What we still don’t know from Nolan Wells’ autopsy results — and if findings point to foul play: former medical examiner

Autopsy results for a Mississippi teen who vanished during a Fourth of July boat trip still don’t indicate that there was foul play involved in his death, as investigators await crucial details from his toxicology report, a former top medical examiner has told The Post.

The cause of death of 18-year-old Nolan Wells is yet to be determined, with key factors such as challenges due to decomposition and uncertainty over the cause of a 12-inch “discoloration” to his scalp delaying the answers his family needs.

“I think just to be clear that so far there’s nothing dependent on foul play, but we don’t know what their findings were,” Dr. Michael Baden, former Chief Medical Examiner of New York City, told The Post.

“Right now, the situation is you can’t tell the cause of death,” he said.

“Normally, routine toxicology for drugs of abuse is finished as a priority. And within a week or two, almost all the drugs can be identified,” added Dr. Baden, who is also a former chief forensic pathologist for the New York State Police.

“The drugs that take longer are some of the more recent cannabinoid drugs, marijuana type drugs,” he added. “But they usually aren’t the major factor. They don’t usually kill people.”

During a press conference with Wells’ grieving family on Wednesday, civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump highlighted how the victim’s throat had been removed prior to his body being flown to Washington, DC, for a second autopsy.

However, Dr. Baden, who himself carried out the autopsy on Jeffrey Epstein, said this wasn’t unusual.

“Normally if there were fractures of the windpipe or the Adam’s apple, which would indicate neck compression, it’s pretty apparent at the first autopsy,” he said.

Here’s the latest on the disappearance and death of Mississippi teen Nolan Wells:

• Nolan Wells had been drinking alcohol but seemed ‘fine’ on day he vanished, ‘best friend’ says
• Nolan Wells’ preliminary autopsy results reveal 7 unanswered questions after teen vanished on trip with friends
• Nolan Wells’ ‘best friend’ speaks out about being subjected to rumors over teen’s death
• Newly unearthed video may be final footage of Nolan Wells before he was found dead

“However, the keeping of the windpipe is not uncommon. It’s not usual, but in cases like this, it’s kept for further, closer examination because there can be very tiny fractures that are missed,” Dr. Baden said.

The experienced pathologist also said it was still too soon to say whether the mark on the back of Wells’ head was the result of an accident or foul play, or whether it occurred before or after death.

“It isn’t a small injury. It’s about 12 inches long, the whole back of the scalp. So that could be postmortem decomposition,” said Dr. Baden.

“It could be from falling or being struck by a rock or something in the water or a floating log in the water. And one can’t rule out that he wasn’t struck in the head before he went in the water. But there are a lot of innocent ways it could have happened,” he added.