The family of a teenager mysteriously found dead on a lonely highway are suing seven people, claiming he was ‘beaten to death’.
Noah Presgrove, 19, was wearing only shoes when his body was discovered surrounded by his teeth on a desolate stretch of US-81 near Terral, Oklahoma, on September 4, 2023.
He was last seen alive about a mile away at a four-day 22nd birthday party with 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.
His 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.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is not investigating his death as a murder, but his family has long believed he was beaten to death and his body dumped on the road.
Almost two years after his death, and with barely a peep from cops, they are out of patience and filed a $75,000 wrongful death lawsuit on Monday.
‘[Presgrove] was beat to death by one or more of the defendants,’ the lawsuit claimed, without specifying who they believed did it.
The lawsuit left open the possibility that the alleged beating wasn’t meant to kill him, and included ‘unidentified individuals’ among the defendants.
‘Either intentionally or accidentally, the defendants killed [Presgrove],’ the lawsuit claimed.
‘Although the death may have been unintended, hosting the party and beating of [Presgrove] was intentionally, malicious, and in reckless disregard of [his] rights.’
OHP didn’t explicitly rule out manslaughter in its statement last year.
Presgrove’s family insisted his death was ‘not caused by being hit by a motor vehicle’, an early explanation now thought to be unlikely by investigators.
The complaint named four of Presgrove’s close friends who were at the party, one of their fathers, owners of the house, and a shop where they bought booze.
Presgrove’s best friend Jack Newton and on-again, off-again girlfriend Carter Combs were two of the most prominent defendants in the lawsuit.
Jack was singled out as who allegedly bought the alcohol Presgrove drank, which the complaint argued made him partly culpable for his death.
He allegedly bought the booze from Napoli’s convenience store in Marlow, Oklahoma, also named as a defendant and accused of selling alcohol to a minor.
Two other girls, Avery Jo Combs and Logan Jernigan, were along with Carter accused of hosting the party.
‘The party was a civil conspiracy… to furnish alcoholic beverages to underaged and intoxicated individuals, such as [Presgrove], over the course of several days,’ the lawsuit claimed.
They were accused of providing Presgrove with alcohol ‘even after he was already intoxicated’ and breaching their duty of care by doing so.
Presgrove’s autopsy report found he had a blood alcohol level of 0.14.
Jack’s father Caleb Newton was accused in the lawsuit of allowing Presgrove to drive or ride on an ATV, which flipped and allegedly injured him.
Newton has long maintained he was never at the party and the ATV has in the past been referred to as belonging to Jack.
Avery and Carter’s mother Stevie Howard was named in the suit because she owned a trailer next to the house that was used in the party, as was her father Johnnie Trout Wilcoxson, who owned the property but was not present.
Howard has been one of the most vocal major players in the saga on Facebook groups that sprung up to discuss his death, strongly defending her children and other partygoers and dismissing sinister theories about Presgrove’s death.
The lawsuit demanded at least $75,000 in damages for funeral expenses, pain and suffering, and lost earnings and companionship, plus punitive damages.
‘Defendants acted maliciously and/or in reckless disregard of [Presgrove’s] rights, justifying an award of punitive damages,’ it claimed.
The lawsuit offered no evidence that Presgrove was beaten to death, let alone by anyone at the party, and none has emerged since his body was found – other than the nature of his injuries.
Dr Stuart Fischer, an internist doctor with extensive experience in emergency medicine, agreed with the premise of the lawsuit when he reviewed Presgrove’s autopsy report for the Daily Mail last year.
He concluded the injuries Presgrove suffered were so catastrophic and varied that him being mortally wounded in a severe beating was the most likely cause.
The inclusion of ‘unidentified individuals’ in the lawsuit admitted the possibility that Jack, Avery, Carter, and Logan played no direct role in his death.
The seven-page complaints includes some of the known facts in the case, including the ATV accident, and an argument just before Presgrove vanished.
‘Toward the end of the party, defendants Jack Newton and Avery Howard were seen verbally fighting with [Presgrove],’ it claimed.
A rough series of events emerged over the year since his death as the case was investigated, texts were leaked, and the details intensely discussed online.
The generally accepted narrative includes Presgrove being dirty after the ATV accident and being helped to shower by Carter and another partygoer, Jasmine Milan, because of how drunk he was.
Presgrove soon after argued with Avery, whom some friends claim he was hooking up with at the time, after he asked to sleep in her bed and 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 last year.
The argument upset Presgrove, and he wandered off into the night ‘to cool off’, never to be seen alive again.
Jack in Facebook messages explained to a friend his own argument with Presgrove: ‘We argued about girls for a second then ended up holding each other crying telling each other how much we meant to one another.’
The lawsuit added that ‘at least some partygoers’ realized Presgrove was gone at 3.41am.
The 3.41am timing is a reference to a selfie Jasmine posted to Snapchat with the caption ‘well, Noah’s missing’.
Presgrove was found at 5.43am, according to both police and the lawsuit, naked and with some of his teeth scattered around his body.
He was spotted by an Oklahoma Petroleum Allies hauler driver and Gulfmark Energy field supervisor Tyler Hardy, both of whom called 911 minutes later.
Jack claimed he happened upon the scene about 6am as he left to go fishing with his father Caleb, whom he called at 6.05am.
‘I figured maybe he got a ride or something, Noah’s done that before – got mad and left,’ he told the Daily Mail last year.
‘He was not one you usually worry about. I wasn’t really thinking about it.’
This timeline is disputed by another partygoer, Kaden Pressy, who claimed he was woken up at 5.15am by Jack bursting through he door at 5.15am.
‘Jack Newton bursts through the door saying “Noah is dead”. Like, frantic, tearing up,’ he told detectives in a leaked recording of a June 21 interview.
Pressy also claimed when he followed Jack to the body, Presgrove had black shorts on, in contrast to being naked with a pair of white shorts on the road nearby.
Since the Daily Mail’s initial coverage of Presgrove’s death last April incited global media attention, thousands of true-crime enthusiasts have flocked to three Facebook groups and Reddit to endlessly discuss the case.
Many of them are convinced Presgrove was murdered and his body dumped on the road, especially given the lack of blood at the scene.
They have hailed the lawsuit filing as a huge step towards justice for Presgrove, despite its lack of evidence of foul play so far.
