Quick filter , pick a state and a time window; the table, map, stats and counts below follow it. The state list shows how many records fall in the chosen window for each state.
Polk County, "Polk Around and Find Out II" (seven days, announced Oct 30, 2026) Polk Disney Florida RAID
Sheriff Grady Judd, Attorney General James Uthmeier and ICE announced the Sheriff's Office's largest undercover operation: 281 arrests and 488 new charges (198 felonies). Traveler sting, adults trying to meet a child for sex: 32. Human-trafficking sting: 249 (117 sex buyers, 122 prostitution arrests). 17 suspects said they worked at local theme parks or resorts, including Walt Disney World (a former Mickey Mouse character performer, a Toy Story Land worker, food-services, HR and resort staff); seven of the 17 were in the child-predator group. Also arrested: an Orange County deputy, a Davenport youth football coach and a Navy petty officer. 40 suspects were from Polk County, the rest from across Florida, 20 other states and 18 countries; 32 were described as in the country illegally (Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, Haiti among others) and 16 were handed to ICE; 24 guns were brought to the operation; 32 drug-possession charges; nine suspects were on probation and nine had been caught in earlier stings, two in the first "Polk Around and Find Out" (below).
On the "531 children found" claim: the figure does not appear in the Sheriff's release or in any news report of this operation. Undercover detectives posed as children or their guardians; no recovered or rescued children were reported, and no victims were named. We keep the claim here because it is circulating, and we mark it unsupported until an agency publishes a count. What the registry can show is below: every Florida poster that came down in October is tagged Polk Disney Florida RAID, meaning only that the poster was withdrawn in the weeks around the operation; no agency has linked any of those children to it.
Sources: ClickOrlando, Oct 30 2026 · NBC Miami, Oct 30 2026 · CBS12, Oct 30 2026
Florida, Operation Statewide Shield (Aug 17–21, 2026)
FDLE and the Florida Attorney General's office announced the recovery of 163 missing children (ages 2 months to 17) in a five-day statewide operation, 46 in Tampa Bay, 41 in Miami, 32 in Jacksonville, 3 in Tallahassee, with sub-operations in Pensacola, Orlando and Fort Myers; many were trafficking victims. No names were released, and recovered children are removed from the active poster list, so they do not appear below. Florida children reported missing before Aug 22 who are still listed are flagged still listed after Shield: they were not among the 163.
Sources: WUSF, Aug 25 2026 · WFLA · Florida AG release · earlier: U.S. Marshals Operation Dragon Eye (60 children).
Polk County, "Polk Around and Find Out" (six days, announced May 1, 2026)
The first of the two 2026 Polk County stings, announced by Sheriff Judd on May 1: 266 arrests, 439 charges (nearly 300 felonies, 141 misdemeanors). 247 were prostitution or human-trafficking arrests and 19 were child sexual predators charged with traveling to meet a child, among them a 68-year-old man known locally for portraying Santa Claus. Two men were charged with child neglect for bringing children to the undercover location. 34 of the trafficking-related arrestees were in the country illegally; ICE ERO Miami, in its third operation with the Sheriff's Office, screened 70 foreign-born nationals. Seven possible trafficking victims were identified and 127 suspects were screened by social services. The suspects' prior records totaled 1,028 charges. No children were reported recovered.
Sources: FOX 13 Tampa Bay, May 1 2026 · Sinclair / ABC News 4
Taken to found, posters withdrawn since Oct 6, 2026 , every registry poster that has come down between weekly pulls, newest disappearance first, numbered within the current selection
| # | Name | Age | Last seen | Missing since | Poster withdrawn | Days missing | Tag | Source |
|---|
In federal custody, location withheld , children taken by ICE, CBP or ORR are not counted as missing anywhere, and no public system can track them
Why they never appear as missing. Missing-child law and NCMEC practice treat a child as missing when no responsible adult or agency knows where they are. A child held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) or the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) has a "known placement": the agency knows, even when the parent does not. State child-welfare agencies must report a child missing from their care to law enforcement and NCMEC within 24 hours; no equivalent public rule binds the three federal agencies. So these children are recorded as "detained", "placed" or "removed", never as missing, and the registry on this page cannot see them.
Why no one outside can track them. The ICE Online Detainee Locator excludes everyone under 18 by design: a parent in family detention appears, the child in the same facility does not. Unaccompanied children go to ORR (call center 1-800-203-7001, which knows only ORR's own cases); children arrested with a parent go to ICE family detention, mostly Dilley, Texas; children stopped at the border start with CBP. There is no shared public index. DHS no longer publishes reliable enforcement data, and in March 2025 the DHS Inspector General found ICE could not monitor the location or status of released children: 65% never received a notice to appear and more than 31,000 release addresses were blank or undeliverable. Since 2025 ORR has shared hundreds of thousands of leads with ICE about children, their sponsors and households, ICE has arrested relatives who came forward to claim children, and "welfare checks" have returned children placed with sponsors to custody, a second disappearance from the family's side that no record captures.
What this page claims and what it does not. A custody system in which no outside party can check a child's location, custodians have no public reporting duty, and families are afraid to come forward creates the conditions trafficking requires; that has happened before with children released by ORR to unvetted sponsors (the 2014 Ohio egg-farm case; the 2023 New York Times child-labor investigation). That is a sourced criticism of the system. This page does not attribute intent or any specific crime to any official; no court or investigation has made such a finding, and we do not list what we cannot verify. No agency releases these children's names, so they cannot be listed individually here.
Sources: DHS OIG-25-21, ICE cannot effectively monitor unaccompanied children (Mar 2025) · American Immigration Council on the "32,000 missing" claim · Brookings estimate of children with a detained parent (May 2026) · Texas Tribune, children held at Dilley beyond the 20-day limit (Aug 2026) · TPR, lawmakers' Dilley visit (Jul 2026) · Texas Tribune, ICE arresting relatives who claim children (Jul 2026) · Reuters via Davis Vanguard, ORR-to-ICE data sharing · Senate letter on welfare checks (Feb 2026) · ICE Online Detainee Locator brochure (minors excluded) · NCMEC, children missing from care · New York Times, migrant child labor investigation (Feb 2023)
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Where they went missing , circle size = children per state; click a state to filter. Pins = the tracker's own missing-person cases (amber where reported missing; red found deceased, green found alive, violet recovered), filtered by the same controls
Patterns in the missing , computed from the posters and tracker cases that match the filters above
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Busiest weeks , same state, same 7 days: where to look for a pattern
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| Name | Age · sex | Race | Missing since ▾ | From | Type | Source |
|---|
| # | Name | Category | Status | Research |
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Hanging deaths, map, timeline & sequence , every tracked case found hanging or with a ligature, in date order
| # | Date | Time found | Name | Age · sex | City, state | Setting | Weather at the site (day of) | Where / how found | Official ruling | Family position | Days since prev. | Miles from prev. | Sources |
|---|
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Documented concerns
Action , what has been asked of the federal government, and what you can do today
In September 2026 members of Congress formally asked the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate hanging deaths of Black people as a pattern, with an independent autopsy, an audit of the local investigation and a report to Congress for each case. Neither letter has had a substantive reply. Everything on this page is either a public document or a public channel you can use yourself.
Congress has asked for a federal investigation , two letters to the Justice Department, September 2026
- Demands that DOJ "adjudicate and prosecute, if applicable, possible instances of modern-day lynchings," and that any Black person found hanging in a public place whose death was ruled suicide get "rigorous examination by federal authorities."
- Asks whether DOJ has any systematic review of these deaths, keeps data on them, has FBI criteria for when to review a local suicide ruling, how often it has opened preliminary inquiries, and whether it has analyzed the cases for common factual, geographic, forensic or investigative characteristics, and demands that it do so.
- Figures cited: CDC suicide-by-suffocation rates of 4.6 per 100,000 for White, 3.1 for Hispanic and 2.0 for Black people; the JULIAN "Crimson Record" of 70+ modern-day lynchings in seven Southern states, 2000–2025, of which 23 involved police or correctional officers; Mississippi's 2025 crime report of nearly 6,000 violent offenses with zero recorded as violent hate crimes, while 3,599 victims were Black.
- Names Nolan Wells, Tasia Fortune and Trey Reed as Mississippi deaths that need answers, and the Senatobia shooting of one-year-old Kohen Wiley.
- Demands "a thorough, transparent, and comprehensive federal investigation into every hanging death of a Black individual across the United States," under the 2022 Emmett Till Antilynching Act.
- At a minimum, with each family's permission: an independent autopsy, an audit of the local and state investigation, a review of the physical and testimonial evidence, and a final report to Congress; plus systematic data collection on hanging deaths of Black people and regular briefings for the signers' offices.
- Figures cited: 70+ modern-day lynchings 2000–2025 (JULIAN, Feb 18, 2026); at least 10 reported hangings of Black people in 2026, the youngest 18, in states including Mississippi, Michigan and New York. Coverage of the letter names Trey Reed, Earl Smith, Tory Medley, Demetrius Fleming, Juliana Nzita, Tasia Fortune, Kyle Bassinga and Jerard Jackson, all tracked here.
- Signers include Jasmine Crockett, Yvette Clarke, Maxine Waters, Bennie Thompson, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ro Khanna, Summer Lee, LaMonica McIver, Frederica Wilson and Alma Adams; the full list is in the press release. Pressley's office says DOJ confirmed receipt and has not responded.
