maybe whatever group that he decided to boat back with, maybe they had a breakdown on the boat that happens all the time, y'all all the time, or maybe he got stuck out there. Somehow, maybe he could find someone to bring him back. Whatever it was, he wanted to get to the bottom of it.

16:46 His best friend, the one that they were originally accusing of having something to do with his death, same one that called Nolan's mother. Let me tell you something, if you had something to do with somebody's death, the last thing you're going to do is call the person's mother. That's absolutely ridiculous. So his best he. Calls the coastguard, and in the meantime between all of this, Nolan's mother she reports him missing to authorities. This is around eleven forty nine PM on July fourth, so as you would expect, the morning of July fifth rolls around. It'd be real hard to search out there at night. Early in the morning, all hands are on.

17:27 Deck, including his bestie and his group of friends that went out there the night before. They all head out to the island to search. Nolan's father also went out by boat early that morning with Nolan's football coach to search themselves. Multiple other agencies and private vessels were also on the scene or arriving. You're talking the National Park Service, Jackson County Vessels, Biloxi Fire Civil Air Patrol planes, Jackson County helicopters, and later in the day, the family, and this is important to mention, the family of Nolan Wells contacts the United Cajun Navy, which is based out of where I am recording this episode right now, to help with the search effort. So everyone was in on finding this young man. Also, all the friends who were with Nolan, they get interviewed during this time, and Nolan's mother would post a public appeal for any information on what happened to her son. Now, there's something I intentionally skipped over that I'm going to tell you about right now. I mentioned earlier that Nolan's keys and cell phone were still with his friend group. Well around eleven oh seven pm on July fourth, after Nolan's family checked the locations for Nolan, his mother apparently had Life three sixty or someone in his family did. They were able to track the location

18:57 of the phone and it showed that phone back on land. Now, the mother of Nolan's close friend, Javon, who was also friends with Nolan's best friend. He the mother of Javon, as well as like eight kids, they show up to go pick up the phone. At these friends' house. But what strange is they basically bust in the door. They didn't even knock, scare the shit out of the kids, to be quite honest, and they demanded this phone, which these kids got no problem with that. They hand over the phone. There's some reports out there that say Nolan's father in the meantime, was trying to get Nolan's keys, and according to reports, he had said, and I don't have any verification on this, but according to reports from others, he had said that they kind of gave him some shit about the keys. They didn't give him any shit about the keys. They couldn't find the keys initially, they didn't know where Nolan had left them in the house.

20:01 Someone all of a. Sudden figures out, Oh, they're on top of the Xbox, the gaming system. They give him the keys and he leaves. They had no reason to keep his vehicle or keep his cell phone, and they give all that over. But it has been twisted to where it's contributed to this narrative that we're going to get into now. Once the phone was recovered, the family said they went through it and they found no photos or no saved snaps from July fourth, on his Snapchat accounts, which they say was unusual for him. He typically documented these social gatherings like kids do. They said they opened it before the normal twenty four hour expiration window for snaps, and they kind of view this as concerning, and I get that from a family standpoint, but they automatically jumped to, oh, someone's deleted all of his snaps. However, all these fronts and his friend group totally deny this, and they all state, we didn't even know Nolan's password for his phone to get into it. And how many people out there would know your friend's passwords to their phone. I got hundreds of friends. I don't know none of their password, and even if they did, they said, we don't have any reason to do that, and I believe them. The rest assured nothing is really deleted on a cell phone that the police can't extract later on. So don't be shocked,

21:32 folks when they're able to extract cell phone information and figure out there's nothing out of pocket here. So let's go to Sunday, July sixth, around eight forty five am, a Jackson County sheriff named John Ledbetter. He confirmed authorities have received a call reporting a body had been found, and it's been reported that a US Park Service ranger discovered the body of Nolan Wells on the north ward western tip of Horn Island in the water along the shoreline in the same general area where Nolan was last reported seen on July fourth. And it was also mere strong rip.

22:13 Currents on that island, and now the body was faced down. Nolan was wearing only swim trunks, blue swim trunks, which were consistent with what he was last seen and photographed wearing earlier on July fourth. And there was a conflicting report. The United Cajun Navy, the head of that actually originally said he was fully clothed. Now he was up in a helicopter hundreds of feet up right, so he can only see so much. But he misstated and said he was fully clothed. He was not, and he recanted that later. The second he did that, all of a sudden people were saying the United Cajun Navy. Had something to do with it. Insanity. We'll get into that later.

