Noah Presgrove's family give sad update a year after his death (2024)

Heartbroken loved ones of a teenager mysteriously found on a lonely highway have opened up on the pain of losing him as they mark the first anniversary of his death.

Noah Presgrove, 19, was wearing only shoes when his body was discovered on a desolate stretch ofUS-81 near Terral,Oklahoma, on September 4, 2023.

He was last seen alive about a mile away at a four-day 22nd birthday partywith friends over the Labor Day weekend that was heavily documented on social media.

Presgrove suffered massive head and upper-body injuries that led him to die from internal bleeding, but the cause of those injuries remains a mystery.

Noah Presgrove, 19, was wearing only his shoes when his body was discovered on a desolate stretch of US-81 in Terral, Oklahoma, on September 4, 2023

Presgrove's sister Madison Rawling (pictured together)said the family was exhausted by the slow pace of the police investigation and still not knowing how he died a year later

His aunt Ashley Chadwick said the family decided not to have any kind of ceremony or gathering and would mourn individually.

'It's going to be very hard, it's going to be very emotional, I mean it's been a year and I feel that we have given more than enough time for things to come about and be done,' she said in a video this week.

'For the year going forward, things are going to for sure be a lot stronger, a lot harder on putting pressure and pushing, so we'll see what happens.

'It's come a long way since it first happened and we are very thankful for those who have been standing behind us and the support and prayers.'

Presgrove's sister Madison Rawlings said the family was exhausted by the slow pace of the police investigation and still not knowing how he died a year later.

She said online earlier this week that all she could hope was that his last moments weren't painful, and he wasn't killed by someone he loved.

Any sympathy she may have had for whoever killed her brother was long gone, whether they were trying to get away with it or just scared.

'If we have to catch you...our family has worked this hard to find you, imagine them pushing to get them the punishment they deserve,' she said.

Presgrove (center) with his father Victor (left) and mother Kasey (right)

A tribute to Presgrove near his headstone, as seen on the first anniversary of his death

Close family friend Kristen Smith wrote a letter to Presgrove, desperately hoping to one day find out how he died.

'Noah, a whole year without you 365 days of what ifs, still trying to wrap our mind around who did this to you and why,' she wrote.

Smith expected he would be in basic training for the US Marines, as he was waiting a year to enlist with his cousin, instead of in the local cemetery.

'Wondering where you'd be and what you'd be doing with all your talent. Wondering if you'd be done with basic and where you'd be stationed,' she continued.

'We're all still mourning with no answer to who, what, where, and why! I know you see our fight and I know you know how hard your family is fighting for answers and justice!

'Not a day goes by that we're not thinking of you, actually the entire world. Noah we miss you kiddo! Today we continue to pray and seek answers just as we’ve done and will continue to do! A year is too long without you!

'I hope everyone can make the world just a little brighter today and love like you did, do something kind for someone in your memory.'

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol, which is leading the investigation, has released almost no information about the case over the past year.

The last update was four months ago when it said Presgrove's death was not being investigated as a murder - which did not explicitly rule out manslaughter.

Presgrove (pictured with his mother)suffered massive head and upper-body injuries that led him to die from internal bleeding, but the cause of those injuries remains a mystery

Presgrove's grave at a local cemetery, decorated on the first anniversary of his death

What we know so far

Presgrove's cadre of close pals still raging well into that Sunday night consistently claimed they had no idea how he died, if they were even awake when he did.

But leaked texts and unearthed social media comments show chaotic and constantly shifting competing narratives that have fueled sinister rumors and turned the little town on the Texasborder into a tinderbox.

The rough series of events that emerges is that after two nights or particularly heavy partying, Presgrove and several others took an ATV for a drunken spin and flipped it.

No one was hurt, but he was dirty enough that two of his friends gave him a shower and he changed into a different pair of shorts, and argued with the birthday girl about whether he could sleep in her bed.

After being told no, he wandered off to clear his head and wasn't seen again until a passing motorist spotted his body and called 911 at 5.43am.

But the details are very much in debate - as is whether Presgrove was killed where he was found or even left the party alive.