What the federal government has actually done , requests on the left, responses on the right, as of Nov 1, 2026
| Case / date | What was asked | What happened | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nolan Wells July–Aug 2026 | FBI role in the case | Threats only. An FBI task force investigated bomb and death threats against witnesses, officials and families. Three people were charged in federal court in the Southern District of Mississippi: Joseph Alfredo Vasquez Dumarce (California; threats to Judge Ashlee Cole, July 11), Michelle Edwards (Ohio; bomb threats to the George County Chancery Clerk and the Jackson County Sheriff, July 23) and Edward Porter (Illinois; threats to kill a witness, July 31). Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell, July 24: the FBI 'has reached out' and is 'taking a serious look at some of these threats.' No federal investigation of the death itself has been announced. | Mississippi Today, Jul 31 · Mississippi Today, Aug 4 · Fox News, Jul 24 |
| Nolan Wells Aug 12, 2026 | Congressional Black Caucus letter (Chair Yvette Clarke) to AG Blanche and Director Patel asking for an independent federal review and a reply within seven days | Receipt confirmed, nothing more. DOJ spokesperson, Aug 13: 'DOJ can confirm receipt of the letter and is ensuring the appropriate personnel within the Department are reviewing it carefully.' No decision reported in the eight weeks since. | CBC letter (PDF) · Newsweek, Aug 13 |
| All hangings Sept 2, 2026 | Rep. Jasmine Crockett letter to AG Blanche and AAG Dhillon demanding DOJ examine the cases as a pattern | No reply reported as of Oct 6. | Press release |
| All hangings Sept 8, 2026 | Rep. Ayanna Pressley and 59 colleagues to AG Blanche and Director Patel: independent autopsy, audit, evidence review and report to Congress for every case | Receipt confirmed, no response, per Pressley's office (Sept 10). Nothing further found as of Oct 6. | TheGrio, Sept 10 |
| Nolan Wells Oct 5, 2026 | Reps. Frederica Wilson and Maxine Waters ask the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch to investigate, since most of Horn Island is federal land; the family and Ben Crump renew the FBI/DOJ request | FBI: no. Oct 6, to People: the FBI assisted the local investigation and agrees with its determination; "there is no evidence of foul play or any crime." Gulf Islands National Seashore declined questions, citing an ongoing investigation and deferring to local law enforcement. Oct 7, President Trump: "Well, we're looking at that. Yes, we are." Nothing further by Oct 14. People via Yahoo · Reuters · MPB | ABC News · Mississippi Today |
| Trey Reed Sept 2025 | Rep. Bennie Thompson calls for a federal investigation; the state says the file was turned over to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney | Referred, no outcome. The FBI said it would investigate 'if information comes to light of a potential federal violation.' No public finding since; Rep. Thompson's office reports no updates. | Rep. Thompson · WJTV |
| Dennoriss Richardson Nov 2024 | Colbert County Sheriff Eric Balentine asks the FBI to review the death | FBI accepted the review; no result published in the two years since. | NPR · ABC News |
What you can do , each item is something one person can finish in an afternoon
- Report a civil-rights concern to the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division: civilrights.justice.gov/report. Name the case, the county, the date, and attach the sources from the case card.
- Send a tip to the FBI: tips.fbi.gov or 1-800-CALL-FBI. Ask that the case be reviewed under the Emmett Till Antilynching Act (Public Law 117-107).
- Cite the two letters by date and ask what has been done in response.
- Find your House member: house.gov/representatives/find-your-representative. Find your senators: senate.gov/senators/senators-contact.
- If your member signed the Sept 8 letter, ask for the status of DOJ's reply and for the briefings the letter requested. If not, ask them to join it.
- Keep it to one case and one ask. Example: "Please ask the Justice Department whether it has reviewed the death of [name], [county], [date], and what independent autopsy and local-file audit it has done."
- A case that is not here, or a missing person: use the Intake tab. A family can file directly; the record goes in as unverified until sourced.
- A tip about a case: the tip line is on each case card, and most cards list the agency and a phone number.
- A correction: every card shows its sources; send the source that shows the error through the contact address in the footer.
- Every case card lists the records that would settle it: the autopsy, the toxicology, the incident report, the camera footage. The Ask tab has a "Records to request" template that writes the request for you.
- The Cameras tab shows how to identify the cameras near a scene before the footage is overwritten, often within 30 days.
- Independent autopsies are the one request only a family can make. Families can find pathologists through the National Association of Medical Examiners: thename.org.
- Black and Missing Foundation, missing-person listings and tip line 877-972-2634.
- JULIAN, the "Crimson Record" modern-day lynching report both letters cite, and legal help for families.
- NAACP national and local branches, which have joined several of these cases.
- Equal Justice Initiative, the "Lynching in America" record the Pressley letter cites.
- Share the case card link, which carries the sources, rather than a screenshot. The address is www.unresolvedcase.com and every tab has its own link (for example #action, #patterns, #missing).
- Before sharing a new photo or claim, look for the original post, the date and who took it. Fabricated images have already circulated in the Nolan Wells case.
- Say every name. The Names tab is the roster.
Missing patterns , every active poster for a Black, Indigenous, Latino or Asian child (NCMEC and BIA), the Black and Missing Foundation's database of missing adults and children, and the tracker's own cases, one set of filters, one map
Nolan Xavier Wells, evidence & case facts , compiled Sept 22, 2026 · updated Nov 1, 2026
18, of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. Went to Horn Island by boat with friends on July 4, 2026; found on the island's shoreline on July 6. Every fact below is drawn from the Jackson County grand jury report released September 21, the district attorney's statements, both autopsies, the family's cellphone forensics, and named reporting. Official rulings and the family's position are kept apart. Nothing here is an allegation against any person.
What the friends have said , every interview, statement and filing by the people on the trip and those speaking for them, with the source
- The Officer Tatum Show (part 3), reported by People, July 23–24, 2026: Last saw Nolan 'around 3 p.m.', 'cradling a girl'; 'Nolan was like shaking his head, laughing, and I was like, Dude, you crazy.' Called Christine Wonsley twice from the dock that night: 'don't freak out. I'm going to call the Coast Guard.' His attorneys' call log puts the call at 11:07 p.m. and the Coast Guard call at 11:13 p.m. Source
- The Officer Tatum Show (parts 1–4), reported by TheGrio and TMZ, July 21–29, 2026: 'We were in emergency. The boat, we're trying to save the boat. It's not like we didn't ask Nolan or we just left Nolan. Nolan decided to stay on the island with the girl, the girl is a witness to that too.' Says he told him 'Nolan, get the F on the boat.' 'I never saw someone in the water that day with their phone in their hand.' Says he 'talked to somebody personally' who saw Nolan at 6 p.m., and that 'dozens on dozens' of boats were still there. Source
- TMZ, July 23, 2026: Nolan 'refused to leave' on the friends' boat; he was 'completely fine' when they left. Source
- The Officer Tatum Show (part 2 return), reported by The Shade Room, Aug 11, 2026: 'It is clear that Nolan was not on the boat with us.' 'I wish we would have never went out on the Fourth of July.' Denies any argument over the phone or keys. Source
- Fox News (Kayleigh McEnany), with Jax Pitalo and Morgan Seymour, Oct 2, 2026: Spoke about faith and 'thousands of death threats', including voicemails to his stepmother's chambers; not asked about the events of July 4. Source
- The Officer Tatum Show, reported by Atlanta Black Star, Aug 13, 2026: About 15 people came to his house for the phone and keys that night and were 'hostile', but he handed them over quickly: 'I have no idea how to get on Nolan's phone, and I don't have anything to delete.' 'This narrative that there was any argument over the phones or the keys is completely false.' Source
- The Officer Tatum Show (part 2), reported by The Shade Room, Aug 11, 2026: 'Why would we call Sea Tow if we have a dead body on the boat?' Source
- Horn Island return with attorneys, reported by Yahoo News, Aug 7–11, 2026: Returned to the island with Hudson and attorneys Cox and Paltzik, who called them 'three completely innocent young men' and showed reporters the 'washing machine' current. Source
- Fox News (McEnany), with Hudson and Seymour, Oct 2, 2026: Faith and the threats; no new account of July 4. Source
- Through attorneys Paltzik and Cox, TMZ, Sept 24–26, 2026: With Hudson and Pitalo: 'did not erase anything and never had access to his phone'; the three 'refuse to be intimidated by today's litany of bomb and death threats.' No first-person account of July 4 from Seymour has been published. Source
- Fox News (McEnany), with Hudson and Pitalo, Oct 2, 2026: Faith and the threats only. Source
- Good Morning America, reported by TheGrio, July 13, 2026: 'That's me yelling' on the viral boat video. The family the same day: 'We don't know Tracestin. We've never met him.' Source
- ABC News (off camera, citing safety), July 15, 2026: 'That's me yelling, there was no talk about a phone in that video.' He was being held back from continuing a fight with a stranger. Nolan said he was staying for a girl he met and would ride back on another friend's boat. 'When Nolan got in the water, he put his phone on the boat dash,' with about 15 other phones. The viral pool photo was from June 27. Source
- TMZ, reported by The Shade Room, July 10, 2026: 'I have nothing to hide. That's my boy.' The filmed altercation involved another friend, not Nolan. 'None of this adds up to me.' Source
- ABC News, July 15, 2026: The voice on the video is not Nolan's. Source
- CNN (Laura Coates), about July 20, 2026: 'I've never known Nolan to stay back while his friends leave.' 'I don't think that Nolan would say, Bro, I'm staying with this girl.' (CNN page not reachable; quotes as carried by other outlets.) Source
- TMZ, July 29, 2026: Bart 'boarded the distressed vessel, removed its transom plug and towed the distressed vessel for a short distance'; more than 20 witnesses on two boats; he sat for interviews and gave his phone, boat, GPS and a witness list; he 'did not kill or in any way contribute.' Source
- NewsNation, reported by TMZ, July 30, 2026: The enhanced Sea Tow audio was 'doctored' and 'paired with a fake transcript.' Source
- Mississippi Free Press, July 30, 2026: Will sue over online accusations that he says led to a death threat. Source
- Fox News, after the grand jury, Sept 22, 2026: Latino: the friends were 'maligned by unscrupulous charlatans and grifters.' Source
- Daily Mail, reported by Yahoo News and TMZ, July 24, 2026: 'Katie had a conversation and assumed that Nolan was getting ready to get on the boat he came out on.' Katie left with her brother and his fiancée; the family cooperated with investigators. Katie herself has not spoken publicly. Source
