Civil rights attorney Ben Crump held a press conference on Wednesday at NAACP headquarters in Chicago, Illinois to release the results of Nolan Wells’ independent autopsy.
Nolan was reported missing after traveling by boat to celebrate the 4th of July with friends on Horn Island.
His body was found face down in shallow water near the shoreline off the Mississippi coast on July 6.
A preliminary autopsy in Mississippi showed the 18-year-old college football player drowned.
Officials announced there were no signs of foul play or trauma to Nolan’s body.
However, Crump claims Nolan suffered an injury to the back of his skull and parts of his throat were missing.
The independent autopsy was conducted by the former chief medical examiner for Washington, DC, Dr. Roger Mitchell.
Dr. Mitchell said the manner and cause of death were “undetermined pending investigation,” and the date of death was also unknown.
Dr. Mitchell, who is president of the National Medical Association, said his examination of the corpse was limited because his brain, lungs, throat and anterior neck structures were removed during the first autopsy in Mississippi.
“It is assumed that the initial pathologist retained these structures for additional evaluation,” Mitchell wrote in his autopsy report.
Mitchell said it’s standard for medical examiners to remove and retain body parts to look for hidden injuries.
“The retention of the anterior neck structures during an initial autopsy is a common forensic pathology practice,” he wrote. “Nevertheless, a posterior neck dissection performed without review of the anterior neck structures, is incomplete. Therefore, this pathologist cannot rule out injury to the neck as a contributor or cause of death.”
Mitchell also found a red, discolored area at the base of Nolan’s skull measuring 12-by-8 inches. The report said significant decomposition made it impossible to know if there was bruising on the skin.
Tyler Perry and former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick flew Nolan’s body to Washington, DC for an independent autopsy after Crump announced that the circumstances surrounding Nolan’s death didn’t “add up.”