Nolan Wells' Pathologist Couldn't Rule Out WHAT?!

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
This is The Big Breakdown, a long look back at some of the biggest stories we're covering for you at the Hidden Killers Podcast and True Crime Today. This is Hidden Killers Live with Tony Brueski and Robin Drake.

**Tony Brueski** (0:17)
The independent autopsy on Nolan Wells came back undetermined. The pathologist listed seven questions he still can't answer and said he cannot rule out foul play. The DA committed to presenting this to a grand jury once the investigation is complete. But what does that grand jury, what that grand jury actually receives depends on decisions being made right now. That's what we're going to be getting into today. Your thoughts in the comments section and Substack and YouTube. Robin Drake, retired FBI special agent, chief of the counterintelligence behavioral analysis program with us as always. And joining us from what we understand, I'm not making this up. This sounds like something I would pull out of my ass.
Jennifer Coffindaffer is joining us from a train in Czechoslovakia.
That's a new one. Never thought I'd have that. Jen, welcome. We don't have a visual on her today, but we have her audio if you're watching us on YouTube to talk about this case. So I'm just going to jump into the case. What is going on in the investigation right now behind the scenes as they prepare to present this information to a grand jury? I want to take an opinion out of this, not whether we think anything happened, foul play or not, but if they're preparing information to present to a grand jury, what are they putting together right now and how long might it take to get that to a grand jury and for an investigation to take once it's handed off? Jen, what are your thoughts?

**Jennifer Coffindaffer** (1:53)
Well I think this is going to take quite a while and I'll tell you why. It's because they're going to want to go through all the digital information from his phone and from all the friends' phones. We found out that there were about 30 friends that actually went on three separate boats. Well that's a lot of people to go ahead and get that information about, not to mention all of the witnesses. That's going to include more than just the buddies. That's also going to include everybody, everyone potentially that was on that beach. So I see this taking quite a while and this should all be presented to the grand jury with of course the GPS information, the autopsy information.
Those are the big ticket items.

**Tony Brueski** (2:35)
The grand jury has subpoena power. Obviously investigators have so much power too.
But what sort of powers does the grand jury have in this case that maybe investigators don't have yet? Is the investigation going to get so far and then start relying on the powers of the grand jury that may go beyond the scope of what they're able to do right now?

**Jennifer Coffindaffer** (3:01)
Well, no. The grand jury won't have any more powers than the investigators have, but they're dual powers. In other words, you can issue subpoenas through the grand jury, and you can also do subpoenas and get information through warrants and things like that. So you're able to get the same information. It's just through a different avenue.

**Tony Brueski** (3:23)
Is one more difficult to exercise than the other as far as an investigator going to a court, getting a subpoena versus a grand jury requesting it because they're the grand jury and they get it basically? I'm just wondering if the lever is easier to pull in one direction or the other when people are trying to dig, especially if you have reluctant witnesses, and again, not to say anything criminal, but because of the way that this case has been going and people not wanting to have their name in the mix of all the minutiae here and the very high emotions that are flying.

**Jennifer Coffindaffer** (4:01)
The lever is much easier to pull when it comes to a grand jury subpoena.
That is a piece of cake comparatively. It's much quicker than, say, a warrant. So it is a strong investigative body that has quicker powers to utilize. So that's another reason that the grand jury is a good course of action in this case.

**Robin Drake** (4:22)
And Jen, how soon do you think, or the speed of moving from a grand jury to the investigation, is going to go? Because, I mean, I think there's enough here, both with public sentiment and inaccuracies, and just the typically way these things work, that it should move away from the grand jury at some point. I mean, I have a work of grand juries on my counterintelligence side. How fast does that process happen?