A grand jury has found no evidence to justify criminal charges over the death of Nolan Wells, an 18-year-old Black college student who disappeared during a Fourth of July boating trip near Mississippi’s Horn Island and was found dead two days later. The decision has intensified disagreement between prosecutors and Wells’s family, who question whether the investigation adequately addressed injuries noted in his autopsy.

The grand jury said the circumstances and condition of Wells’s body were consistent with drowning, although neither the state nor an independent pathologist could determine the cause of bruising to the back of his head and body. Investigators issued 132 subpoenas, heard from 43 witnesses and reviewed phone data, forensic reports, videos and GPS records; one witness said Wells fell awkwardly from a boat but continued socialising afterwards. The family, represented in part by civil rights lawyer Ben Crump, said the ruling left important questions unanswered, while lawyers for friends who had faced online allegations welcomed the findings.