- Facebook, reported by WLOX, July 7 and 9, 2026: Warren last saw Nolan 'around 3 p.m.'; the boat left about 4:30 after the bilge pump failed, helped by another boater; 'Nolan made a decision to stay on the island and return inland later with another group of friends'; Warren 'fully cooperated.' July 9: the family is receiving death threats. Source
- New York Post, July 30, 2026: Ben Hudson: will sue Ben Crump for having 'slandered and falsely accused my son and his friends of murder.' Source
- GiveSendGo fundraiser, reported by Yahoo News, Aug 3–4, 2026: Nolan 'opted to stay on Horn Island with an unknown female'; the friends were 'falsely and wrongly blamed'; 'We don't know what happened. We have been completely transparent.' About $189,000 raised by Aug 27. Source
- Atlanta Black Star, Aug 11, 2026, about 5:50 p.m. sighting: Two 'upstanding members of the Ocean Springs community' saw Nolan alive 'at about 10 minutes to 6 p.m.'; 'There's no chance that they made a mistake.' Source
- Pre-suit demand to Rev. Al Sharpton (19 pages), reported by Mississippi Free Press, Aug 21, 2026, 11:07 p.m. and 11:13 p.m. calls: Attaches call logs showing Hudson called Nolan's mother at 11:07 p.m. and the Coast Guard at 11:13 p.m.; says Sharpton's 'Why they didn't hand over the cell phone' implied felonies. Sharpton: 'I welcome the lawsuit.' Source
- Demand to Sunny Hostin, reported by Mississippi Free Press, Sept 16, 2026: 'At no time did Warren, Jax or Morgan so much as touch Nolan's phone'; all three gave statements and surrendered their own phones. Source
- TMZ, Sept 24, 2026: Responding to the Orlando press conference: 'Warren, Jax and Morgan did not erase anything and never had access to his phone'; Crump is stirring 'runaway speculation and wild sensationalism.' After the grand jury: '@AttorneyCrump NO TRUE BILL. You should apologize.' Source
- TMZ, Sept 26, 2026: The three 'refuse to be intimidated by today's litany of bomb and death threats'; 'consequences are coming.' Source
- Atlanta Black Star and Rolling Out, Sept 30 and Oct 6, 2026: Demand to, then a lawsuit against, Terrell Owens over his public comments: 'TRIAL TIME, T.O.' Source
- Sea Tow call recording (unnamed teen on the Triton), released by officials; NewsNation, July 4, 2026, about 4:00 p.m. (grand jury: 4:36 p.m. per phone GPS): 'We're at the west tip of Horn, and our bilge pump stopped working. We're sinking.' Asked if everyone was OK: 'Yeah, yeah everybody is on board.' The grand jury found the 'enhanced' social-media versions 'inaccurate compared to the original recording.' Source
- Snapchat group chat (senders redacted), in the Garrett Discovery log; Mississippi Free Press, July 5, 2026, 11:43 a.m. to 12:52 p.m.: 'when it was time to leave around like 6 he got off our boat with this other guy and they started walking back to their boat'; '[redacted] said that Nolan wasn't ever planning on riding back w them'; '[redacted] also said his girl was passed out around 6, but they said she saw him with other people around that time.' Source
- Group chats released by the family (29 chats, senders redacted), TMZ, Oxygen, Revolt, Oct 13–14, 2026, messages dated July 5 to July 20: July 5 (just after midnight to afternoon): "There is def some sus s*** going on"; "Someone said [redacted] was acting weird too?"; "if he was gone ride with somebody else why would he leave his phone on the boat." July 6: "the smart move is to ask for an attorney and that doesn't mean we're guilty"; "Don't speculate"; "just stick to what you know happened"; "They got him"; "We have nothing to hide." July 14: "We need to go to Nolan's funeral and get with all our other black friends to prove a statement for the media," followed by a suggestion to ask his mother first. July 20: burying a cross and his flip-flops in his honor. Source · Source · Source
- Anonymous videographer of the viral clip, TMZ, July 10, 2026: The clip does not show a fight and Nolan is not in it. Source
- Tashima Williams (Jayvon's mother), who went for the phone; The Shade Room, July 2026, overnight July 4–5: Getting the phone 'took about fifteen minutes'; the house lights were off; she was told it was in a friend's truck, then a girl brought it out. Source
- Social-media witnesses in the United Cajun Navy report (Matthew Lamp, Melissa Thomas, Katelynn Brochard), Aug 3, 2026 (report dated July 31), about 5 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.: Lamp: a passenger was 'pretty certain' Nolan was in a group 'almost fighting' about 5 p.m. and a blue-top Bertram left 'pretty fast.' Thomas: a different young man was with her group. Brochard: parked next to the group, Nolan 'nowhere in sight' when they left at 7:30. The report calls all three unverified. Source
Claims and counterclaims , what each side said, and what was said back, with the source
| Topic | Claim | What was said back | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| The voice on the viral video | Ben Crump, July 10 (GMA, press conference): on the boat video 'you can hear an argument going where Nolan is saying, Give me my freaking phone! What are you freaking doing?' | Tracestin Shepherd, July 13 and 15: 'That's me yelling, there was no talk about a phone in that video'; he was being held back from a fight with a stranger. Jayvon Williams, July 15: the voice is not Nolan's. The videographer, July 10: Nolan is not in the clip. Grand jury, Sept 21: Nolan 'was not in any physical altercation or argument on July 4.' | ABC · ABC · TMZ · Grand jury |
| The phone | Crump, July 10: 'No young person leaves their cell phone. It's not adding up.' Rev. Sharpton at the funeral, July 20: why were the phone and keys with the friends? The mother, Aug 14: Hudson told her that night the girl's group 'had his phone.' | Shepherd, July 15: Nolan put his phone on the boat dash with about 15 others when he went in the water. Jax Pitalo, Aug 13: handed the phone and keys over quickly; 'I don't have anything to delete.' Tashima Williams, who collected it: it took about 15 minutes. Garrett Discovery, Sept 24: the phone rode back on the boat, last used 2:18 p.m., not unlocked again until the family had it. Grand jury: it 'was not the only phone to travel back to the mainland without its owner.' Attorneys Paltzik and Cox, Sept 16: the three 'never so much as touched' it. | TheGrio · WLOX · ABS · ABC · ABS · Shade Room · WLOX · MFP |
| The pool-party photo | Crump, July 13: a photo said to show Nolan at a pool party after July 4; 'I don't know if these are facts or rumors. We sometimes have to follow all clues.' | Shepherd, July 15: the photo is from June 27 and was shared July 5. Grand jury: it had 'no evidentiary value.' | TMZ · ABC · Grand jury |
| How the body was found | Crump, July 22: the Cajun Navy found him 'face down and fully clothed.' Crump, July 30: the recovery spot 'is not adding up' given 'low tides and high tides'; hired ocean-engineering experts. | United Cajun Navy, July 22–26: 'He was wearing only swim trunks'; Todd Terrell conceded he had earlier agreed with Nancy Grace's 'fully clothed' phrasing. Brian Trascher, Sept 28: his July 6 flyover showed no body at that spot; Nolan 'later drifted into that spot.' Grand jury: location 'consistent with drowning.' | CBS · WLOX · TMZ · Oxygen · TMZ |
| The Sea Tow call | Captioned versions circulated by supporters, July 27–30, claimed the recording contained 'Nolan, don't die'; Crump said he hired audio engineers. | Russ Latino (for Bart Edmiston), July 30: the enhanced audio was 'doctored' and 'paired with a fake transcript.' Grand jury: the 'enhanced' versions were 'inaccurate compared to the original recording.' Cajun Navy, Sept 29: 'altered by a fake audio engineer.' The original, released July 26: 'our bilge pump stopped working. We're sinking. Yeah, yeah, everybody is on board.' | Shade Room · TMZ · WSMV · ABS |
| First official words vs the autopsy | Sheriff John Ledbetter, July 6: suspected drowning, 'no foul play has been identified.' Coroner Bruce Lynd, July 6: 'no obvious signs of physical injury,' 'no indication of drug or alcohol use.' Christine Wells-Wonsley: 'it was not even an hour that his body had been removed' before the sheriff said accidental drowning. | State Medical Examiner Dr. Staci Turner, autopsy July 7, report Aug 17: two 2-inch scalp contusions, ethanol 270 mg/dL in decomposition fluid, cause and manner undetermined, no fluid in the airways. Official vs official: the first-day statements preceded the autopsy and were wrong on both injury and alcohol. | MFP · ME report · CBS |
| Who stalled the phone exam | DA Angel Myers McIlrath, Aug 12 and Sept 21: demanded the phone by 9 a.m. Aug 14; 'the state of Mississippi had no legal avenue to seize and search Nolan's cell phone'; the family's claims were 'all lies, and they knew it.' | Ahmad Smith for the family, Aug 13: the July 15 agreement was a 'jointly coordinated forensic examination, not simply handing over the phone'; the team was 'ready and willing' to arrange it. DA, Aug 17: the FBI lab bars non-law-enforcement observers. Family, Aug 19: chose an independent examiner. Liza Park, Sept 27: the parents 'never kept the phone intentionally to keep away from DA.' The full correspondence is published. | WLOX letters · WLBT · WXXV |
| 'No evidence of a crime' | DA, Sept 21 and 24: on Aug 13 the Crump team 'advised my office that they had no evidence of a crime.' | Smith's Aug 13 letter, as published, says the tips had 'not identified additional witnesses' germane to 'potential criminal activity', a narrower statement than 'no evidence of a crime.' Crump, Sept 24: 'We're not accusing anybody of anything nefarious.' | WLOX letters · WLOX · WLOX |
| 'Things were deleted' | Andrew Garrett, Sept 24: 'There were things that were deleted from the phone. I can't talk to intent. But somebody had to take a user action to delete data.' | DA, Sept 24: 'The user action discussed by Mr. Garrett is from other snapchat users, not someone physically accessing Nolan Wells' phone.' Garrett himself, Sept 24–27: 'I didn't say somebody unlocked the phone'; messages were 'unsent or deleted by their senders'; the phone stayed locked from 2:18 p.m. to 3:14 a.m. Cajun Navy, Sept 28: 'Nobody deleted anything from the phone.' Paltzik and Cox: the three friends 'did not erase anything and never had access.' | WLOX · WLOX · MFP · ABS |
| The 30-hour extraction | Garrett, Sept 24: a 30-hour extraction, more than a million artifacts, 282 pages of Snapchat; 'We gave it to them on a silver platter.' | DA, Sept 24: 'The 30-hour digital download was never provided to the State'; the office received 'two emails containing around 300 pages of selected findings'; 'stop playing games and immediately provide it to me.' Still unpublished: the 21-page examination findings with logs and the original 261-page Snapchat report. | WLOX · WLOX · Evidence file |
| The head injury | Dr. Roger Mitchell, July 22: a 12-by-8-inch 'red discoloration' at the back of the head. Final report, Sept 14: it was blood from blunt-force contusions, inflicted within hours of death; additional bruises on the back and shoulder 'not reported in the original autopsy.' Family, Oct 5: no one has explained it. | ME Turner: two 2-inch contusions, no skull fracture, 'not a fatal injury.' DA, Sept 24: both pathologists agree except for 'superficial, non-fatal' bruising on the buttocks and shoulder. Cajun Navy, Sept 28: 'no blunt force trauma on the body, only light bruising.' Grand jury: a witness saw Nolan 'slip awkwardly off the side of a boat' about 3:30 p.m. but 'could not say whether Mr. Wells struck his head.' Mitchell: the sheriff's office was told of the bruising July 7 and no record shows it was investigated. | Mitchell report · ABS · ME report · WLOX · Grand jury |
