News

Ben Crump -- the attorney for Nolan Wells' family -- says the biggest unanswered question in his death comes down to three words -- "blunt force trauma" -- and his family will continue fighting for answers.

Crump spoke Tuesday after a grand jury declined to pursue criminal charges ... pointing to unexplained injuries on the back of Nolan's head and his back.

He said Mississippi officials are leaving the family with "we'll never know" ... but Nolan's family has three words of its own -- "we'll never stop."

Nolan Wells slipped and fell off a boat hours before he died off the coast of Mississippi ... according to a witness who testified before the grand jury that decided against filing criminal charges related to his death.

According to documents filed late last week, a witness said under oath that they saw Nolan "slip awkwardly off the side of a boat" at around 3:30 PM on the Fourth of July when he was at Horn Island.

The docs say the witness could not say whether Nolan hit his head when he slipped ... though the witness did say Nolan got right back up and continued to socialize with people on the boat.

Senator Susan Collins was the target of a bribery investigation before President Donald Trump basically derailed the probe, according to a new report ... but her team is calling BS.

ProPublica dove into the alleged sordid affair in a new exposé published Tuesday ... claiming the Maine senator's campaign was strapped for cash in 2020 when she entered into an illicit understanding with the defense contractor Navatek through intermediaries.

The report alleges Navatek's CEO Martin Kao told top Collins fundraiser Scott Reed he'd make sure the campaign received thousands of dollars from a shell company -- in exchange for the senator guaranteeing "tens of millions of dollars in additional federal funding."

Here's the heated exchange between lawyers for Nolan Wells' family and prosecutors in Mississippi ... and it's chock full of drama and friction.

The correspondence between Jackson County D.A. Angel Myers McIlrath and several of the family's attorneys was recently released as part of a grand jury report ... and it appears to show major communication issues between the two sides.

The D.A. sent an email to Gary Bufkin, Esq., July 29 ... stating there was no legal authority requiring her office to share information with civil counsel during an active investigation, adding that there was a process for death investigations, and she didn't think it was appropriate to deviate from it.

Patrick Clancy says compassion and accountability can coexist in a murder case when mental illness is involved ... even in a tragedy as horrific as the deaths of his three children.

A new clip from Patrick's "60 Minutes" interview aired on "CBS Mornings" Tuesday ... and it features his thoughts on what justice looks like in cases like his ex-wife Lindsay Clancy's murder trial.

Patrick said he believes society can find a compassionate way to deal with such tragedies, but stressed, "That doesn't mean no accountability."

Ben Crump isn't buying the official line from Mississippi authorities that Nolan Wells simply drowned to death, saying the District Attorney never explained the injuries the teen sustained to the back of his head.

Crump -- the Wells family attorney -- issued a statement Monday night, claiming Jackson County District Attorney Angel Myers McIlrath is trying to close the chapter on Nolan's death "without getting to the bottom of what caused the blunt force trauma to the back of his head and body."

Crump also released the results of Nolan's second and final independent autopsy, finding that the 18-year-old's cause and manner of death were undetermined. 

An Indiana mom was passed out drunk after guzzling at least 6 beers while she was supposed to be monitoring her 3-year-old son, who drowned in a pool ... and now she's in big trouble with the law ... according to police.

Anthony Aussieker, a rep for the Evansville Police Department, tells TMZ ... Amie Jo Farber consumed 6 or more 25-ounce Bud Ice beers over roughly 2 hours Saturday while she was sitting in a patio chair supposedly watching her son splash around in a backyard pool at someone's house.

But instead of watching her toddler ... Aussieker says Farber threw a little party for herself, drinking to the point where she passed out in her chair.

Nolan Wells' death has been determined to be "consistent with a drowning" ... months after the 18-year-old vanished during a Fourth of July boating trip to Mississippi's Horn Island.

According to the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's autopsy report, Nolan's manner of death was ruled "undetermined."

