Children’s icon Ms. Rachel determines that Nolan Wells didn’t drown – so glad she weighed in

BS BULLETIN:

Children’s entertainer Ms. Rachel has joined the online campaign demanding answers in the mysterious death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells.
She declared that Wells “didn’t drown,” echoing questions raised by his family and their attorneys.
But neither the state nor independent autopsy actually reached that conclusion: both classified Wells’ cause and manner of death as undetermined.

Ms. Rachel has apparently expanded the curriculum beyond letters, numbers and nursery rhymes.

The enormously popular children’s entertainer has weighed in on the mysterious death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells, telling her millions of followers that the Mississippi teenager “didn’t drown.”

There’s just one problem.

We don’t actually know that.

Wells disappeared after traveling with friends to Horn Island, Mississippi, for a Fourth of July gathering. His body was discovered two days later, floating face-down in the water.

The circumstances surrounding his death have generated intense national attention and plenty of unanswered questions.

A Mississippi grand jury reviewed testimony from 43 witnesses along with physical evidence, police interviews, digital evidence, photographs, video and both autopsy investigations.

It found insufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime and concluded that the location, condition and discovery of Wells’ body were “consistent with drowning.”

The grand jury also reported finding no credible evidence that Wells’ friends committed a crime or that his death was racially motivated.

But Wells’ family and their attorneys strongly dispute the suggestion that this was simply an accidental drowning.

The state autopsy found two bruises on the back of Wells’ head whose origin remains unexplained. His family’s independent autopsy also identified blunt-force injuries.

Attorneys for the family have additionally emphasized that the state report found no fluid or debris in Wells’ airways and an empty stomach.

But neither medical examiner concluded from those findings that Wells could not have drowned.

In fact, both the state medical examiner and the independent pathologist hired by Wells’ family classified the cause and manner of his death as undetermined.

An independent forensic pathologist who reviewed the state report has also cautioned that determining drowning after a body has been recovered from water isn’t as simple as checking whether water remains in the lungs.

That uncertainty is precisely why Wells’ family continues demanding further investigation.

Ms. Rachel apparently decided the uncertainty was over.

In a video circulating online, she told viewers:

“Nolan Wells didn’t drown.”

She went on to highlight the absence of water in his lungs and stomach while calling for justice in the case.

Wanting answers for Wells’ family is one thing.

Announcing an answer that the medical examiners themselves haven’t reached is something else.

MY QUICK TAKE

When two medical examiners decline to determine how someone died, perhaps the woman who taught half America’s toddlers how to say “ball” shouldn’t declare the autopsy settled on Instagram.

Sometimes “I don’t know” is a perfectly good answer.

Even grown-ups are allowed to use it.