| Did he drown? | Liza Park, Sept 24: 'No water in the stomach. No water in the lungs. No water in the throat.' Crump, Sept 21: 'We don't know how Nolan died, and neither does the State of Mississippi.' Family, Oct 5: there is 'no evidence he drowned.' | Mitchell's own report: the absence of water 'is not presented here as independently excluding drowning.' Both pathologists: undetermined. Grand jury: 'consistent with drowning.' Cajun Navy: 'Yes, you can drown and not have water in your lungs.' MDMR's preliminary document, July 5: witnesses described 'heavy' alcohol intake. | MFP · ABS · Mitchell report · Grand jury · GMA |
| When he was last seen | Warren Hudson and Judge Ashlee Cole: 'around 3 p.m.' Grand jury witness: slipped off a boat about 3:30 p.m., then kept socializing. Paltzik, Aug 11: two Ocean Springs witnesses saw him 'at about 10 minutes to 6 p.m.' Snapchat chat, July 5: 'when it was time to leave around like 6 he got off our boat with this other guy.' Hudson: 'I talked to somebody personally' who saw him at 6. | Katelynn Brochard (Cajun Navy report): parked next to the group, Nolan 'nowhere in sight' when she left at 7:30. The boat GPS shows his friends' boats leaving at 4:31 p.m. Every sighting after 4:31 is second-hand or anonymous; none of the 5:50 or 6 p.m. witnesses has been named publicly. Hudson says he last saw Nolan at 3 yet describes begging him to board before the 4:31 departure. | TheGrio · WLOX · Grand jury · ABS · MFP · UCN report |
| Why he stayed | Hudson, Shepherd, Cole and the friends' fundraiser: Nolan chose to stay with a girl he met and said he would ride back on another boat; 'Nolan, get the F on the boat.' Grand jury: he 'chose to remain to socialize.' | Gracie McCormack, for her sister Katie, July 24: Katie 'assumed that Nolan was getting ready to get on the boat he came out on.' One account to the grand jury: he said 'I'm going to get back on the boat with the boys.' Jayvon Williams: 'I've never known Nolan to stay back while his friends leave.' The Snapchat chat: the girl was 'passed out around 6.' Katie herself has never spoken publicly. | TheGrio · ABC · TMZ · CNN · MFP |
| Was there a fight? | Christopher Wells Sr., July 7: 'Where is the video of the big fight that occurred Saturday evening before everyone left the island?' Cajun Navy witness Matthew Lamp: a group 'almost fighting' near 5 p.m. | Grand jury: Nolan 'was not in any physical altercation or argument.' Shepherd: there was a fight, but it was his, with a stranger, and Nolan was not in it. Melissa Thomas (Cajun Navy report): the young man in her group was someone else. | ABS · UCN report · Grand jury · ABC |
| Who is accusing whom | The family and Crump, repeatedly: they have 'never accused anyone'; 'We're not accusing anybody of anything nefarious.' NAACP's Derrick Johnson: accusing only 'the state of Mississippi and local officials.' | Spoliation letters went to the friends' families July 20; Sharpton's funeral remarks and TV comments led three friends to serve pre-suit demands on him, on Sunny Hostin, and to sue Terrell Owens. Ben Hudson, July 30: Crump 'slandered and falsely accused my son and his friends of murder.' Gov. Tate Reeves, July 24: 'Ben Crump and Al Sharpton are to blame for the threats.' Cajun Navy, Sept 29: asked DOJ to investigate Crump. Three people were federally charged for threats against the friends' families and officials. | WLOX · WLOX · TheGrio · ABS |
| The friends' own messages | Family and outlets, Oct 13–14: the released group chats show friends "appearing to plan how to talk to cops" and to "prove a statement for the media" at the funeral by gathering "all our other black friends." | The messages themselves, as quoted: "the smart move is to ask for an attorney and that doesn't mean we're guilty," "so we don't get played by some potential bias cop," "just stick to what you know happened," "We have nothing to hide," and, on July 5, "There is def some sus s*** going on" and "why would he leave his phone on the boat." Senders are redacted, so it is unknown which messages are from the three friends who were sued over, or from the wider group of 29 chats. The grand jury had the 261-page Snapchat report. No response yet from the friends' attorneys. | TMZ · Oxygen · Revolt |
| The fake toxicology report | A 'toxicology report' circulated on social media in late July. | Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell, Aug 1: 'The purported toxicology report is fraudulent. Fraudsters, AI, and social media are a recipe for disaster.' The real toxicology (ethanol 270 mg/dL in decomposition fluid) was in the ME report released Sept 24; Mitchell notes decomposition-fluid ethanol 'should not be equated to an antemortem BAC.' | Yahoo · ME report · Mitchell report |
Timeline , most recent first · every row links to where it comes from
| When | What the record says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| As of Nov 1 | No change in the official record. No federal action, no reply from the Park Service, no DA or sheriff statement, no response from Terrell Owens to the Oct 5 suit, and Dr. Mitchell's Atlanta presentation has still not been reported as held. The week's movement is public pressure: Mississippi Today's Oct 29 report on the friends' Snapchat messages and the phone's GPS record, a Walk for Nolan Wells across the Biloxi–Ocean Springs bridge on Sunday Nov 1, and "One March. Fifty States" gatherings the same day. | Mississippi Today, Oct 29 · WLOX, Oct 30 · WVLA via Yahoo, Oct 30 |
| Oct 29–Nov 1 | Snapchat messages and the walk. Oct 29: Mississippi Today reports that the friends' Snapchat messages "surged with concern" for Nolan in the hours after he was separated from the group, drawing on the phone report released to the family; the page could not be read in full, so the detail is taken from the headline and summary. Oct 30: WLOX reports a Walk for Nolan Wells planned for Sunday Nov 1 on the Biloxi–Ocean Springs bridge. Oct 30: organizer Manasha Beckwith announces "One March. Fifty States", a march and prayer gathering for Nov 1 at 3 p.m., Scotlandville Plaza, Baton Rouge, with sister events in other states. No official body has responded. | Mississippi Today · WLOX · Louisiana First News |
| As of Oct 27 | No change in the official record. No federal action, no reply from the Park Service, no DA or sheriff statement, no response from Terrell Owens to the Oct 5 suit, and Dr. Mitchell's Atlanta presentation has still not been reported as held. The pressure is now coming from campuses: marches in Oxford (Oct 25), Detroit (Oct 26) and Providence (Oct 27) in the same week. | TheGrio · Rolling Out |
| Oct 25–27 | Marches. Oct 25, Oxford: University of Mississippi students Christopher Burnett and Avah Trevino led a march from Fulton Chapel to the James Meredith statue; "It was closed way too soon." Burnett stressed the march accused no one. Oct 26, Detroit: hundreds of students from Cass Tech and the Detroit School of Arts marched to Little Caesars Arena asking that the case be reopened. Oct 27, Providence: a Brown and RISD walkout for Nolan and for Kohen Wiley, the Senatobia toddler. | Daily Mississippian · TheGrio · Brown Daily Herald |
| Oct 15–19 | Students. Jackson State called a "Southern Day of Action" for Oct 15; organizers say about a dozen schools in five states took part, after walkouts at the Atlanta University Center (Oct 1), North Carolina Central (Oct 6), Prairie View A&M (Oct 7) and North Carolina A&T. The demand is that the investigation be reopened. The friends' GiveSendGo fund is reported above $200,000. | BreakThrough News |
| Oct 15 | Wider coverage of the released 292-page phone report. Liza Park, for the family: the state autopsy's two 2-inch scalp contusions are consistent with Dr. Mitchell's findings. Civil-rights attorney and commentator Charles Coleman Jr.: the messages alone do not necessarily require reopening the case. No response from the DA, the sheriff or the friends' attorneys. | Gray News / 13abc · TheGrio |
| Oct 13–14 | The family releases the friends' group-chat messages from the Garrett Discovery report (29 group chats, July 4 into late July; senders redacted; "verified" by People). July 5: friends learning he was missing ("There is def some sus s*** going on"; "if he was gone ride with somebody else why would he leave his phone on the boat"; "he got off our boat with this other guy" around 6). July 6, before and after word that he was found: "the smart move is to ask for an attorney and that doesn't mean we're guilty"; "Don't speculate"; "just stick to what you know happened"; "We have nothing to hide." July 14: "We need to go to Nolan's funeral and get with all our other black friends to prove a statement for the media," then a suggestion to ask his mother first. Outlets framed the release as friends "appearing to plan how to talk to cops." No response from the friends' attorneys or the DA was reported. | TMZ · Oxygen · Revolt |
| Oct 11 | 100 days: Pastor Jamal Bryant leads a tribute with 1,000 white balloons; families and advocates renew the federal request through the week. | Rolling Out · Final Call |
| Oct 7 | President Trump, asked at the White House whether he would have the FBI investigate: "Well, we're looking at that. Yes, we are." No decision or timeline followed. Crump: the remark "carries more weight than the response given by the FBI"; his team "stands ready to work with the federal government." | Reuters via US News · Black America Web · Atlanta Black Star |
| Oct 6 | The FBI's answer. In a statement to People, the FBI said it assisted the local investigation and agreed with its determination: "there is no evidence of foul play or any crime." It did not say it would investigate further. Gulf Islands National Seashore declined questions, "citing an ongoing investigation" and deferring to local law enforcement, without saying which investigation. Christine Wells-Wonsley: "I cannot take that ruling, and I cannot move on with my life"; on Facebook: there is "NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE of a drowning/dry drowning in either autopsy report." | People via Yahoo · TheGrio · Atlanta Black Star · MPB |
| Oct 6 | A human-rights advocate argues in Mississippi Today that the grand jury report should not end the investigation, citing the state's obligations to investigate a suspicious death fully. | Mississippi Today |
| Oct 5–6 | Warren Hudson, Jax Pitalo and Morgan Seymour, through their fathers, sue Terrell Owens for defamation and false light in federal court in the Southern District of Mississippi over his Sept 26 post "ARREST THEM IMMEDIATELY!!" and a shared video accusing them of killing Nolan and tampering with his phone; they say it fueled death threats. Owens has not responded. | Fox News · Atlanta Black Star |
| Oct 5 | Federal push, day 93. At the Center of Hope in Inglewood, California, the parents, Ben Crump, Rep. Maxine Waters, Cynthia Choi (Stop AAPI Hate) and Christina Baal-Owens (National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum) ask the FBI and the Justice Department to open a federal investigation. A letter signed by Reps. Frederica Wilson and Maxine Waters asks the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch to investigate, because most of Horn Island is federal land (Gulf Islands National Seashore). Christine Wells-Wonsley: "where is the physical evidence from the autopsies? They're not there." FBI, DOJ and NPS had not responded by publication; the DA's office did not comment. | WLOX · ABC News · Atlanta Black Star · Mississippi Today · Crump press release |
