An independent pathologist found that Nolan Wells' throat was missing when he examined the Mississippi teen's body, a gap in the remains that left him unable to rule out neck injury as a cause of death.

Dr. Roger Mitchell, the former chief medical examiner for Washington, D.C., performed the second autopsy on Wells after the young man's parents had his body flown more than 800 miles from Mississippi to the nation's capital. Mitchell's preliminary findings, presented Wednesday morning at the NAACP National Convention in Chicago, paint a picture of an official post-mortem that left critical questions unanswered, and a family still searching for the truth about how their son died.

Wells, a college football player described as a Mississippi teen, vanished during a Fourth of July trip. His body was later recovered, and the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office conducted the official post-mortem. But his parents, Christine and Elmore Wonsley, have said publicly that the circumstances around their son's death don't "add up." They sought the independent autopsy to get answers the state process had not provided.

Mitchell's report: no throat, no way to rule out neck injury

The independent autopsy's central finding is straightforward and disturbing. When Mitchell examined Wells' body, the anterior neck structures, the throat, were not there. Mitchell wrote in his report that he assumed the original pathologist had retained them for further evaluation, a practice he described as routine in forensic pathology.

"It is assumed that the initial pathologist retained these structures for additional evaluation. The retention of the anterior neck structures during an initial autopsy is a common forensic pathology practice."

Common or not, the absence of those structures meant Mitchell could not conduct a complete examination. He performed a posterior neck dissection, examining the back of the neck, but without the front structures to review, the autopsy was, in his own word, "incomplete."

The consequence of that gap was direct and unambiguous. Mitchell stated in his report that he could not rule out injury to the neck as a contributor or cause of death. He ruled both the cause and manner of death "undetermined pending investigation." Even the date of death was listed as unknown.

A 12-by-8-inch mark on the back of the skull raises more questions

Beyond the missing throat, Mitchell's report documented another finding that warrants scrutiny. He identified a "focal area of red discoloration in the soft tissue in the back of the head," measuring 12 by 8 inches, in the lower part of the skull.

What that discoloration means remains unclear. Wells' body had suffered significant decomposition by the time the independent autopsy was performed, and Mitchell noted that the deterioration made it impossible to determine whether bruising had been present on the skin. Decomposition obscures the very evidence that could answer the family's questions, a fact that makes the thoroughness of the initial examination all the more important.

Jackson County coroner Bruce Lynd Jr. previously told the New York Post that results from the authorities' autopsy could take weeks while toxicology tests are carried out. Those results have not yet been made public.

Ben Crump and Colin Kaepernick brought the case to a national stage

Attorney Ben Crump, a prominent civil rights lawyer, presented the preliminary findings at the NAACP convention in Chicago. Wells' parents sat in the audience as Crump laid out what the independent examination had found, and what it could not find because of the missing tissue.

Crump had previously revealed that former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick helped cover the costs of flying Wells' body to Washington for the second autopsy. The family bore the burden of seeking answers that the state's own process had not yet delivered, and they needed outside help to do it.

The case underscores a recurring tension in high-profile death investigations: families who distrust official findings often face steep financial and logistical barriers to obtaining independent review. When that review then reveals that key anatomical structures were absent from the body, the distrust only deepens. Cases involving violent or unexplained deaths routinely expose gaps between what officials say happened and what the physical evidence can actually prove.

Incomplete autopsies are not unique to this case, and that's the problem

Mitchell's criticism of the initial autopsy is measured but pointed. He did not accuse the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office of wrongdoing. He stated a procedural fact: a posterior neck dissection performed without review of the anterior neck structures is incomplete. And an incomplete examination cannot produce a definitive finding.

The broader concern is systemic. When official autopsies leave key questions open, whether through retained tissue, missing documentation, or procedural shortcuts, the public is left to wonder whether the process served the truth or merely checked a box. A separate case involving South Carolina's firing squad execution of Mikal Mahdi drew similar scrutiny after a pathologist found the official autopsy lacked X-rays, contained only one photo of the body, and did not examine clothing, raising questions about whether the state had conducted a thorough enough review of its own actions.

In the Wells case, the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office has not publicly confirmed whether it retained the anterior neck structures or explained why those structures were absent when the body reached Mitchell in Washington. That silence leaves a hole in the record that mirrors the hole in the body.

The family wanted answers. They flew their son's remains across the country to get them. What they got instead was a report confirming that the most critical evidence, the tissue that could prove or disprove neck injury, was already gone before the independent examiner ever picked up a scalpel.

Toxicology results from the official autopsy remain pending. The independent autopsy's ruling stands at "undetermined." And the Wonsley family is still waiting for someone to explain what happened to their son, and to his throat.

When a grieving family has to raise money and ship a body 800 miles just to learn that the state's own examination was incomplete, the system has already failed them, no matter what the toxicology report eventually says.