The party was to celebrate the 22nd birthday of Avery Jo Combs (pictured), whose family are huge landowners in the area around Terral and beyond

A photo of Presgrove with his friends late on the Saturday night of the party

The lost weekend

The party was to celebrate the 22nd birthday of Avery Jo Combs, whose family are huge landowners in the area around Terral and beyond.

Advertised to friends on Snapchat, it was held at her house - one of three on small a dirt road off the highway 1.2 miles north of town and surrounded by fields.

The group lived in the various small towns dotted along US-81, including Ryan,Waurika, Duncan, and Comanche - where Presgrove lived.

About 40 people showed up, coming and going over the course of the weekend, and videos of the increasing of the increasingly drunk antics popped up online.

These videos, watched by many locals as they were posted, became the only record of the last hours of Presgrove's life.

One of the most crucial was from the Saturday night showing some of Presgrove's friends, including Avery, writing their names on his bare buttocks with marker.

At some point that the night, Presgrove got into an argument with his best friend Jack Newton after the latter didn't like that he was huddled in a corner talking to his girlfriend Carter Combs - Avery's sister.

'We argued about girls for a second then ended up holding each other crying telling each other how much we meant to one another,' Jack told a friend in the weeks after Presgrove's death.

Presgrove drove home late that night and showered, but it was not clear how much of the stubborn marker he was able to get off in the shower.

One of the most crucial was from the Saturday night showing some of Presgrove's friends, including Avery, writing their names on his bare buttocks with marker

'We argued about girls for a second then ended up holding each other crying telling each other how much we meant to one another,' Jack told a friend in the weeks after Presgrove's death

Sunday night, identified in videos by the black shorts he was wearing, involved more drunken hijinks, includingPresgrove daring friends to slap him across the face as they partied under an outside patio at the house.

Presgrove had to repeatedly insist that a male friend named Bryan Sweat hit him, eventually only giving him a light tap before sprinting away in fear of retaliation.

About the same time, a concerning video appeared to show a teenager holding a rifle with Presgrove visible in the foreground.

Presgrove fought at another point in the night after another friend, Mikey, accused him of hiding his phone.

Presgrove's family claimed Mikey 'fishhooked' him, and had his finger bitten in retaliation - but some friends insisted the argument was never physical.

The phone was found under another friend who was sleeping on a couch, and the two boys made up.

The slap video was posted at 1.42am, according to those who watched it in real time, and was the last known post for about two hours.

Presgrove daring friends to slap him across the face as they partied under an outside patio at the house. This was posted at 1.42am and is the last known video of him alive

Another concerning photo appears to show a teenager holding a rifle with Presgrove visible in the foreground

The ATV accident

The story of the ATV accident is so universally agreed upon that it made it into the autopsy report, along with Presgrove coming out of it unscathed.

'Earlier that night he [was riding in an ATV] and he flipped it but then after that he was just hanging out at the house,' Stephanie Milan, one of the girls who was there, wrote in a Snapchat message to an inquiring local.

'Like he turned it on its side but they flipped it back on its wheels.'

But the details, and what happened afterwards, vary wildly depending on who you talk to - some saying it happened about midnight and others at 3am.

Jack, who owned the Polaris Ranger side-by-side, said it had to have happened after he went to bed about 1.50am.

'I took my keys out of the SxS and apparently Noah came in my room and grabbed them while I was asleep. A bunch of people went and drove the Ranger and wrecked it,' he told DailyMail.com in an interview.

'Earlier that night he [was riding in an ATV] and he flipped it but then after that he was just hanging out at the house,' Stephanie Milan, one of the girls who was there, wrote in a Snapchat message to an inquiring local

Presgrove argued with Avery (pictured) after he asked to sleep in her bed, but she refused and told him he had to sleep on the floor

Jack said he went to bed early because he was going fishing on Waurika Lake, about 30 miles north of Terral, with his father the next morning.

Presgrove is generally agreed to be the one driving the Ranger when it flipped, and though he wasn't injured, he was dirtied from when it hit the ground.

Carter and Jasmine Milan are said to have helped him shower to clean the dirt off as he was too drunk to do it himself.