| Oct 1 | Dr. Mitchell's Atlanta presentation of both autopsy reports was announced as "tentatively" this week; no report that it has been held was found as of Oct 1. | MPB · Mississippi Today |
| Sep 29–30 | Student walkouts in support of the family; "Blackout for Nolan Wells" social-media day (Sept 30). Two fabricated images circulate: an AI image of an HBCU band tribute and an altered football photo. Neither is evidence. | TheGrio · Kemetic Minds log |
| Sep 28–29 | United Cajun Navy posts that the death was an accidental drowning, that "nobody opened Nolan's phone after 2:18" and "nobody deleted anything from the phone," and that there was "no blunt force trauma … only light bruising"; it asks the Justice Department to investigate Ben Crump. Bomb threats reported near Jackson County buildings in Pascagoula; no explosives found. | TMZ · Atlanta Black Star |
| Sep 28 | 290 pages of Snapchat records published (Garrett Discovery; 29 group chats and private messages, July 4 into late July; most content is images or video and names are redacted). One message, sent July 5 at 11:43 a.m., says Nolan "never disappeared … when it was time to leave around like 6 he got off our boat with this other guy and they started walking back to their boat." Friends also asked who had his Snapchat login when the account showed active; it was his family on the phone. | Clarion Ledger · NewsNation |
| Sep 26 | Lawyers for Jax Pitalo, Warren Hudson and Morgan Seymour say the three "refuse to be intimidated" by bomb and death threats made after the deleted-messages claim, from people "outside the community." (Three people were charged in August with threatening a judge, a witness and officials.) | TMZ · CNN (Aug 6) |
| Sep 24 | Orlando press conference: Garrett Discovery's phone forensics and the full state autopsy released by the family (details below). Same day, the DA answers: "Stop playing games." | WLOX · MPB · WLOX (DA) · WXXV (statement) |
| Sep 21–22 | Grand jury returns a unanimous no true bill; DA Angel Myers McIlrath releases the redacted report and a video statement. Family press conference: "This is not over"; NAACP general counsel Kristen Clarke asks DOJ to investigate because Horn Island is federal land. | MFP · NPR · NBC · WLOX |
| Sep 14 | Dr. Mitchell's final independent report: the "red discoloration" was blood from contusions; no white-blood-cell response means the head injury came hours, not days, before death; additional bruises on the lower back and left upper back. He finds no record that the sheriff's office investigated the head injury after being told on July 7. | Atlanta Black Star |
| Aug 13–28 | DA's account: the Crump team tells the DA's office it found "no evidence of a crime being committed" on the phone (Aug 13); an agreed joint phone examination does not happen; a 14-page preliminary report is delivered (Aug 28). Attorneys for three friends send Sharpton a pre-suit defamation demand; he "welcomes the lawsuit." Congressional Black Caucus asks DOJ for a review; NAACP joins the legal team Aug 19. | Magnolia Tribune · ABC7 · CNN |
| Aug 6 | United Cajun Navy releases its search report and photographs of the friends' boats. | WLOX |
| Jul 30–31 | State autopsy reported complete; results sent to the grand jury, not made public. Arrests begin of people who threatened the friends' families. TMZ publishes a 22-page "Geospatial Timeline & Vessel-Movement Analysis" built from supplied photos, videos and screenshots (see the photographic record below). | WLBT · TMZ report (PDF) |
| Jul 20–22 | Funeral (Rev. Al Sharpton officiates); spoliation letters to friends and their parents; independent autopsy (Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., funded by Colin Kaepernick): cause and manner "undetermined pending investigation," red discoloration at the back of the head, foul play not ruled out. | ABC News · CNN |
| Jul 16–21 | MDMR boat-GPS data published: dock 9:56 a.m., island 11:14 a.m., departs 4:31 p.m. TMZ obtains a party clip with 2:23 p.m. metadata showing a person matching Nolan's clothing. | CBS News · TMZ via Yahoo |
| Jul 15 | Investigators show the family evidence that Nolan bought alcohol with a fake ID (DA's account). | Magnolia Tribune |
| Jul 7 | The state pathologist reports the bruising on the body to the sheriff's office (per Dr. Mitchell's review of the file). | Atlanta Black Star |
| Jul 7 | State autopsy at the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office; identity confirmed by dental records (Coroner Bruce Lynd); family retains Ben Crump; JCSO asks the public for July 4 photos and video. | WLOX |
| Jul 6 · 8:45 a.m. | Body found at the island's northwestern tip by a National Park Service ranger; to the coroner by about 11 a.m. | WLOX · Wikipedia |
| Jul 5 | 1:38 a.m. MDMR coordinates with police; JCSO takes the lead. Early morning, the family retrieves Nolan's phone from the other young men. 8 a.m. patrol vessel; drone attempts fail; 12:31 p.m. missing-person release; 5:54 p.m. command post. | WLOX · Magnolia Tribune |
| Jul 4 · ~11:00 p.m. | A friend contacts the Coast Guard; 11:07 p.m. Warren Hudson calls Nolan's mother; 11:49 p.m. she reports him missing to the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources. | WLOX · Sheriff Ledbetter to ABC |
| Jul 4 · 4:31 p.m. | Boats leave; Nolan chose to stay, per friends and the grand jury. Fort Bayou 5:52 p.m.; docked 6:06 p.m.; boat out of the water 7:19 p.m. His phone travels back with the boat. | WLOX · WLOX Sept 24 |
| Jul 4 · ~4:00 p.m. | The Triton loses its bilge pump and motor and takes on water; a teen calls Sea Tow; the Tideline tows it a short distance. Grand jury: "GPS data and security footage confirm the accounts of the passengers"; online readings of the Sea Tow call "were not accurate." | MFP · WLOX |
| Jul 4 · ~3:30 p.m. | A witness testified under oath that Nolan "slipped awkwardly off the side of a boat" but "could not say whether Mr. Wells struck his head"; he "continued to socialize after the fall and did not appear injured." | Grand jury report via MFP |
| Jul 4 · ~3:00 p.m. | Last seen on the island by friend Warren Hudson. | WLOX |
| Jul 4 · 2:18 p.m. | Last time Nolan uses his phone, on the boat. The phone stays on the boat for the rest of the day. Last recorded image of him: 2:23 p.m. | Live 5 News · Wikipedia |
| Jul 4 · 9:56 a.m. | Boat departs the Ocean Springs dock; arrives Horn Island 11:14 a.m. Three boats: the Triton, the Palm Beach, the Tideline. GPS timeline from the phone starts with a morning McDonald's stop. | WLOX timeline · WLOX Sept 24 |
| Jul 3 | Tells his parents his July 4 plans. A pool-party photo from this day later circulates; the grand jury found it had "no evidentiary value" to July 4. | Wikipedia timeline · Mississippi Free Press |
What the grand jury reviewed
- Cellphone extractions: a 21-page mobile-device examination report and the family's 14-page forensic report; a 282-page selection of phone data from the Crump team
- A 261-page Snapchat conversation report
- GPS and location data, including boat tracks
- Security-camera footage; photographs and video; maps and imagery
- The Sea Tow call recording from July 4
- Toxicology; both autopsy reports
- Recorded statements and sworn testimony
The panel
- 23 grand jurors from Jackson County, ages 27–68: 13 men, 10 women; 12 white, 5 Black, 2 Hispanic, 2 Native American, 1 Asian, 1 other
- 132 subpoenas; 43 witnesses; 7 invited to testify in person
- Decision unanimous
- Report filed with the Circuit Clerk and posted by the DA; full redacted copy republished by WLBT
Official Mississippi State Medical Examiner , full report released by the family Sept 24
- Cause and manner: undetermined; "drowning is a diagnosis of exclusion," "consistent with" accidental drowning.
- Two 2-inch contusions on the back of the head with no white-blood-cell response, the trauma came shortly before death; "not a fatal injury."
- No water in the lungs, throat or stomach; no fluid or debris in the airways; stomach empty.
- Larynx and hyoid intact; no hemorrhage or fracture; no organ abnormality.
- Report details: Dr. Staci Turner, examination July 7, report dated Aug 17, case ME26-0514; about 100 mL of decomposition fluid in each chest cavity; no external scalp injury and no skull fracture over the two contusions. Report PDF (TMZ copy).
- Toxicology from chest decomposition fluid: ethanol 270 mg/dL; cannabinoids, nicotine, cotinine, caffeine presumptive; no cocaine. Alcohol bought with a fake ID; no adult supplied it.
Family Independent autopsy & phone forensics
- Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr. (July 22 preliminary; final report Sept 14): cause and manner undetermined pending investigation; the "red discoloration" was blood from contusions at the back of the head; no white-blood-cell response, so the injury came hours before death; further bruises on the lower back and the left upper back; no fractures; non-accidental factors could not be ruled out; lungs and neck structures had been removed in the state autopsy.
- Garrett Discovery (Sept 24): over 1 million artifacts; a 30-hour extraction; GPS timeline for July 4; last user access 2:18 p.m. on the boat; the phone stayed with the boat, was at a mainland residence by about 7:30 p.m., and the parents collected it from a friend's house at about 3 a.m.; Snapchat and Instagram were ~90% of his communications; Snapchat content was deleted between his last use and the family retrieving the phone, by other Snapchat users' actions, Garrett said, not by someone handling the device ("I can't talk to intent"); 282 recovered pages given to the DA. Crump read recovered messages in which friends worried about people on the island.
- Phone GPS timeline as presented (10-metre accuracy): McDonald's before 8:24 a.m.; on the boat with message activity 10:30–10:54; Horn Island 11:18; last use 2:17–2:18 p.m.; Sea Tow call 4:36 p.m.; boat ramp 7:24 p.m.; a residential area from 7:30 p.m.; no location recorded from 11:57 p.m. to 3:09 a.m., when the parents collected it. His mother saw the phone on the mainland in Life360 after the 11:07 p.m. call. Briefing transcript · GPS video (WLOX).
- Snapchat records, published Sept 28: 290 pages; Garrett's Sept 23 letter says messages were "unsent or deleted by their senders" and does not say who, from which chats, or how many. No sign of tampering with the handset. Clarion Ledger.
Photographs & video on the record , what exists, who holds it, and what it does not prove
- Party clip, 2:23 p.m. metadata (TMZ, July 21): a person matching Nolan's clothing at the Horn Island party. Last recorded image of him. Source.
- Geospatial Timeline & Vessel-Movement Analysis (TMZ working report, July 31, 22 pp.): annotated stills labeling Boat #1, Boat X, Boat #2 (Frontier Bay), Boat #3, the Triton and the Palm Beach ("Warren on Palm Beach"); two screen recordings with on-screen clocks of 3:23 and 4:27 showing boats and people in the anchorage; a "4:50 p.m." photo in which Boat #2 is no longer in its earlier position; the MDMR search datum (30°14.626′ N, 88°46.629′ W) and a second mapped point 279 m away; social-media statements about an "almost fighting" group near 5 p.m. and Nolan "nowhere in sight" at 7:30. The report's own caveats: labels are user annotations, embedded clocks are not authenticated timestamps, the file metadata is from July 28 exports, and the 3:00–4:31 p.m. gap "remains the critical analytical interval." PDF.
- United Cajun Navy search report (Aug 6): photographs of the friends' boats and the search. WLOX.
- MDMR boat-GPS track (CBS, July 16): dock 9:56 a.m., island 11:14 a.m., departs 4:31 p.m., back to the dock. CBS.
