ABC News99%
Nolan Wells' cause of death ruled "undetermined" in autopsy commissioned by family 95%
7/23/2026, 12:35:27 AM
BS Summary: This video contains 28 faulty reasoning types, including Ambiguity (Equivocation), Appeal to Emotion, and Availability Heuristic, with Appeal to Authority as the most egregious example at 35.4% saturation with 110 hits. Analysis detected 925 faulty-reasoning hits from 311 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 92.3% and a BS Rank of 95% (1,032 of 20,059 videos). This video is worse (more manipulative) than 94.90% of the video peer group.
out of the mystery surrounding the death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells who died
during a boat trip to an island with friends.
Tonight, what an independent autopsy now says.
Here's Pierre Thomas.
>> Tonight, the agonizing wait for answers for the parents of Nolan Wells after the
autopsy they commissioned found the cause and manner of the 18-year-old's death to be undetermined.
>> There's so many people out in the public asking all of these questions, but the
only question that we have is what happened to our son.
>> Wells vanished during a July 4th boat trip to a remote barrier island and his body was recovered 2 days later.
Tonight, sources telling ABC News Wells was found wearing only swim trunks face down in the water consistent with a drowning.
The state's autopsy is still pending.
The family autopsy found there were no fractures or deep tissue injuries, but described an area of red discoloration on the back of his head.
>> That's a signal to me that the pathologist is not certain that it's due
to trauma. Discoloration can happen from lots of different things and especially in a decomposed body, discoloration could just be a consequence of decomposition.
>> The pathologist said he could not observe the airway and lungs for water
because the Mississippi medical examiner had already removed organs and part of the neck pointing out that is common practice.
>> Even though it tells us significant information, we still have more questions than we have answers at this time.
>> Officials in Mississippi say once the autopsy report is complete with
toxicology results, the DA will present it to a grand jury.
It's not clear when it will be released to the public.
>> David, Pierre Thomas in Washington.
Pierre, thank you.
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.