Avery's mother Stevie Howard wrote in a Facebook comment that a video was posted online that showed them showering him, though it has not emerged since.

Others said they remembered seeing the video at the time, but some of them claimed Presgrove was barely responsive.

The autopsy report said only a stick figure drawn in marker on his back was still visible on his body when it was found.

When and how the names and doodles scribbled on him on the Saturday night, along with more on his front visible in a photo from the Sunday, were washed off is still a matter of considerable debate.

After showering, his friends said Presgrove put on a different pair of shorts - described as being white in the autopsy report - and no underwear. Jack described them as 'loose-fitting wrestling shorts'.

Jack with his fiancée, and Avery's sister, Carter Combs

Presgrove soon after argued with Avery after he asked to sleep in her bed, but she refused and told him he had to sleep on the floor

Presgrove soon after argued with Avery after he asked to sleep in her bed, but she refused and told him he had to sleep on the floor.

'She told him he couldn't sleep in her bed because he messed with her friend the night before,' Jack told a friend earlier this year.

The argument upset him, and he wandered off into the night 'to cool off', never to be seen alive again.

'He walked off to clear his head but he wasn't mad and there was no beef...We don't know why he got mad. No one had beef,' Stephanie wrote in her Snapchat message.

Exactly when Presgrove left the party is unclear, but his friends gave estimates of between 3.15am and 3.30am.

The mismatched shoes

Presgrove was found naked by the side of the road with only a pair of shoes on, the shorts having fallen off on the middle of the road nearby.

One was his Adidas slip-on, and the other was a HeyDude branded slip-on.

Presgrove couldn't find his other Adidas shoe, and so impulsively pulled on one he found lying around the house, his friends said.

Elisha Lee earlier this year explained the other shoe belonged to her son, the friend who was asleep on the couch and was earlier lying on Mikey's phone.

A video showing the HeyDude shoes one of the party guests was wearing before they kicked them off and fell asleep on the couch. Presgrove took one of them when he left the party when he couldn't find one of his, and it was found with his body

'The shoes shown on the photo are my sons and on his feet. He had just had ACL and meniscus surgery and was wearing a pink knee brace, as seen on this Snapchat video provided to the OHP,' she wrote, sharing one of the videos of the night.

'One of these shoes sits on a shelf in my son's closet. The other was found on Noah.

'When my son went to sleep, in this chair that evening, he kicked off his shoes and went to sleep.

'When he was awoken by the sounds of his friend stating Noah was gone, he found his shoe was missing.'

Presgrove goes missing

Presgrove's friends said he had a habit of wandering off from social gatherings and for a while they didn't think that night was any different.

Jasmine posted a selfie to Snapchat at 3.41am with the caption 'well, Noah's missing', which continues to fuel condemnation a year later.

'I just want to make something clear I posted this picture not knowing that the worst was gonna happen, not knowing Noah would never come back,' she later wrote in a Facebook post defending herself.

'It was normal for Noah to wonder off nobody thought he wouldn't be back. So don't even think for a second just because I posted that means I know what happened to him because I'm just as clueless as everyone else.

Jasmine posted this selfie to Snapchat at 3.41am with the caption 'well, Noah's missing', which continues to fuel condemnation a year later

'I'm sick of it. Noah was my friend and I loved him so much. it hurts that people could even think that any of us could have done anything to hurt him. we all loved Noah.

'Someone is really out there thinking they got away with murder because y'all are blaming us for something we didn't do.'

Jack told a friend those still awake eventually did go looking for him, but were still not in fear of his safety.

'After he was gone for a while, everyone was looking for him, they said, but knowing Noah I bet he was kidding and didn't let anyone find him,' he wrote.

He told DailyMail.com his ATV was even part of the search: 'They said they took my Ranger to look for him in the ditches and stuff, but knowing Noah he was probably seeing everyone looking for him and was just hiding out.'

The friends said they didn't find him and returned to the house, assuming he'd eventually turn up.

Presgrove's family claimed they saw a video of Avery and Carter screaming at each other on the front porch about him walking off, but the footage has never emerged.