22:56 But Nolan's family, they get asked to come out to the boat lawn. They were met by the sheriff and the corner This is just after. Eleven am that day. The body then. Gets transported to the corner's office in Pasagoula. This is just before one. Pm that day, and it wasn't long later that the family confirmed on social media the body found was Knowing. Now early the next day the identification was confirmed via dental records by the corner. So early official statements at that time indicated no apparent signs of foul play at the scene, and that drowning was suspected, which unfortunately is not rare in that area. And before I get into that, let me tell you they're basically looking at this body.

23:44 They didn't see any gunshot wounds, they didn't see any obvious signs of trauma, they didn't see any stab wounds, things like that. But an autopsy, an in depth autopsy, would take place. Now in the meantime, something about that island in particular, there are at least a couple of drownings in this area every single year due to the rip currents that exist exactly and especially in that spot where Nolan Wells was found. Now, at this point, the family they wanted to do the exact thing I would have wanted to do. They want to get an independent autopsy, which I totally get it.

24:26 This is your baby. You want to make sure not only that someone didn't totally screw up, but that nothing nefarious is going on or nothing got missed. And Con Kaepernick, the former. Quarterback for the forty nine ers, he says, hey, he stepped up and said hey, I'll pay for it. And I think that's pretty awesome of him, now, y'all. By this time, this story was everywhere, and I was following along, and I was absolutely elated that they had found this young man, but there where he saddened that he was not alive. I was happy that at least the family, at a minimum, would have a body, because it's not guaranteed you're ever gonna find that body.

25:13 And then I. Learned the family had gotten a lawyer, and this lawyer is a well known civil rights attorney by the name of Ben Crump, And that kind of confused me a lot, because Ben Crump, in my opinion, Jim Chapman's opinion, is a divider. He only shows up when opposite races of people are involved. And first, I don't like division among races. I don't see black and white, I don't see color, and I know there's people out there that would say all white people say I really don't, really don't. Maybe it's the fact that I played football my entire life. Maybe that's what it is. But I played with black people white people. I remember me any birthday parties with my black friends that I went to growing up, and let me tell you, they were a lot funner than some of my white friends' parties, to be honest with you.

26:11 They know how to throw a birthday party. And I had a ton of friends and still have a ton of friends that are not white. And I don't look at him as my black friends. I look at them as my friends. So I can't stand when you try to divide things among race. And yes there are situations where race plays apart, but this early on, just because he was out there with some white people, because there were other black kids as well, doesn't mean it was a white black thing. Now second, Nowhere in this case, in my view, did race play apart. In my view, it was the total opposite of that. It seems to me that none of these kids, including Nolan, took race into account when choosing friends because he had a lot of white friends. So at this point everything gets twisted, in my view, so much so that these kids, his friends, they had to delete their social media.

27:11 Do to death threats. People are threatening to kill. Them and there's no evidence they had anything to do with this. Everything suddenly became about race, and it doesn't surprise me. It's right when Ben Crump got involved. Now here's some things that Ben Crump had said during this investigation. I'm quoting him on the need for an independent investigation and refusing to accept a quick no foul play conclusion. Quote. It's a lived experience for many Black Americans that oftentime, when our children are killed in highly questionable situations, there is a notion that there was nothing wrong, no foul play, just sweeping under the rug. We refuse to let them sweeping under the rug. We refuse to let no one's death be in vain. We're gonna make sure we get to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, because Nolan Wells deserves it. Well, you know what, get to the truth. I think we're to the truth as it relates to these kids, as it relates to conflicting accounts about why Nolan stayed.

28:19 Behind with this girl. Quote. They're not saying the same thing. One of them is telling the truth, one of them is not. We have to get to the bottom of this. Now. He's referring to the friend group, saying Nolan chose to stay behind. And the girl's version of this, which allegedly was that she said Nolan told her he was going back to the boot. So let's play the how to twist the truth game when you are an attorney. That girl who Nolan wanted to stay behind with her name was Katie, and her sister spoke with reporters and here's what she said. Quote according to Gracie, that's her sister.