- Phone GPS video (Garrett Discovery, Sept 24): the phone's movements on July 4, shown at the press conference. WLOX.
- Public evidence file at justicefornolanwells.com (added late September; the site does not say who runs it): the full Sept 24 briefing video and transcript, a 292-page PDF of the Snapchat report assembled from the livestream, the phone GPS reconstruction video, an event log, a video archive of scene and recovery-area footage, a Horn Island 3D reconstruction and a drift lab. It labels missing records as missing. Treat it as a compilation and check each item against its original. Phone forensics page · Video archive.
- Fabricated images now circulating (Sept 28–30): an AI-generated "band tribute" picture and an altered football photo. Before sharing any new picture, look for the original post, the date and who took it.
- The pool-party photo that went viral is from July 3, not July 4; the grand jury gave it no evidentiary value. Rolling Stone.
- Security footage reviewed by the grand jury (dock and marina) has not been released.
What the grand jury concluded
- "Wells was not in any physical altercation or argument on July 4." The circulated "confrontation" video and the fight rumors were rejected.
- He chose to remain on Horn Island when the three boats left; his phone returning separately was "not unique."
- "The allegations against the occupants of the Triton, the Palm Beach, and the Tideline are not based in truth, and are solely the result of public clamor and private malice."
- DA McIlrath: "There is absolutely no evidence to support the allegations that Nolan's disappearance and death were racially motivated."
- No true bill. No charges. No statute of limitations on homicide in Mississippi, so the matter can be reopened on new evidence.
Family and counsel: "This grand jury result leaves us with more questions than answers." "No True Bill does not resolve how Nolan Wells died." Christine Wells-Wonsley: the report "reinforced the fact that Nolan was not given a thorough, transparent and honest investigation." "He's not a hashtag, he's our son."
Protests, marches, walkouts and vigils for Nolan Wells , newest first, every event a source confirms, July 11 to the Nov 1 nationwide march; scheduled events are marked
| Date | Where | Venue / route | Organizer | Turnout | What was called for | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026-11-02 | Jackson, MS | Mississippi Attorney General's office | Ground Zero / Mississippi organizers | — | Scheduled. Demonstration the day after the Coast march; demands the AG reopen the case. | source |
| 2026-11-01 | Biloxi / Ocean Springs, MS | Point Cadet muster 8 a.m., march across the Biloxi–Ocean Springs bridge 9 a.m. | Local organizers; listed by One March. Fifty States | — | Scheduled. "Walk for Nolan Wells": justice, accountability, transparency. | source |
| 2026-11-01 | Baton Rouge, LA | Scotlandville Plaza ("The V"), 8484 Scenic Hwy, 3 p.m. | Manasha Beckwith, prayer leader Kimberly Spruill; One March. Fifty States | — | Scheduled. March and prayer gathering; truth, transparency, accountability; wear black. | source |
| 2026-11-01 | Newark, NJ | Justice Statue, MLK Jr. Federal Building, 50 Walnut St., 1 p.m. | One March. Fifty States; People's Organization for Progress (Lawrence Hamm) | — | Scheduled. "We do not accept the findings of the grand jury." | source |
| 2026-11-01 | Tampa, FL | Joe Chillura Courthouse Square, 600 E. Kennedy Blvd., 3 p.m. | Shariffa Spicer; One March. Fifty States | — | Scheduled. "What Happened to Nolan?" march; wear black and powder blue. | source |
| 2026-11-01 | St. Petersburg, FL | Vinoy Park 8:30 a.m.; St. Pete Coliseum 3 p.m. (ceremonial march, Tamika Mallory) | Urban League Florida Suncoast (Coliseum) | — | Scheduled. Two events the same day. | source |
| 2026-11-01 | Nationwide (organizer list) | Huntsville AL, Los Angeles, Washington DC, Chicago, Boise, Salina KS, Baltimore, Waldorf MD, Columbus OH, Oklahoma City, Coatesville PA, Nashville, Dallas, Virginia Beach, Richmond VA; to be announced: New Castle DE, Great Falls MT, Reno, Raleigh, Seattle | One March. Fifty States (@onemarchfiftystates, with the "What Happened to Nolan" campaign run with his parents) | — | Scheduled. Venues and times are only in the organizer's Instagram posts. The Florida Courier says "nationwide and in London"; no London listing or coverage was found. | source |
| 2026-10-28 | Lorman, MS | Alcorn State University Campus Plaza, 5:30 p.m. | ASU Student Government (Brionna Evans, Nolan's cousin) and Mister Senior Jeremiah Harris | — | "Blackout for Justice": all-day blackout and rally; answers, accountability, truth. | source |
| 2026-10-27 | Providence, RI | Brown University and RISD campus walkout | Black Organizing Xchange (Brown), PSL Rhode Island, RISD Black Artists & Designers | — | Walkout for Nolan Wells and Kohen Wiley. Date is the article date. | source |
| 2026-10-27 | Norfolk, VA | Norfolk State University campus | NSU students | — | March shared by Ben Crump on Oct 27; exact date not reported. | source |
| 2026-10-26 | Detroit, MI | March to Little Caesars Arena | Students of Cass Technical High School and Detroit School of Arts | hundreds | Reopen the case, transparency; "No justice, no peace." | source |
| 2026-10-25 | Oxford, MS | University of Mississippi: Fulton Chapel to the James Meredith statue and back | UM freshmen Christopher Burnett and Avah Trevino | — | "Say his name"; the case was "closed way too soon"; reopen the investigation, vote. | source |
| 2026-10-23 | Champaign, IL | University of Illinois campus | Black Students for Revolution | — | Rally and vigil; reopen the investigation. Date is the article date. | source |
| 2026-10-22 | Lawrenceville, NJ | Rider University, laps around Centennial Lake | Rider NAACP chapter (E'miija Eccles) with Black student organizations | — | Campus justice walk. | source |
| 2026-10-16 | Starkville, MS | Mississippi State University Drill Field | PSL Mississippi; NAACP political-action co-chair Dave Claggette | — | Campus rally. | source |
| 2026-10-12 | Richmond, VA | Virginia Union University campus | VUU students (James Johnson, Mister VUU; Jy'Mony Johnson) | — | Prayer, then a campus march; transparency, justice, the youth vote. | source |
| 2026-10-11 | Hampton, VA | Fort Monroe, 3–6 p.m. | #BLM757 | — | "757 Nolan Wells Rally & Prayer Vigil." | source |
| 2026-10-07 | Jackson, MS | Jackson State University to the COFO Civil Rights Education Center | JSU student Jakari Holland | hundreds | "Blackout Rally" for Nolan Wells, Tasia Fortune and Kohen Wiley; "Protect Black Youth." | source |
| 2026-10-06 | Atlanta, GA | Marietta St. near Centennial Olympic Park | AUC students (Clark Atlanta, Spelman NAACP), YDSA; PSL emcee | about 100 | Reopen the investigation; accountability for deaths of Black youth. | source |
| 2026-10-04 | Biloxi / Ocean Springs, MS | Biloxi–Ocean Springs bridge, 2 p.m., meet mid-span | Russ Madden Jr. and James Green | "overwhelming" (first walk) | Unity Bridge Walk series: about July 18, Aug 9, Sept 13 and Oct 4; remembrance and unity, no formal demands. | source |
| 2026-10-03 | New Orleans, LA | St. Philip St. & Claiborne Ave. to Hunter's Field, 6:30 p.m. | Black Feather Young Generation and Family Ties S&P Club | — | Justice march and second line, reported as planned; no post-event coverage found. | source |
| 2026-10-01 | Atlanta, GA | AUC: Woodruff Library to the MLK Jr. International Chapel | Spelman College NAACP (A'nija Hughley) | thousands | "No water in his lungs"; demand AG Lynn Fitch treat the case equally; register to vote. | source |
| 2026-09-29 | Pascagoula, MS | Jackson County Courthouse | Mississippi Rising Coalition | small group | After the no-bill: "Resign, Reopen, Reassign." | source |
| 2026-09-28 | Wauwatosa, WI | Wauwatosa West High School to Firefly Park | Students | — | Walkout after the grand jury no-bill; students were marked absent. | source |
| 2026-08-19 | Biloxi, MS | Greater St. John AME Church, 7 p.m., with a YouTube stream | Pastor Jamal Bryant; Ben Crump and Christine Wonsley spoke | hundreds in person and online | National Prayer Rally on what would have been his 19th birthday; transparency, justice. | source |
| 2026-08-19 | Virtual (Zoom) | Nationwide virtual prayer vigil | Rev. Al Sharpton, National Action Network | 550+ | Three friends from the boat trip spoke. | source |
| 2026-07-27 | Pascagoula, MS | Jackson County Courthouse | Supporters (Kacie Marvin, Bob Smith) | small group | "Answers for Nolan"; transparency from the DA and sheriff. | source |
| 2026-07-26 | Gulfport, MS | Jones Park along E. Beach Blvd. to the Courthouse Pier, 4 p.m. | Tanya "Jewelz" Darden | dozens | "Walk for Nolan Wells"; answers and transparency; route cut short for heat. | source |
| 2026-07-11 | Ocean Springs, MS | Government and State streets, about 5 p.m. | Community, announced on Facebook; Israel United in Christ also marched | several hundred | The first protest; transparency; "say his name." | source |
People named in the public record
Family, Christine Wells-Wonsley (mother), Elmore Wonsley (stepfather), Christopher Wells Sr. (grandfather).
On the July 4 trip, Warren Hudson; Tracestin Shepherd; Jayvon Williams; Jax Pitalo; Morgan Seymour; Bart Edmiston Jr. (piloted his own boat; family counsel Russ Latino); an unidentified young woman Nolan met at the party.
Adults connected to the friends, Ben Hudson (Warren's father); Judge Ashlee Cole (Warren's stepmother; received threats).
Officials, DA Angel Myers McIlrath (elected); Sheriff John Ledbetter (JCSO, elected); Coroner Bruce Lynd (elected; not a physician's post, the State ME performs autopsies); Capt. William Freeman (MDMR); Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office; National Park Service; U.S. Coast Guard; FBI (threat cases); Todd Terrell (United Cajun Navy).
Family's side & public figures
Family's side, Ben Crump, Eric Hertz, Ahmad Smith (attorneys); NAACP (joined Aug 19) and its general counsel Kristen Clarke; Curley Clark (Jackson County NAACP); Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr.; Andrew Garrett (Garrett Discovery); Colin Kaepernick (autopsy); Tyler Perry (funeral); Rev. Al Sharpton.
Commented, Gov. Tate Reeves; Sen. Jeremy England; Rep. Henry Zuber III; Congressional Black Caucus.
The grand jury found no altercation and no basis for charges; no one on this list has been accused of anything. Three of the friends have sent Rev. Sharpton a pre-suit defamation demand. This roster is a who-is-who for records requests, never a suspect list.