Presgrove's best friend Jack Newton, who insists he was asleep when the teenager died, summarized the basic chain of events to a friend weeks after the party

Jack told a friend those still awake eventually did go looking for him, but were still not in fear of his safety

Presgrove's body is found - the 911 calls

Presgrove was only found when two vehicles traveling along US-81 spotted his body by the side of the road in the early hours of the morning and called 911.

The two callers wereGulfmark Energy field supervisor Tyler Hardy, and a semi-truck driver also named Tyler, who didn't give his last name to the 911 operator.

Three calls were placed from the area, but one of them was just 20 seconds of static that local police said was Hardy on a bad signal.

'He had a bad connection and he to re-call. I confirmed it was the same phone number,' he said.

The first call, at 5.43am, was from Tyler, whom Hardy earlier said was a trucker forOklahoma Petroleum Allies who turned around in Terral, about two miles south, and came back to the scene.

'I had a bunch of cars behind me, but it looks like someone got hit, like somebody walking down the highway, [they are] lying on the shoulder in the road,' he said.

'Yeah, like on the shoulder, like maybe they were walking and somebody hit them… unless it was a deer, but it looked like a body.'

Gulfmark Energy field supervisor Tyler Hardy (pictured with his wife Mallory) was the first known person to find Presgrove's body, and called 911 at 5:48 am

The dispatcher assured Tyler that she would have an officer respond to the situation, and then said Sheriff Wilson was on his way.

Before the call ended, Tyler remarked that the scene 'looked awful odd.'

Hardy, who was one of the cars behind Tyler, pulled over next to Presgrove and called 911 at 5.48am, immediately trying again after his first call failed.

'I was driving to work south of Terral, and I am pretty sure someone is lying dead on the side of the road,' he said.

'They look naked, I’m staying back.'

The dispatcher told him that a deputy was heading toward the scene to address the situation.

Hardy responded that he was parked in the middle of the road, so he could prevent other motorists from driving over the body.

'I am sitting here blocking the road. The body is lying right on the white line... I turned around because I just about hit it,' he said.

'At first, I thought it was a deer, and I was talking to a guy I work with and said, "I don't think that is a deer."'

Presgrove was a high school football player until his graduation in May

Hardy then told the dispatcher that 'it actually looks like there's a piece of clothing lying in the middle of the road'.

'I don’t want to get too close… I’ll just go ahead and make sure nobody runs it over or anything else,' he said.

The clothing was a pair of white shorts, according to the autopsy report, that some of Presgrove's friends said he was last seen wearing.

By the time police arrived, the shorts were folded near Presgrove's body, as they were described in the autopsy report.

Jack said he retrieved the shorts and folded them in the few minutes before local police arrived, to prevent vehicles running them over.

What those first on the scene saw

Hardy repeatedly insistedno one touched the body between when he saw it, and when police arrived.

'I was the one who found the body so yes I can say 100 percent that nobody messed with Noah, I was the first person there,' he said.

'I know who and what I saw.'

The married father-of-two was driving south in darkness to an early shift when he spotted something in the headlights of his Ford F-150 work pickup truck.

He pulled over to take a closer look and realized he was looking at the body of a young man, dead by the side of the road.

Hardy said Presgrove's body was lying on its side, totally naked except for mismatched shoes, with a pair of shorts lying on the road about 25ft away.

Confronting photos of police chalk outlines showed where his body, marked by the white line, and at least one of his teeth, marked by the circle, were found

Presgrove's body was found between the two chalk lines, and teeth within the circles. In the background is a memorial set up for the teenager

Crucially, Hardy said there was very little blood at the scene despite the teenager's massive upper-body injuries,including three skull fractures.

'I called it in and so did the truck driver, we were on the phone with them at the same time,' he said.

'We did not leave the scene until around 10 am and nobody was messing with anything.'

Less than 10 minutes after both he and the truck driver called 911, Presgrove's best friend Jack Newton arrived.

'Jack was the only person who walked up to to Noah, and he told me who it was, until the Terral fire and Jefferson County Sheriffs showed up,' Hardy said.

