Story perspectives

Kaepernick Funds Autopsy, $125K Reward; Wells Death Undetermined

7/23/2026

Summary

Crump Announces Autopsy

Attorney Ben Crump announced on July 22 Nolan Wells’ autopsy listed death as undetermined.
Dr. Roger Mitchell performed the July 10 autopsy after the body was found on Horn Island.
The report recorded no fractures, a head mark and a missing throat, preventing injury assessment and keeping foul play possible.
NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick funded the autopsy, prompting Al Sharpton, Tyler Perry and Terrell Owens to pledge a $125,000 reward for tips.

Summary

Ranger Finds Body

A National Park Service ranger found teen Wells’s body after the United Cajun Navy helped search the island.
Attorneys for Wells’s family are working with District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath to turn cellphone data over to a grand jury.
The FBI is reviewing Wells’s Snapchat and Life360 location records for the investigation.
Friends have reported receiving death threats since Wells’s disappearance.

History

Historical Context

Emmett Till’s 1955 lynching in Money, Mississippi—exposed by his mother’s open-casket funeral—sparked nationwide outrage, propelled the NAACP’s civil-rights campaign, and helped prompt the 1957 Civil Rights Act. Decades later, the 2022 Emmett Till Antilynching Act signed by President Biden reaffirmed federal hate-crime protections, a legacy echoed today as the FBI and National Park Service investigate teen Nolan Wells’s death.

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Crump Announces Autopsy

Attorney Ben Crump announced on July 22 Nolan Wells’ autopsy listed death as undetermined.
Dr. Roger Mitchell performed the July 10 autopsy after the body was found on Horn Island.
The report recorded no fractures, a head mark and a missing throat, preventing injury assessment and keeping foul play possible.
NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick funded the autopsy, prompting Al Sharpton, Tyler Perry and Terrell Owens to pledge a $125,000 reward for tips.

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