Three Black 18-year-olds died within about three months of each other in 2026, in three states. In each case officials gave an explanation. In each case the family says it does not fit what they know about their son.
The three families, represented by attorney Ben Crump, stood together in Nashville on July 29 at the National Urban League conference. Nobody has been convicted of causing any of the deaths. Two friends of the young men have been charged with tampering with evidence, and that is the closest any case has come to a courtroom.
Nolan Wells, Mississippi
Nolan Wells went by boat with white friends to Horn Island, off the Mississippi coast, on July 4. He did not come back with them. A park ranger found his body in the water two days later.
A Jackson County grand jury of 23 people declined on Sept. 21 to indict anyone. It said it found “no credible evidence to support the public allegations” and that the position of the body was “consistent with drowning.” Reported coverage says it reviewed 132 subpoenas and 43 witnesses.
But the cause and manner of death in both the state autopsy and an independent one, by forensic pathologist Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., are listed as undetermined. The state report records two scalp contusions on the back of his head and concludes they were not fatal. The family’s lawyers call them blunt-force injuries, and say the independent autopsy found no water in his lungs or stomach. “What we were left with were many, many inconsistent stories,” his mother, Christine Wonsley, said.
Daniel Erving, Texas
Daniel Erving, a competitive swimmer, went to Lake Ray Hubbard in North Texas on April 14 after jumping from a bridge with two other young men. His body was found April 17 in the Rowlett area. Dallas police determined the death was an accidental drowning.
His mother, Tameca Erving, disputes that, pointing to an autopsy finding of an unobstructed airway. A 19-year-old who was with him is charged with tampering with physical evidence, accused of discarding Erving’s clothes and deleting communications, and a juvenile is accused of disposing of his phone. Crump says the friends chose not to go to authorities. The family has called for murder charges.
Tyler Smith, Kentucky
Tyler Smith was shot at a Fourth of July house party in Lexington. Lexington police say a preliminary investigation shows the wound was accidental and self-inflicted. A 20-year-old at the party was charged on July 10 with tampering with physical evidence. Crump says the gun recovered does not match the shell casings found at the scene, a claim that comes from the family’s lawyer, not from police. Smith’s grandmother said: “I simply want you to do the job you were paid to do.”
The federal question
The Wells family has pushed for federal involvement, and the Congressional Black Caucus has asked Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel for an independent review. Horn Island is federal land, which is why Rep. Frederica Wilson also asked the National Park Service’s investigative branch to look at it.
The Justice Department’s answer, reported Oct. 7, was that there is “no evidence of foul play or any crime.” The same day, asked at the White House whether he would push the FBI to investigate, President Trump said: “We’re looking at that. Yes, we are.” Crump said that response “carries more weight than the response given by the FBI.” No federal investigation has been announced in the coverage we reviewed.
How many families are in this position
No agency counts families like these, and we are not aware of a national tally of Black deaths left unresolved after an official ruling. The available numbers point in one direction. Black people were 31% of the more than 97,000 active missing-person cases at the end of 2022, according to FBI National Crime Information Center data reported by PBS, against about 13% of the population. Researchers have also found that Black deaths are 2.3 times as likely as white deaths to be classified as undetermined, in a 2010 study by researcher Rockett in BMC Psychiatry.
The Wells family is now waiting to see whether the president’s words become an FBI case file.
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