29:02 Katie thought, Wells would have boded back to the mainland with his friends, and I stressed the word thought, not new thought. Her sister then went on to say, quote, Katie had a conversation and assumed that Nolan was getting ready to get on the boat. He came out on you hear that word in the quote, assumed, And she went on to say, quote, Katie assumed the friends telling him to get on the boat would not have left him. There's that word again, assumed. Nowhere in that statement did you hear what Crump would like you to believe, which is that Katie saw him get on the boat. What he possibly said, and I'm talking about Nolan here, and of course nobody knows, but what he possibly said to her was I'm going to go see if my friends left yet, and they had already left and he didn't know that. Or maybe he said I'm going to get on the boat and didn't realize they had already left.

30:06 Maybe he said that to her, but the fact is they had already left. Say some other things that Crump said on the phones being left behind, He said, quote, what teenager wouldn't take their phone? It's not adding up at all. Well, first of all, he did take his phone. We've already covered that. It was on the boat, in the console of the boat. And I've already explained to you why he didn't take his phone back when they left. Number one, nobody was thinking about a phone. Number two. This is Crump clearly telling you he's not someone who goes on boats much and jumps in the water talking about something he knows nothing about. This is so common, y'all. He also spoke about the gap between when the friends last saw Nolan at three o'clock, when they told him, Hey, we're having some problems with the boat possibly sinking. You need to get on the boat. And when the boat left at four point thirty pter that hour and a half, where was Nolan for that hour? He said, Well, he was with a girl named Katie for some time of that the estimated time she last saw him.

31:11 We don't know. It hasn't come out, so I don't know. Did she last see him at four point thirty five and these kids were not even on the island. Did he leave her at three forty five? And somewhere between that time and the time he was trying to get back to his boat, something happened. We don't know as of this time. Good question, though I don't fault him for asking that. On the timing of the body being found July sixth rather than July fifth, he said, quote, his body should have been there on July fifth. Why would it not appear until July sixth? If he stayed behind on the island. There were boats, there, there were people. It's just not adding up. Now, here's the one that got the problem with the most There's so many possibilities on that, obviously, but the most likely is and here's the fact.

32:00 When you drown, you. Sink because your lungs fill up with water. Now most times, most times it takes three to five days after for you to surface. In No One's case, it was just two days. So there's your answer being crumped again, casting some sort of bullshit without knowing what he's talking about. On the independent autopsy, and this was the private autopsy, Krump reported the private optopsy found the cause and manner of death undetermined pending investigation, and leted no fractures or deep tissue injuries, described a red discoloration and soft tissue at the back of the head as inconclusive, which y'all means it could have been caused by anything. And the report also listed multiple limitations, which we'll get into in just a second. But he was quoted after this as saying, quote, this is only another part of the puzzle, and even though it tells us significant information, we still have more questions than we have answers as of this time. So here's the side fact, y'all. You may forever have more questions than you have answers. That's just typically how these types of cases go when there's no foul play. And so now you have had two autopsies neither one showing any sort of foul play as playing a part inconclusive

33:31 really means there's no obvious signs that there was foul play. Just means we can't conclude somebody killed this guy. We don't know exactly what happened. So I want to recount something quickly before we move on, and that is the truth and the lies in this case. It's important nobody has been listening to the facts here. They're running off of these headlines from these people that have no idea what they're talking about on TikTok. So. The lie is Nolan was the only black kid on Horner Island, and we've already covered that not only were there hundreds of black kids on Horn Island on that July fourth, Nolan wasn't even the only black kid in the friend group. Another lie nolan friends did not tell anyone he was missing. The truth was Nolan's friends actually are the ones who reported Nolan missing to the Coastguard and the ones who called his own mother to tell her.

34:29 Another lie that Nolan's friends went into hiding after his disappearance and deleted all their social media. Yep, they deleted all their social media. As we covered because it got death threats from everybody and they didn't want to see it, and they didn't go into hiding after his disappearance. As a matter of fact, the next day they actually went to Horne Island to look for Nolan themselves. In side note here, the parents of these the main people focused on in these friend groups. The parents reached out to the mother of Nolan, reach out to us, We'd love to talk to you whenever you feel like you're ready to talk. And when Nolan's. Mother was asked about this, initially she said, no, one's tried to contact me. And then the next day she came out and she said, oh my bad. Basically I'm paraphrasing here, but some three or four of these mothers did reach out and shout out for her for doing that.