Jefferson County Undersheriff Jimmy Williams was the first policeman to arrive at the scene after the two motorists saw the body and called 911.

Williams arrived at 6.18am and only took a brief look before focusing on securing the area but told DailyMail.com there was not enough blood for it to be starkly noticeable.

'I didn't observe a lot [of blood] from what little I was there checking – once we determined he was in fact dead, I was just securing the location,' he said.

Williams couldn't say if there was more or less blood than you would expect from Presgrove's injuries, as he was not a medical expert, but it was not an obvious amount.

His observations aligned with Tyler Hardy, the first driver to stop at the scene, Presgrove's best friend, Jack Newton, and others who said there was very little blood around the teen's body.

A medical expert told DailyMail.com that with the injuries detailed in Presgrove's autopsy report, there would have been a lot of blood at the scene.

Presgrove's burial site, decorated for the first anniversary of his death

Williams also said Presgrove was not lying in the fetal position, as some people who saw the body recalled.

'He was laying somewhat on his side, but I wouldn't say he was in a fetal position, no,' he said, saying his legs were straight and his arms not tucked into his body.

The undersheriff said there were only five people at the scene when he arrived, and he was joined by SheriffJeremie Wilson six minutes later at 6.24am.

Along with the two motorists who called 911 were twoTerral Rural Volunteer Fire Department officers, including its chief, who arrived at 6.15am, and Newton.

Williams said from when he arrived to when he left at 8.17am, only the sheriff and Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers came to the scene.

'We kept traffic moving except for people who needed to be there… not long after OHP arrived we shut the road down completely,' he said.

Presgrove's friends learn the bad news

Jack said he woke up ready to go fishing sometime after 5.30am and was told his best friend was missing.

'I figured maybe he got a ride or something, Noah's done that before - got mad and left,' he told DailyMail.com.

'He was not one you usually worry about. I wasn't really thinking about it.'

Jack texted his father, Caleb Newton, at 5.53am - coincidentally the same time as the 911 call - letting him know he was on his way.

'I'll meet y'all at the lake. Can you bring me a hat please... Someone messed with mine after I went to bed,' he wrote. Caleb replied 'ok'.

Jack texted his father, Caleb Newton, at 5.53am letting him know he was on his way

Jack assumed Presgrove was fine and left for the lake, driving north until he saw the semi-trailer and pickup by the side of the road.

In a Facebook post last week, Caleb explained how his son called him to tell him Presgrove was dead.

'At about 6.05 I got a call no parent ever wants to get it was short and hard to understand him,' he wrote.

'I was standing on my boat in my yard, I know exactly where I was when that call came in.

'I was getting [the] boat ready. Dad was making coffee. We were very actively getting ready to go to the lake.'

Caleb wrote that he immediately called his father, who was supposed to come fishing with them, to call the trip off - but was told to swing by his house less than a mile away pick him up.

He jumped in his wife's car because it 'was the most readily available' and gunned it the 40 minutes down the highway from Comanche.

By the time he arrived, local Jefferson County Sheriff's deputies had arrived on the scene at 6.18am and were securing the scene.

Jack's father Caleb Newton is pictured with his wife

Caleb wrote that when he arrived and saw the body, he called the teen's father Victor Presgrove to break the horrific news.

Police covered the body with a tarpaulin or sheet and retrieved the shorts, which the autopsy report said were undamaged despite Presgove's injuries, from the middle of the road and neatly folded them nearby.

Presgrove's family has claimed that Caleb picked up one of the teeth lying on the road, which he flatly denied.

'The tooth that was on the road was not moved that I seen. I watched a police officer circle it with white chalk. I pointed out a tooth to the police, I would not have picked that up ever,' he wrote.

He also said he was never at the party, as one rumor claims, and was at a cookout at a friend's house south of Duncan - about an hour away - that night.

The cleanup

Caleb said he stayed at the scene for hours until it was 'cleared and processed' before he went to the party house to retrieve Jack's ATV.

'I went to inspect the utv but there were no signs of damage or cleaning it was still very dusty it's an old utv if it tipped it was minor enough to not leave scratches,' he wrote.