Official records and where they live
| Record | Holder | Public? | How to get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grand jury report (redacted) | Jackson County DA; filed with the Circuit Clerk | Yes | DA's website and Facebook page; Circuit Clerk; MEC/PAMEC public account ($10/yr); WLBT copy |
| State autopsy and toxicology | Mississippi State Medical Examiner | Via family | Confidential in Mississippi except to next of kin and counsel; the family released the full report Sept 24 (PDF, TMZ copy) |
| Independent autopsy | Family / Dr. Mitchell | Partly | Findings released July 22; the report itself has not been published |
| Phone extraction and deletion logs | Family / Garrett Discovery; 282 pages with the DA | Partly | Summary released Sept 24; 290 pages of Snapchat records published Sept 28 (video-derived copy, names redacted). Still unpublished: the 21-page examination findings with logs, the original 261-page Snapchat report, and the native GPS records |
| JCSO incident, search and interview reports | Jackson County Sheriff's Office | Request | Mississippi Public Records Act request; may be withheld while "active" |
| Boat GPS tracks, MDMR logs, Sea Tow recording | MDMR; Sea Tow; boat owners | Request | Cited by the grand jury; request through MDMR and the DA |
| NPS recovery report | National Park Service (Gulf Islands NS) | Request | Federal FOIA to NPS; relevant to the DOJ request since the island is federal land. Oct 5: Reps. Wilson and Waters asked the NPS Investigative Services Branch (acting director Jessica Bowron) to investigate |
| Criminal docket | — | None | A no-true-bill creates no case; nothing to search |
① Collection trigger, does this death qualify?
② Deliberate search builder
③ Lead queue, articles found
| Found | Person / headline | Location | Score | Status |
|---|
④ Sweep algorithm, signature search
Derived from the cases in this tracker. Six signatures describe how these deaths surface in coverage, the words a reporter uses before anyone calls it a pattern. The sweep runs every signature phrase against a demographic term and the time window set in ②.
- Cadence. Weekly: set ②'s window to "Past week", run the sweep, open each link (Google News first; GDELT catches wire and small-outlet pickups).
- Screen. Read each hit against the gate and indicators in ①. Score ≥ 2 → log as a lead; score ≥ 4 → promote to a case.
- Dedupe. Match by normalized name + state. The Names and Cases tabs already flag anything present.
- Enrich. For each lead run "Name" city plus autopsy · ruling · arrest · footage · attorney · NAACP. The Names tab's per-name links do this in one click.
- Watch-back. Re-run each open case's name at 7, 30, and 90 days: rulings change, charges land, independent autopsies and FBI/DOJ reviews appear late.
- Cross-check. JULIAN's MDL database / A Crimson Record, Mapping Police Violence, and Say Every Name.
- Prioritize sources. Black press (Capital B, Mississippi Today, Word In Black, The Miami Times, Kansas City Defender, BIN, The Root, Emerald Book) and local TV (Gray, Nexstar, Tegna, FOX O&Os) break these stories days before national outlets.
⑤ A family member is missing and police aren't acting
- Insist on the report. Police must take a missing-child report immediately (federal law, no waiting period) and enter the child in NCIC within two hours. Ask for the report number and the NCIC entry confirmation.
- Call NCMEC: 1-800-843-5678 (1-800-THE-LOST). They open a case, produce the poster, and push the agency. missingkids.org/gethelpnow
- Black and Missing Foundation, amplification and agency pressure for missing Black people: blackandmissinginc.com.
- Enter NamUs (adults especially): namus.gov, the national missing-persons database; families can create a case that the agency must review.
- Indigenous relatives: BIA Missing & Murdered Unit tip line 1-833-560-2065 · bia.gov/service/mmu; FBI field office.
- Escalate in writing to the chief/sheriff, the district attorney, and the state missing-persons clearinghouse; copy a reporter from the Black press. Keep every message, it becomes the record of delay.
- Preserve evidence yourself: phone location sharing, social accounts, doorbell/business cameras (Cameras tab), and the names of everyone last with them.
Systemic tracking & key disparities
The phenomenon of misclassified or uninvestigated deaths in Black, Indigenous, Latino and Asian communities spans several analytical sectors at once: what the death certificate says (vital statistics), what the coroner or medical examiner actually did (autopsy, toxicology, scene work), and how police counted, classified, and closed the file. No single database holds all three, so disparities are found by comparing systems and by coding each case so it can be lined up against national data.
Two signals matter most. A death parked in Y10–Y34 ("undetermined intent") or R99 ("cause unknown") means the classifying office did not or could not choose between accident, suicide, and homicide. A rate of such classifications that is higher for one racial group than another, in the same jurisdiction and years, is a measurable disparity in investigative effort.
Live tally from your cases
ICD-10 classification
Investigation-quality indicators
Comparative breakdown of raw data systems
| Database | Data source | Access | Best used for |
|---|---|---|---|
| CDC WONDER | Death certificates only, 1979–1998 (Compressed Mortality File, ICD-9 codes) and 1999–present (Underlying Cause of Death, ICD-10); Multiple Cause of Death 1999–last week, incl. provisional. Nothing before 1979 is searchable by race and cause in WONDER. | Public aggregated query builder |
Tracking macro-level spikes in Y10–Y34 "undetermined" and R99 "unknown cause" deaths by race/ethnicity, state, county, year, age, and sex. |
| NVDRS RAD National Violent Death Reporting System, Restricted Access Database |
Death certificates + coroner / medical-examiner reports + law-enforcement reports + toxicology, with circumstance narratives | Restricted application; academic / agency |
Analyzing the absence of toxicological testing, scene details, or circumstance data in deaths of Black, Indigenous, Latino and Asian decedents versus white decedents in the same jurisdiction. |
| NACJD / ICPSR National Archive of Criminal Justice Data, University of Michigan |
FBI Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR), National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), Uniform Crime Reports; police incident-level records | Public & restricted public-use + restricted-use files |
Tracking how police classify, clear, or prematurely close files, and finding deaths that appear as homicides on certificates but never in police homicide counts (or the reverse), before forensic results were returned. |
| EJI, Lynching in America | Historical documentation of racial terror lynchings; interactive map; county data supplement | Public | Historical baseline: the era when deaths of Black people were uninvestigated by design. Lets modern cases be placed against the documented county-level geography of racial terror. |
| data.gov | Federal open-data catalog; indexes state/county medical-examiner, coroner, and police datasets | Public | Locating local "manner of death by race" tables, ME/coroner case logs, and police open-data portals for a specific jurisdiction. |
| Mapping Police Violence | Every killing by police since 2013, compiled from media reports, obituaries, public records, and other databases; race, agency, circumstances, and whether charges followed | Public downloadable dataset |
Cross-checking any death with police contact before it, and comparing how often charges follow when the person killed is Black versus white. |
| FBI Crime Data Explorer Uniform Crime Reporting program |
NIBRS incident data, Expanded Homicide Data (SHR), hate-crime and National Use-of-Force collections; bulk CSV downloads and an API | Public | Agency-level homicide counts and clearance rates by victim race, finding agencies whose reported homicides don't match certificate counts from CDC WONDER. |
| BJS LEARCAT Law Enforcement Agency Reported Crime Analysis Tool |
NIBRS incident, victim, and arrest data from reporting agencies (2024 incident counts linked) | Public interactive query tool |
Whether arrests follow homicides of Black victims at the same rate as others, by agency, year, offense, and victim race / sex / age. |
| VPC, Black Homicide Victimization Violence Policy Center, 2024 data |
CDC WISQARS mortality data (national and state rates) plus FBI SHR (victim–offender relationship, circumstances) | Public report | The national and state baseline for Black homicide, the rate against which every "not a homicide" ruling in this tracker should be read. Figures below. |
| Say Every Name Say Their Names list |
Memorial roster of Black people killed in the U.S. by law enforcement and civilians, names only | Public loaded in the Names tab |
A starting roster to research one name at a time: add as a case, establish date/place/ruling/charges, and cross-check against Mapping Police Violence. |
| JULIAN, MDL database "A Crimson Record" (Feb 2026) |
Documented suspected modern-day lynchings (MDLs): 70+ cases across MS, AL, FL, GA, LA, TN, and TX since 2000, Mississippi 20, a 21st-century follow-up to Ida B. Wells's A Red Record | Public report + growing database |
The closest existing analogue to this tracker: match every hanging or "ruled suicide" case here against JULIAN's list, and adopt its criteria when writing up a pattern. |
ICD-10 codes (deaths from 1999 on) that capture uninvestigated or misclassified deaths
| Block | Meaning | Sub-codes worth pulling |
|---|
ICD-9 codes (deaths 1979–1998), the same categories for the earlier years
| Block | Meaning | Sub-codes worth pulling |
|---|
How to run the comparison
- CDC WONDER → Underlying Cause of Death (1999–present). Group results by Single Race 6 (and Hispanic Origin), State, and Year. Under ICD-10 codes select Y10–Y34. Export. Repeat for X60–X84, V01–X59, and X85–Y09 so you have every manner for the same group/place/years. For 1979–1998 use Compressed Mortality with ICD-9 E980–E989, E950–E959, E800–E949, and E960–E969; race there is the older 4-category coding.
- Compute the share. For each racial group: undetermined-intent deaths ÷ all injury deaths (V01–Y36). Enter two groups in the calculator below to get the disparity ratio.
- NACJD → Supplementary Homicide Reports for the same state and years, filtered by victim race. Compare the police homicide count against WONDER's X85–Y09 certificate count. A gap in either direction is a classification question.
- Local records. Search data.gov for the county ME/coroner. If no "manner by race" table is published, file a public-records request for it, and for the office's toxicology-testing rate by manner.
- Code every case in this tracker with its ICD-10 block, then use the tally above to see how your documented cases sit against the population-level numbers.
Disparity ratio calculator
Group A
Group B
Historical baseline
The Equal Justice Initiative's Lynching in America documents 4,075 racial terror lynchings of African Americans across 12 Southern states between 1877 and 1950, at least 800 more than previously reported, with follow-up research covering eight additional states (IL, IN, KS, MD, MO, OH, OK, WV). Its interactive map and county data supplement give a documented, county-level geography of deaths that were never investigated. Add the EJI county count as a tag or note on a modern case when the location overlaps.
National baseline, Black homicide victimization, 2024
85.3% of Black victims were male; 84.3% were killed with firearms. Highest state rates: Missouri 48.3, Mississippi 41.0, Illinois and Wisconsin 38.6 per 100,000. Source: Violence Policy Center, from CDC WISQARS and FBI SHR. These count deaths that were classified homicide, every misclassified death is missing from them, which is why the undetermined-intent share matters.
