Cause of death determined for Oklahoma teen military hopeful found on side of road
A medical examiner's report concluded that the manner of death is still not known after a 19-year-old Oklahoma teen was found dead and wearing nothing but his shoes along a highway on Labor Day 2023.
Noah Presgrove was found dead along a rural stretch of US-81 in Jefferson County on Labor Day in 2023. He was last seen alive at a party he attended with a group of friends that night, but nearly a year later, the family says that no one has come forward and told them how he ended up dead, along the highway.
Presgrove had recently graduated from high school, three months early, with plans to enlist in the military alongside his cousin.
The medical examiner released the autopsy results to the Presgrove family on Monday, which the family shared with Fox News Digital.
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"In consideration of the circumstances surrounding the death, autopsy examination, and toxicology result, the death of Noah Alexander Nichols is due to multiple blunt force injuries. The decedent was found naked wearing only a pair of shoes on the side of a highway on the morning of September 4, 2023. There were no vehicle parts or debris observed on the scene. At this time, what transpired on how the body was found on the road having multiple blunt force injuries is unknown. Therefore, the manner of death is deemed undetermined," the report read.
The report also said that investigators determined Presgrove died from "multiple blunt force injuries."
"Further investigation revealed that the decedent was at a house party and drinking on September 3, 2023. Then he rode an ATV ranger vehicle with several men that had a roll over incident. The decedent was alive following the incident and returned to the party where he got into an argument with his girlfriend. The decedent left the house party and was not found until the morning of September 4, 2023, on the side of the highway," the report continued.
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Madison Rawlings, Noah's sister, told Fox News Digital that the report's finding does not add up.
"I’m not sure who the girl he is ‘supposedly’ arguing with. That is a question I reached out about with the medical examiner," Rawlings said.
When the death was first reported, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation described Presgrove’s death as "suspicious."
A spokesperson for the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, who have taken over the investigation, told Fox News Digital that the investigation is ongoing and that they do not have any information they can share on this case.
"At the end of the day, what we know is that he lost his life," Lindsay Fowler, one of Noah's cousins told KFOR. "He was found on the side of the highway. And it appears that he was dumped there and someone knows what happened. And we want to know what happened."