Meanwhile, Jasmine and Stephanie's mother Renee Milan had arrived at the house and 'run off' the remaining party guests and began to clean up.

The extent of the cleanup is hotly debated on social media with some claiming there was a 'strong smell of bleach' later in the day.

Presgrove's body was found about a mile north along the highway from the small street where the party was held

Renee, Stevie, and Caleb insist all that was done was clearing up beer cans and other alcohol remnants, and there was no attempt to hide a crime scene.

'It wasn't like that. It was a bunch of sitting around and crying and I think people were just trying to stay busy,' Stevie wrote on Facebook.

'By people I mean parents cause we didn't know what to do. Not to hide anything but to help our kids. Didn't know how to help em.'

Caleb said he removed the guns from the house and took them his house, then 'later and I got them to their owners'.

There are also conflicting opinions about whether police ever searched the house.

Presgrove's family claimed the Oklahoma Highway Patrol told them that as there was no evidence where his body was found linking him to the party house and no evidence a crime was committed there, they couldn’t get a search warrant.

But others claimed police were let on to the property soon after Presgrove's death and were even shown where the ATV crashed - but never did a forensic search.

The ATV was finally sold in April so Jack could buy a boat.

Presgrove's family claim his clothes, including his American flag shirt he wore to the party but soon took off in the summer heat, were distributed among his friends by Caleb as 'mementos' after police examined them, and only his shorts were recovered

What happened to Presgrove's clothes and belongings is also a source of controversy.

His family claim his clothes, including his American flag shirt he wore to the party but soon took off in the summer heat, were distributed among his friends by Caleb as 'mementos' after police examined them, and only his shorts were recovered.

Caleb dismissed this as a baseless rumor, but there is no definitive answer about what happened to the rest of his clothes.

Presgrove had just bought a new phone in the days before his death, and took it and his old one to the party, leaving them behind when he wandered off.

These were recovered and examined by detectives, then returned to his family, but his family claimed his wallet was never found and the last paycheck he got was never cashed.

What they think happened

Many locals and some of his family are convinced Presgrove was beaten to death, whether as a murder or in a fight that went too far, then dumped on the highway.

Suspicion has fallen on his friends for claiming they had no idea how he died, but they insist none of them could ever hurt him.

'I guess everyone at the party could be lying but I just can’t see it,' Jack told a friend last year.

'I mean Noah’s closest friends. And you know if everyone was lying I don’t think everyone would be so cooperative with the cops.'

The OHP in May said it was not investigating Presgrove's death as a murder, but that didn't rule out manslaughter.

Jack Newton, Presgrove's best friend

Jack has recently told friends he is torn between Presgrove being hit in the back of the head by a passing truck's mirror or falling, or being pushed, out of a pickup truck.

Suspect in the latter include a group of party guests Presgrove's friends called the 'Texas boys', who were friends of friends and not well known by the core group.

'I’m 50/50 between a semi and the Texas boys… maybe Noah asked them for a ride or something… but even if something happened with them it was accidental,' he wrote.

'But man I just can’t see any kids accidentally killing someone and not calling for help.'

Jack elaborated to DailyMail.com that he didn't believe they had any reason to kill him or cover up his death.

'Those were good kids too, if that's what happened they would have called and tried to get help for him. They didn't really know Noah so they wouldn't have beef with him,' he said.

Medical experts have dismissed the truck mirror theory as not explaining Presgrove's extensive torso injuries, and believed much more damage would have been done to his head.

Jack is convinced Presgrove died where he was found, and wasn't moved form a different location and dumped to cover it up

Falling onto his head from a vehicle is considered more plausible, butDr Stuart Fischer, an internist doctor with extensive experience in emergency medicine, said he would likely have more significant leg injuries.

Jack is convinced Presgrove died where he was found, and wasn't moved form a different location and dumped to cover it up.

'Everyone is saying he was moved after he died, it's impossible, I've seen it with my own eyes the spot on the road where the back of his head hit the ground, there was a tooth found there, his necklace was all destroyed there,' he told DailyMail.com.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation called Presgrove's death 'suspicious' in the days after his body was found.