“The Grand Jury finds that the position of, the condition of, time of discovery, and location of Mr. Wells’ body is consistent with drowning,” the report read. The Grand Jury, which consisted of 13 men and 10 women, was impaneled on April 20, per local reports. They met again on September 14 and ended on September 18. The report also noted Nolan did not have cocaine in his system, despite rumors.

Jennifer Eckhart was fighting a $1 million defamation lawsuit when she died ... filed by a Florida couple who claimed she falsely linked them and their business to sex trafficking.

Court docs obtained by TMZ show a woman named Darby Annunziata, her husband John, and their lash salon, Sugar Pie Lashes, sued the former Fox News producer in February ... about 7 months before she died by suicide in her Florida home.

According to the complaint, Jennifer allegedly walked into a nearby boutique and warned people not to do business with the salon, claiming Darby "doesn't really support women at all, especially single hard-working mothers working sex trafficking."

Cops say Jennifer Eckhart's mother is the one who discovered her dead in her Florida home ... with a small knife nearby.

TMZ has obtained the incident report from the Martin County Sheriff's Office, which says Eckhart's mother contacted authorities after arriving at her daughter's home Saturday and finding her dead inside the bathtub in the master bathroom.

The report says deputies found a folding pocketknife near Eckhart and observed serious injuries from lacerations. Crime scene investigators and the Medical Examiner's Office were then called to the home.

The former Ohio lawyer whose attempt to shoot his ex-wife in public was foiled by his gun's safety just had the book thrown at him ... the judge sentenced him to nearly a quarter-century behind bars and used video of the attack to tear apart his defense.

Matthew Exton was sentenced Monday for attempted murder, two counts of felonious assault, and multiple firearm charges after he was convicted earlier this month in a trial that went viral.

The 43-year-old insisted he never intended to kill or hurt his ex-wife ... calling the charges political and arguing, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."

10:40 AM PT -- Jennifer Eckhart's mother found her dead inside a bathtub with a knife nearby.

Former Fox News associate producer Jennifer Eckhart has died by suicide ... TMZ has confirmed.

Jennifer died in Florida ... according to a rep for the Martin County Medical Examiner's Office. Law enforcement sources tell us ... the case has been ruled a suicide.

A heavy police presence was spotted outside her Hobe Sound home on Saturday morning ... she was reportedly found dead in her home.

A mother of two in Florida has been charged with attempted murder after cops say she intentionally gave her two adult sons with autism overdoses of medication.

According to the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office ... on September 8, sheriff's deputies received a report about overdoses at a house in Kissimmee.

Deputies say they found 3 people -- 68-year-old Marilyn Therrell and her two sons, 32 and 30, respectively -- suffering from apparent medication overdoses.

Lindsay Clancy's lawyer, Kevin Reddington, is asking the court to allow for a thorough investigation of the holdout juror ... including access to his phone records and a review of his 2021 criminal charge for allegedly assaulting his wife.

The attorney filed a document in court recently asking the judge to let his team see the confidential juror questionnaire and "Juror Doe's record from the statewide domestic violence registry."

Reddington is asking for the juror's mobile phone records -- calls, texts, and data from August 27 through September 4.

It was all Natalie Harp's fault that 3 major news organizations got banned from the White House ... after she reportedly showed President Trump clips of TV hosts ripping him.

Natalie put the final nail in the coffin for CNN, MS NOW and Politico when she showed the commander-in-chief all the negative stories the 3 media outlets had published about him ... according to the Wall Street Journal.

In particular, Natalie focused on TV news anchors bashing the administration during their broadcasts -- and Trump had seen enough by Friday, after watching an unfavorable MS NOW report.

Paramount was threatening to bolt California just days ago ... but now it sounds like it reached a settlement that could save its massive Warner Bros. Discovery takeover and keep the studio rooted in place.

Bloomberg reports Paramount Skydance struck a deal with California and the other states suing to block the $110 billion merger. The agreement is expected to be announced Monday.

TMZ broke the news last week ... Paramount had told California officials "we're done" and was prepared to leave the state before the two sides suddenly got back to negotiating.