Computed from medical-examiner open data , the disparity ratio, run for real
Denominator is every ME case (natural deaths included), so the shares are small; the ratios are the point. Re-run any time: the API links return current counts.
Medical examiner & coroner public portals
Missing children without a voice, what the numbers show
Sources: WTVR (May 24, 2026) citing NCMEC; Black and Missing Foundation; FBI MMIP. Read carefully: these are shares of reported cases, not proof of a rising count, the Black and Missing Foundation itself said it could not verify the viral "uptick" figures, while confirming the disparity is real. To test an uptick, pull NCMEC's counts for the same months in prior years and compare. In this tracker, filter Cases by the tag missing child or the status Missing (not found).
Modern-day lynching, JULIAN's definition
JULIAN, the first organization to document modern-day lynchings in the 21st century, defines an MDL as a discriminatory killing carried out by more than one person for an alleged offense, with or without legal trial or due process, intended, unlike an ordinary hate crime, to spread terror and uphold a system of supremacy, and often involving an element of spectacle. Its February 2026 report A Crimson Record documents more than 70 suspected cases across seven Southern states since 2000, with Mississippi leading at 20.
The report's central observation is this tracker's premise: lynchings by hanging tend to be ruled suicides at first, and investigations close before they begin. Use the hanging, tree tag and the "Ruled suicide/accident over family objection" concern to pull the matching subset from your cases.
Sources for everything on this tab
Nothing on this tab is estimated by the site. Where a source could not be fetched automatically (Mapping Police Violence, FBI CDE, LEARCAT, several ME portals), the row describes the source from its public documentation and links it; no numbers were taken from those.
Mission
To help locate, and to help prevent, the disappearance and death of more children and people without a voice, Black, Indigenous, Latino and Asian lives. To support and inform those who cannot get the answers they need. To bring back together a community that has been broken by so much heartbreak.
This site is a complete tool as it stands today, version , and it will be updated regularly until the full vision is built (see the roadmap below).
Purpose
A structured record of deaths of people and children without a voice, Black, Indigenous, Latino and Asian lives, that were dismissed, prematurely closed, or under-investigated, deaths ruled suicide, accident, or "undetermined" over family objection, or affected by disputed autopsy findings, regardless of the manner of death (drowning, hanging, fall, and so on).
By logging dates, places, manners, demographics, and investigation quality in one place, the tool lets patterns, including clusters of deaths close together in time or geography, become visible, so families, journalists, attorneys, and oversight bodies can examine them.
Ground rules built into the data model
- Separate the official ruling from the dispute. Every case records what authorities concluded and, separately, what the family/community allege.
- Cite everything. Each case has a Sources list; unsourced claims are marked unverified.
- A cluster is a question, not an answer. The tool surfaces deaths that fall close together but never asserts why. Coincidence, shared conditions, reporting effects, and coordination are all possibilities to be tested, not assumed.
- Describe, don't accuse. Log disputes as allegations unless a source establishes otherwise.
- Code to the national standard. Each case carries its ICD-10 block (ICD-9 for 1979–1998) so it can be compared against CDC WONDER, NVDRS, and NACJD data, see the Disparities tab.
- Missing is a status, not an afterthought. A person reported missing is a record from day one, with where and when they were reported missing kept apart from where they were found, and the outcome (still missing, found alive, found deceased, recovered from trafficking) is tracked explicitly.
The missing-persons registry
The Missing Patterns tab carries every active missing-child poster for a Black, Indigenous, Latino or Asian child in the United States, pulled from NCMEC's public poster search by race and state, with each child's detail record (sex, case type, circumstances), cross-checked against Global Missing Kids, joined by the Bureau of Indian Affairs Missing & Murdered Unit's published cases, and by the Black and Missing Foundation's database, which is the only one of these that lists missing adults. The foundation's records are pulled state by state through the search its own site uses; a child who already has an NCMEC poster is listed once, under NCMEC. Social-media pages such as The Vivid Faces of the Vanished and A Voice for the Voiceless cannot be read by the site without a login, so cases seen there are added by hand from the Intake tab. Race is exactly as the source records it; Black, Hispanic/Mexican, and American Indian children are highlighted. The registry is a snapshot with a pull date; children who are found are removed from the sources and will drop out on the next pull. Any child can be added to the tracker with one click, after which they cluster and map with everything else.
Florida's Operation Statewide Shield (Aug 17–21, 2026) recovered 163 children without releasing names; Florida children reported missing before it who are still listed are flagged, because they were not among the 163.
Medical-examiner data and the computed ratio
Where an ME office publishes every case with race and manner (Cook County, San Diego County), the site computes the share of deaths classified "undetermined" by race and the ratio to white decedents directly from the office's API, the same measure the Disparities calculator asks you to run on CDC WONDER. Nineteen ME and coroner portals are linked; each case's records section shows the portal for its state or county.
When a family reports someone missing and police don't act
Intake ⑤ logs the person as a missing-person case immediately, not after a death, records what the family was told, and lists the escalation path (NCMEC, Black and Missing Foundation, NamUs, BIA MMU for Indigenous relatives, written escalation, evidence preservation). The delay itself becomes part of the record, which is what the disparity data says to look for.
Camera / evidence catalog
For each case you can log nearby cameras, Flock Safety ALPR readers, DOT/traffic cameras, business CCTV, residential/doorbell cameras, and public cameras, with location, owner/contact, footage-retention window, and request status. The Cameras tab lists where to find them, state by state.
Data & privacy
Everything is stored locally in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. Use Export to back up and share; Import to merge or replace. Seeds reloads the built-in starter set (with a warning).
Official case searches, what is actually public
Every case card links the court-record search for its state (the Court & records links). What those searches return depends on the state. Most have a free public docket (Maryland Case Search, NC eCourts, SC Public Index, Alacourt, WCCA in Wisconsin, MiCOURT, Kentucky CourtNet). Mississippi is different: circuit and county dockets and filed documents are in the Mississippi Electronic Courts system, which the public reaches through a PAMEC account ($10 a year) or free at a courthouse terminal; the Supreme Court and Court of Appeals dockets are free online. Two limits apply everywhere. First, a death with no charges produces no court case: a grand jury's no-true-bill, a medical examiner's ruling, or a police closure leaves nothing on a docket, so the records to request are the ME report, the incident report, and any grand jury report the DA chooses to publish. Second, autopsy reports are confidential in many states (Mississippi, Georgia, and Florida among them) except to next of kin and their counsel, which is why a family's independent autopsy and their attorney's releases are often the only primary documents in public view. The Nolan Wells card shows the pattern: the DA published a redacted grand jury report, the state ME's findings are known only through that report, and no case number exists.
Hanging deaths, how the map and sequence analysis work
The Patterns tab's Hanging deaths section pulls every case whose manner is hanging or whose description mentions a noose or ligature, orders them by date, and numbers them on the map. Each row shows the date, the time the person was found (as published, a 911-call time, a "pronounced" time, or "early morning" when that is all the record says), and the days and straight-line miles from the previous case. The dashed line on the map joins consecutive cases in time only.
The sequence analysis tests one specific question, could a single group have been present at consecutive scenes?, using a generous 600 road-miles-per-day limit. Pairs that fail that test are evidence against one traveling group for those two cases; pairs that pass are not evidence for it, only "not ruled out." The analysis also counts cases where police say video shows the person alone, and cases where a suicide finding was announced before the autopsy. It says so on the page: timing and geography cannot prove coordination; ligature, toxicology, injury, phone-location and license-plate evidence can. Use the Cameras tab and the records-request checklist on each case to go after those.
Weather. Each hanging row carries the weather at that site on the day the person was found and the day before, sky condition, low and high, rainfall, peak wind, sunrise, and the hour-of-discovery reading when a time is known. The source is the ERA5 reanalysis served by Open-Meteo (archive-api.open-meteo.com), a gridded model of observed weather at roughly 9 km resolution, not a station report; for a case in the last few days the site uses Open-Meteo's analysis feed instead. Weather is embedded for the seeded cases and fetched live for new ones when the browser is online. It is route context, road conditions, daylight, how busy an outdoor scene would have been, and the page says so; it does not establish motive.
Data check , does every view count the same cases?
Activity log & version control , who changed what, when
| When | Action | Case | Detail | Device | Rev |
|---|
Version history , major changes
Roadmap, the full vision
- Server-backed version control and audit trail with named accounts, so every contribution is attributed and reversible.
- Notifications to subscribed families, organizers, and reporters when a case they follow changes or a new one is added nearby.
- Scheduled re-pulls of NCMEC, BIA, and medical-examiner feeds so the registry and the computed disparities stay current without a manual build.
- Hosting on a content-delivery network with a stable address, offline-first on phones, and privacy-preserving usage statistics (counts only, never identities).
- Public-records request templates and a per-case deadline tracker for footage retention windows.
Contact & copyright
Questions, corrections, or a case to add: w7hgnxs6cn@privaterelay.appleid.com
© 2026 Unresolved. All rights reserved. Case summaries are compiled from the cited public sources; official rulings and family positions are recorded separately and every entry is marked verified or unverified. Nothing here asserts guilt of any person.
Ask the tracker's data , answered right here from this site's records; nothing leaves the page
How to write a prompt that gets real answers, guide and ready-made templates
A good prompt has five parts. The builder below adds parts 3–5 for you; you supply 1 and 2.
- Who or what, a full name, a place, a date range, or a pattern. Specific beats broad: "Tasia Fortune, Jackson MS, found Aug 3 2026" outperforms "hanging deaths". Attach a tracker case and its details go in automatically.
- What you want back, one clear ask per prompt: the ruling and autopsy status, whether anyone was charged, the last-48-hours timeline, which cameras were nearby, or similar deaths in the same period. Tick "Also ask for" chips to add more.
- Where to look, pick the sources in step 2. Local TV and Black press break these stories first; court portals show charges; camera maps show what could have recorded the scene.
- The site's own data, turn on "Include tracker data" and the assistant gets the matching records from this tracker (dates, rulings, family positions, sources) and is told to search those first, then the web.
- Rules, always attached: a URL and date for every fact, "not found" instead of guesses, official rulings kept separate from allegations, nobody accused without a charge on the record.
Templates, click one to load it, then edit the [brackets].
Tips. Ask one question at a time. Give dates as full dates. Name the county, not just the city. If the first answer is thin, send the follow-up "List every source you checked and what each said". For social media, search the person's name plus the city and the word "found" in the days after the date.
1 · Your question or prompt
2 · Where should it look?
3 · Send it , each button opens directly in that site or app, with everything pre-filled
Surveillance & ALPR maps
Government & registered cameras, DC / Maryland / Virginia
Public webcams & aggregators
Cameras by state, traffic, public webcams, surveillance maps
| State | Traffic cameras | Public webcams | Surveillance & ALPR maps |
|---|