Oklahoma teen Noah Presgrove’s family reacts to his cause of death that ‘leaves a lot of things up in the air’

The family of an Oklahoma teen found dead on the side of the highway has spoken out saying his newly released autopsy leaves many questions around his death unanswered.

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

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. 

An autopsy declared his cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head and police said his death was no longer being investigated as a murder, but the teen’s family feel they are still looking for answers.

‘It still leaves a lot of things up in the air. An accident occurred, and we don’t know what that accident is, so the next approach is figuring out how [it] played out,’ his brother Dailen Presgrove said to PEOPLE.

‘It doesn’t make sense that the investigation has been going on for so long, and there were so many people around, and, yet, there’s still so much uncertainty.’

‘And it doesn’t make sense that a good person like Noah is gone in such a cruel and unknown way,’ he said.

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.

Presgrove suffered massive blunt force trauma to the back of his head, causing skull fractures but not killing him, according to correspondence with investigators shared with DailyMail.com.

‘It is strange,’ the teen’s sister, Madison Rawlings, told PEOPLE. ‘I see the injuries, I just don’t know how [they were] caused.’

While his cause of death has been determined, his manner of death is still being investigated, but did rule out him being hit by a vehicle. 

After almost eight months of silence, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, which is leading the investigation, finally gave its first update since last September.

‘Currently, the OHP is not investigating Presgrove’s death as a murder,’ it said.

‘The investigation is not over, and anyone with information on Presgrove’s death is encouraged to contact [us].’

This was despite friends and family who saw his body saying his badly battered face ‘looked like he got beat up by five dudes,’ DailyMail.com exclusively reported.

‘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,’ the autopsy report said.

‘Therefore, the manner of death is deemed undetermined.’

The report summary also vaguely explained some of the events leading up to Presgrove’s disappearance and discovery on the highway.

‘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,’ it read.

‘The decedent left the house party and was not found until the morning of September 4, 2023, on the side of the highway.’

Presgove’s best friend Jack Newton, who was at the party but claimed he was asleep when he disappeared, said it was his ATV that was in the accident.

‘All of all close friends said that he wrecked my SXS I had there around 3,’ he wrote in a message to another friend.

‘And he was super dirty and super drunk so a couple of girls helped him in the shower.’

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

But that weekend they were drunkenly celebrating the end of summer with a raging party at the birthday girl’s home, on a small street about a mile south from where his body was found, detailed in videos obtained by DailyMail.com.

One video from the night he died showed some of Presgrove’s friends writing their names on his bare buttocks with marker.

The writing was not still there when his body was discovered in the early hours of the morning but it was not known how and when it was removed.

Other photos show the teenager writing on the buttocks of another friend, and posing alongside them with a signature on his chest.

Two more videos show Presgrove 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 hit him, eventually only giving him a light tap before sprinting away in fear of retaliation.

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