A town ready to explode

As the months wore on without answers, Presgrove's friends and family, along with concerned locals, grew more restless.

Multiple Facebook groups have thousands of members discussing his death around the clock with hundreds of comments a day.

Many of them are angry at the friends who were at the party, and their families, whom they accuse - largely without evidence - of covering up a crime.

Some of them were even sent threats, to which they responded angrily, and many times confronted their accusers on social media - sparking messy, all-in threads of condemnation.

'This place is a volcano waiting to erupt,' one concerned local told DailyMail.com.

'There's a lot of p**sed off people... I'm worried our small communities are going to erupt in violence.

'It has potential to be very explosive... I don't want to be anywhere near that fire when it pops off.'

Jack has taken to social media many times to defend himself

Locals feel OHP released its statement, its first update in eight months, saying the case was not a murder investigation in an attempt to calm tensions.

Presgrove's family also tried to put a lid on the angst after the autopsy report was released.

'We understand people's frustration with the pace of the investigation,' his aunt Robyn Smith wrote on Facebook.

'This is not an open and shut case. According to some accounts, there were as many as 40+ people in and out of that party. That makes for a large pool of people to question.

'A lot of the stories being told do not align with one another, so having to decipher who's telling the truth is a whole other matter in itself.'

Presgrove (left) poses with Jack during the party

Smith said she had full faith that investigators were doing their best and dismissed rumors they were being paid off as 'ridiculous'.

'A team of 15 investigators is working on this case, along with the OSBI,' she claimed.

'No matter how well-off some may represent themselves to the community, there is not enough money in those pockets to buy off that many officials or two agencies.

'Please be kind, and remember, these are the men and women trying to find resolution for Noah's family and friends.'

Presgrove's injuries

OklahomaChief Medical Examiner Leonardo Roquero ruledPresgrove died of 'multiple blunt force injuries', but how he got them was 'undetermined'.

His autopsy reportreleased on May 13 detailed extensive injuries to the teen's upper body, including 10 broken ribs, serious skull, neck, and spine fractures, internal bleeding, brain and organ damage, and cuts and grazes all over his body.

There was one extensive skull fracture running across his head, 'splitting the middle base of skull into two', and two smaller ones, with police investigators describing his head as being 'caved in'.

Presgrove suffered external injuries to his face and head that night. The most serious was the chunk of scalp that was torn off his head all the way down to the bone that coincided with the massive internal injuries to his skull and brain that were at their worst at the top and back of the head. The piece of scalp and hair was found on the highway feet away. Many of Presgrove's teeth were also broken and some were knocked out and found on the road

Presgrove is believed to have died from massive internal bleeding before his other injuries had a chance to end his life. All up, he lost at least 3.2 pints of blood from two punctured lungs, damage to vital organs, and extensive tissue damage.A man Presgrove's size has about 12.6 pints of blood, and would generally die after losing half of it - though as little as a third can lead to death

He had about 20ml, or 0.68oz, of blood pooled inside his head from a brain bleed, damage to four parts of the brain itself.

There was also air in both his cranial cavity and spinal cord, extremely rare conditions only caused by massive head trauma.

Both lungs were punctured and he had internal injuries to his heart, spleen, and stomach and internal bleeding of at least 1,550ml - about 3.2 pints.

A man Presgrove's size has about 12.6 pints of blood, and would generally die after losing half of it - though as little as a third can lead to death.

The skin on left side of his scalp was torn off to the bone and a clump of hair and skin was found in the middle of the highway.

'Additionally, a clump of hair was observed on the right buttock without blood or tissue,' Roquero wrote.

Both his upper and lower teeth were broken 'with few fragments and found inside the mouth' and others strewn across the road several feet from his body.

He was bleeding out of his ears and had a cut on his lower lip and one on his tongue.