35:24 And I don't fault her for making the mistake. You've got a lot on your mind, and the last thing is people trying to contact you, so I don't fault her for that. But they did, three or four of them, and she reported that did try to contact her. So nobody's hiding the lie Nolan was isolated during the disappearance with three or four white kids. The truth he was among thirty people, three separate boats, black kids, white kids, mixed race, all among these friends. It wasn't just one black guy with three people. Now. One other point of contention here was during the end of Pennant second autopsy of Nolan Wells, the forensic pathologists did not receive the internal anterior neck structures, including the throat, larynix, trichea, hyoid bone, and thyroid cartilage. And many people have suggested this right here, this is proof of a cover up, and so I'm here to tell you that no, it ain't.

36:28 But full disclosure. Here, I'm not a pathologist, so I'm going to defer to the expert here who does a great job of explaining it. I'm doctor JD. Melinik. I'm a board certified forensic pathologist, and I just watched the Nolan Wells press conference and I wanted to share some context for everyone. Being able to definitively state the cause of death after a body has not been found for several days and has been subsequently autopsy twice with signs of decomposition is incredibly, incredibly unlikely. Drowning is what's called a diagnosis of exclusion, which means that when you've got a fresh body, you want to be able to look the body and see if there's any other causes of death for that body that is found in water that exclude the death being exclusively a drowning. So, for example, if someone is shot and then thrown in the water, you'll have that gunshot and they'll be bleeding, and the gunshot will be the cause of death, and the throne in the water is not the cause of death.

37:34 It's not even on the death certificate. If a person is strangled and they die from strangulation and then their dead body is thrown in the water, their body will take on water, but the cause of death is going to be strangulation, not drowning. Also for any kind of traumatic injuries. Now we've got to talk about natural death for a second. If someone has a heart attack while they are swimming, and because they're having the heart attack as they are exercising in the water and they take on water and they drown, the cause of death is actually drowning, and the heart attack is listed on the death certificate under other significant conditions contributing to death. So even though the heart attack might have killed them on dry land, it might not have most certainly they wouldn't have drowned on dry land, so we defer to the hostile environment, which is the water, to call it a drowning. Now, identifying natural disease and identifying trauma is relatively easy in a fresh body. It can be very difficult in a decomposed body. His body was found two days after he disappeared, and this second autopsy, done by doctor Roger Mitchell, wasn't until four days later, so we're dealing with quite a bit of decomposition, even if the body was refrigerated during that time. And then we have this other issue of the fact that not all the results are back. The toxicology would have been done on the fluids from the body from the first autopsy. From the second autop you're going to have a lot higher alcohol levels from the decomposition caused by bacteria, not caused by drinking. So again

39:08 it's the fluid and blood from the first autopsy that really matter and the other thing you have to consider. And there's one other important piece of information from that press conference, which is that the neck block, the portion of the neck from the front end, was missing, so doctor Mitchell did not have a chance to examine that part of Nolan Wells's anatomy. Why is that important Because if somebody is strangled, especially manual strangulation, the injuries are going to be to the front of the neck. There may be some redness at the back of the neck as well if injury comes from behind, but generally this part of the neck doesn't have the major blood vessels and the airway. It's the front of the neck that does.

39:49 So compression or damage to the front of the airway that's going to be found to the neck block that is still sitting at the medical examiner's office that was not released with the body. So you may ask, is this come practice for pathologists to keep a portion of the anatomy with them at the medical examiner's office and not release it to the family, And the answer is yes. We will sometimes retain important specimens that have pathology in a jar under formaldehyde at the medical examiner's office for further examination or as evidence. And the absence of that net block is really important because we still don't have information from the first autopsy that has not been released yet, so we don't know if it was kept out of an abundance of caution, meaning that it didn't have any findings and it was negative, or it was kept because it has findings because there's a broken hyoid bone, or because there's hemorrhage in the strat muscles. Until we get that first autopsy report, we don't know why it's been retained, So why should anybody do a second autopsy? A second autopsy is often done in cases where there is a high profile case such as this, or there is concerned with the family for foul play and they're just not getting answers from the Medical Examiner's office because the Medical Examiner's office is still doing their investigation and is keeping things under wraps because if there is foul play, they have the evidence, They have the physical evidence that might be able to trap the killer, and they don't want to release that to the public. Even if there is

