Inside the Investigation of Noah Presgrove’s Mysterious Death — and all the Unanswered Questions

Police say they have "conducted numerous interviews and reviewed leads and evidence"

In May, Oklahoma authorities released the long-awaited autopsy findings into the mysterious death of Noah Presgrove — but questions still remain and, in the weeks since the report was made public, PEOPLE has spoken to numerous individuals involved in the case to get more answers.

Noah’s bloodied and battered body was found early on Sept. 4, 2023, about a mile’s drive from a rowdy house party that he attended with friends the night before his death.

The 19-year-old Comanche, Okla., resident was naked, the base of his skull had been split in two, his spine was fractured and an 8-inch head wound peeled back part of his scalp to the bone, his autopsy states.

In a cover story in this week’s magazine, Oklahoma state police — who are continuing to investigate the death — tell PEOPLE that they don’t believe Noah was murdered but can’t comment further while their work continues.

Initially, law enforcement arriving to the roadside scene where Noah’s body was reported by two drivers believed that the talented athlete and recent high school graduate had died in a road accident, possibly a hit-and-run.

But the more that investigators examined the site, the more their suspicions darkened.

“We’ve had other people hit before, and we can recreate it and make it make sense,” says Jefferson County Sheriff Jeremie Wilson, who was one of the first responders on Sept. 4. “This whole situation didn’t sit well with me.”

Desperate for answers, Noah's family has launched their own campaign for the truth — including hiring a private investigator — to try and solve the heartbreaking case.

“We won’t stop until Noah has justice," says Dailen Presgrove, Noah’s 24-year-old brother, who hopes that by speaking with PEOPLE it will inspire someone who knows what happened to come forward.

Here's what to know about what's been confirmed in the case and what remains to be discovered.

What happened in the hours leading up to Noah’s death?

The tragedy that has consumed Noah’s family and friends began to unfold in the predawn darkness of Sept. 4, when two passing motorists spotted the teenager lying on the side of Oklahoma's Highway 81. Blood had pooled by his head. “It looked awful odd,” one of the drivers told 911.

Tyler Hardy was one of the two 911 callers that morning and remained on the scene after reporting Noah’s body. Hardy tells PEOPLE the truck driver, the other caller, returned and waited as well.

“His legs were bent and his back was towards the road," Hardy says of Noah's body. "His legs were towards the ditch, and his head was kind of just laid there right along ... His whole body was laid along the white line, but he was laying on what would've been his right side.” 

In May, the teen’s autopsy report, obtained by PEOPLE, revealed that he died of “multiple blunt force injuries” but that the cause of those injuries remains “undetermined.”

The autopsy includes some further details about Noah's final hours alive, which have been expanded upon by interviews with some of those close to him.

Noah was drinking at a house party in Terral, Okla., the night before he was found dead, according to his family and his best friend, 19-year-old Jack Newton.

At some point, Noah left the party and “rode an ATV ranger vehicle with several men that had a roll over incident,” according to a narrative describing the circumstances of his death in his full autopsy report, which was obtained by PEOPLE on May 13.

Additional details about what that "incident" entailed were not included in the report, which only noted that Noah survived and “returned to the party where he got into an argument." He later left the party at an unspecified time.

Jack tells PEOPLE that, though he says he was asleep at the party at the time, he believes Noah left around 3:30 a.m. on Sept. 4. Another partygoer posted on social media about 10 minutes later that Noah was "missing," and no one has said publicly that he was seen alive again.

Noah's brother Dailen previously told PEOPLE that investigators have collected Snapchats, videos and text messages from partygoers, however the timeline of events is still incomplete. The P.I. working with the family, Kathy Bingham, says she has zeroed in on two of the night's attendees and will be providing law enforcement with what she's learned.

An attorney for party host Avery Howard declined to answer specific questions for PEOPLE's cover story but said in a statement that she and her extended Wilcoxson family are working with investigators. (Noah's relatives say the party house wasn't searched after Noah's body was found.)

“The entire Wilcoxson family mourns the tragic death of Noah Presgrove,” lawyer Andrew Benedict said. “The Wilcoxson family has coordinated and cooperated with the investigating law enforcement agencies completely and intends to continue such cooperation until the investigation is concluded.”

How did Noah’s body end up on the side of the highway?

It is unclear when and where Noah died, but at 5:43 a.m. on Sept. 4, the first 911 caller reported seeing him along Highway 81.

According to the narrative of Noah’s death included in his autopsy, the two-lane highway passing through Terral is “poorly lit at night” with two traffic lanes including shoulders on each side and with a speed limit of 65 mph.

In the autopsy report, he was listed as a pedestrian but “no vehicle parts or debris,” were found on the road near his body.

His brother previously told PEOPLE that authorities have told him that they do not believe Noah was involved in a hit and run.

Dr. Priya Banerjee is a board-certified forensic pathologist unconnected to the probe, but she has reviewed Noah’s autopsy that pinpoints his cause of death as blunt force injuries.

Whatever happened — accidental or nefarious — she says that she keeps coming back to this detail: Something seems to have hit Noah on the left side of his head. Hard.

“There’s so many possibilities, and nothing about the injury pattern [detailed in the autopsy report] will help narrow it down further,” Banerjee says in this week's cover story.

Why was Noah naked, wearing only mismatched shoes?

The state of Noah’s body is still the subject of many of his family’s most urgent and unanswered questions.

Naked, Noah wore only mismatched shoes: an Adidas on his left and a Hey Dudes on his right, per the autopsy report. “Debris and grass” were stuck in the laces of each, with more in the left shoe.

A silver-plated chain necklace from Noah’s grandmother lay scattered in pieces not far away, near remnants of a tooth.

His undamaged shorts were first seen about 30 yards away.

Jack, Noah's best friend, tells PEOPLE that the shorts were actually borrowed from him: Noah put them on after cleaning himself up following the ATV incident

“The report answers some questions but also raises many more,” Dailen told PEOPLE after reviewing the report. "I'm at a loss of words."

What Is Noah’s manner of death?

The two most important components of an autopsy report are the cause and manner of death, the latter which essentially describes — “how did it happen?”

In solved cases, the manner of death is typically assigned the following categories: “natural,” “accident,” “suicide” or “homicide.” But there is another option.

In Noah’s case, the medical examiner has said that the 19-year-old died from “multiple blunt force injuries." How Noah became injured in the first place, however, remains “unknown.”

Included in the autopsy report are toxicology tests, Those tests appeared clean, with no amphetamine, methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine, opiates, PCP, barbiturates, or benzodiazepines detected in his system. (The panel of tests are not designed to detect other drugs like oxycodone, methadone or clonazepam.)

Alcohol was found in Noah's system, although it’s unclear what effect, if any, that had in the circumstances surrounding his death.

“At this time, what transpired on how the body was found on the road having multiple blunt force injuries is unknown,” medical examiner Leonardo Roquero wrote in the autopsy report. “Therefore, the manner of death is deemed undetermined.”

What are police still looking for? 

Oklahoma’s Department of Public Safety previously confirmed to PEOPLE that while authorities are not “currently” investigating the case as a murder, “The investigation is not over.”

“Investigators have conducted numerous interviews and reviewed leads and evidence,” Sarah Stewart of the state’s law enforcement agency said in the May 2 statement, noting that Noah’s death case remains open and is currently being jointly investigated by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol and Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

“There are many conflicting accounts of that night,” says Noah's brother. “With so much time passing, it seems that the stories are changing. Other times it feels that they are reading off of a script. It’s hard to trust anyone.”

State authorities ask that if anyone has information about Noah’s death, contact them at 580-353-0783.

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