There was one extensive skull fracture running across his head, 'splitting the middle base of skull into two', and two smaller ones, with police investigators describing his head as being 'caved in'. The large fracture is known as a 'hinge type' for its distinctive shape. Presgrove also suffered damage to a muscle on the side of his head, which is used for chewing

The skull fractures and scalp tearing caused bleeding inside his head both above and below the skull. The most was at the back of his head in what's known as asubdural hemorrhage - below the dural layer under the skull that carries fluid around the cranium - where there was20ml, or 0.68oz, of blood pooled.There was also air in both his cranial cavity and spinal cord, extremely rare conditions only caused by massive head trauma

Presgrove's C1, C2, C6, C7 vertebrae were fractured to varying degrees and C1 was displaced - indicating a seriously broken neck of the same kind that people who are executed by hanging suffer.

He had road rash on upper back and abrasions from grazes on his left shoulder, left arm, left side of torso, and both buttocks.

Other grazes were on his left eyebrow, corner of the left eye and left cheek, left ear, right neck, and behind his right ear.

Presgrove had healed abrasions and scabs on his nose, both hands and knuckles, left foot and heel, round healing ulcer on right thigh - all of which predated the injuries from that night.

Presgrove's C1, C2, C6, C7 vertebrae were fractured to varying degrees and C1 was displaced with his head being pushed forward from his spine - indicating a seriously broken neck of the same kind that people who are executed by hanging suffer

Presgrove suffered fractured to nine vertebrae in his spine, mostly at the back of the bones in the knobs you can feel if you touch your spine with your hand. There were also fractures to 10 ribs - all close to the spine and mostly in the upper back

Roquero wrote that there were 'no vehicle parts or debris observed on the scene', indicating Presgrove was almost certainly not hit by a car.

'He was naked and was only wearing unmatching shoes. There was a pair of shorts found several feet from the decedent and was reported to be his,' Roquero wrote.

'Additionally, there were three pieces of a white metal chain as well as part of a tooth present several feet from the decedent.'

Roquero noted there was 'a drawing in black ink of a stick-figure person on the side of the right thigh'.

The shorts he was wearing were undamaged, despite the grazes on his buttocks, and the slip-on shoes had grass and other debris lodged in them.

Presgrove had a blood alcohol level of 0.14, but no drugs in his system.

Presgrove had a blood alcohol level of 0.14, but no drugs in his system

Confronting photos of police chalk outlines showed his teeth were found scattered across the highway, some a dozen feet from his body.

Farther away still is a spot of blood - the only blood found at the scene despite the extensive injuries all over his upper body.

Family pleas

Presgrove's family complained his friends all claimed to have no idea what happened to him and how he ended up dead by the roadside just hours later.

TheOklahoma State Bureau of Investigation described his death as 'suspicious' days later, but few details have been released about the investigation.

EvenPresgrove's family said they were in the dark and theOklahoma Highway Patrol refused to provide any details to maintain the 'integrity of the investigation'.

'The longer you keep the truth inside, the guiltier you become… you could aid in getting justice for Noah,' Rawlings said.

'You could do the right thing and may receive a mercy that was not given to him, but the longer we sit in silence, the worse it becomes for you.

'I hope those involved see that we are not budging and the silence fuels our desire to know more.

'I miss Noah daily.This is the hardest chapter of my life, but I am thankful that I have a family that will not give up on each other.'

Presgrove's grandmotherDeborah Smith also called on his friends to tell the whole story about what happened the night he died.

'When you think you have friends that you trust with all your heart and then here it comes. Sorry Noah that some of your true friends stabbed you in the back,' she said.

'A piece of my heart is missing and every day that goes by and Noah doesn't walk through the door and still no answer just takes another piece of my heart.'

Presgrove's aunt Robyn Smith (center) and grandmother Deborah Smith (right) appealed for answers more than seven months after his death

Presgrove and his friends graduated from Comanche High School just a few months earlier and his family said he planned to join the military

His aunt Robyn Smith begged anyone with information to at least tell the police so his family would have answers.

'We lost an amazing young man to the horrible choices of others, please do not let us lose out on justice,' she said.

'We've heard so many different stories, but we have yet to hear the truth. The whole truth. Which we deserve.

'I know it's scary and I know it's hard, but we deserve to know what happened. Noah deserves to have his story told. We will not stop searching and asking. We will not stop demanding. It will come out.'

Noah Presgrove's family give sad update a year after his death (2024)
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