41:19 no evidence of foul play. Just the lack of evidence is evidence and is important information that might affect how people are interrogated, whether they're going to tell the truth or not the truth about what happened to him. You have to understand that the medical examiner's autopsy is legally mandated and it is ultimately the most independent autopsy because it's not beholden to the family, it's not behold into the prosecutor, to the police, to anybody else. It's an independent agency. So that is an independent autopsy, but it takes time, and it takes time until we get all the information back, including the toxicology report. And to answer the question, if somebody's intoxicated and they drown as a result of their intoxication, meaning that they're just too intoxicated to be able to swim adequately, the cause of death would still be a drowning, but the intoxication would be considered a significant contributing condition. But because of what I said about alcohol forming from bacteria after death, if the body is decomposed, you have to subtract some of that alcohol because it may have been caused by bacteria and may not have been a sign of intoxication. And you can have up to a point two oh grand percent, So point oh eight is above the legal limit in most states for driving, but you can get up to a point two oh in a massively decomposed body. So it really throws you off when you have decomposition and alcohol.

42:47 To try to figure out whether there was alcohol on board or whether all of it's just been made by bacteria. So I hope this answers some questions about what I saw in the press conference, what other people saw as well. I will go through the autopsy or at least the report that's been released with a fine tooth comb, but this is just my first impressions based on watching the press report. As always, if you have any questions, put them in the comments. I'll see if I can answer them. And we really need to wait for the medical examiner's report to find out what really was found at the autopsy when the body was fresh. I think that's going to clarify a lot of things. So there you have it to all of you spewing the bullshit online. This is common practice everywhere, whether it's Nolan Wells or Elvis Presley, Tell the truth. Quit contributing to this racism narrative that does not exist here. These were good kids, all of them, the black kids, the white kids, and this is an absolute tragedy. I feel horrible that Nolan Wells died tried, and I feel horrible for his family, and nobody is helping by saying this was a black white thing. These were good kids who didn't see color all of them, including Nolan Wells. So where does this case stand right now as of this recording? Well, the FBI has been assisting with the examination of the

44:20 digital evidence, including that cell phone that they claim things were intentionally deleted off of some people. They're going to find out just my gut opinion here or my gut thought. They're going to find out nothing nefarious there, But we'll wait on that. Over sixty witnesses have reportedly been interviewed. The family continues to press for a transparent investigation, and I love that, and I get that, and I would also press for that. A reward, which was initially one hundred thousand dollars plus, has been increased for information and it remains in place, and if someone is arrested or viction of foul play is determined, then that award is gonna get paid out. And look, as far as Nolan Well's family, I totally get it. His mother seems like a very put together, awesome lady, and she wants answers, and I'm with her. I want answers for her, and I pray that she gets those answers. I personally don't see any evidence and if everyone is being honest neither does anyone else that.

45:33 Race played any part in. The death of this young man. Just don't see it. But something happened to him. Could he have been killed, absolutely, but it wasn't that friend group that did it. And all the evidence right now is not showing that in my opinion, and of course I have no direct knowledge. This is just knowing where they were at and knowing the circumstances of that. My opinion, I think it's extremely possible that this kid got caught in a rip current. And when you get caught in rip currents and you maybe have been drinking a little bit, but even if you hadn't, if you get swept out, you start panicking and at some point you just get tired and you drown.

46:21 Everything that I'm seeing points to that. But I hope this and pray that this family gets answers. And if you have something that you know about this case, report it, Google it online. You can get all the information. I'm sure they've got tons of tip lines out there. Report it and there you have it. Any updates, I'll keep you posted quickly. The Living in Parish magazine, which is the magazine from the area I am in, they're having a little contest, and I want to thank everyone out there who listens to the show that has voted for me thus far. For this contest, I'm actually nominated for Best Content Creator. I'm going to put the line in the description of this podcast and if you take a minute and vote for me, if you've already veted, that's okay from what I'm being told.

47:08 You can vote once a day, every day. If you want to, you can do that. It costs nothing. It takes about five minutes. All you got to do is scroll to the bottom of the link and it's going to say Best Content Creator and you just collick Jim Chapman if you like what I'm doing, and I sure would appreciate that. Check out the Patreon for commercial, free early releases, bonus episodes and more. Patreon dot com slash exposed podcast files. And lastly, if you want to save thirty percent off of Cozy Earth bed Sheets comforters. They have sleep sets like pajamas, they have tiles. Everything they make is bamboo.

47:48 It is the softest, coolest fabric you've ever felt in your life. Go to cozyearth dot com and are exposed to check out and get thirty percent off just for my listeners and until next time for exposed scandalous files of the elite, I'm your host, Jim Chapman, much love,