(NewsNation) — Authorities are expressing some of the questions they have over the death of Noah Presgrove, a 19-year-old who was found last year on an Oklahoma highway.
Jefferson County Sheriff Jeremie Wilson said in an interview with People magazine published Monday that he does not believe Presgrove died in a “hit-and-run.”
Wilson was talking to the news outlet in his capacity as first responder, with People noting that the state assumed jurisdiction over the case. He had been the second person at the scene where Presgrove’s body was discovered along the side of U.S. 81 near Terral, arriving after Undersheriff Jimmy Williams.
A medical examiner’s report obtained by NewsNation local affiliate KFOR showed that Presgrove died from “multiple blunt force injuries” and labeled his manner of death as “undetermined.” No car parts or debris were found on the scene, the medical report stated, and as of now, how Presgrove received his injuries and how he got to that area on the side of the highway is unknown. He had last been seen alive at a Labor Day party with friends before being found early Sept. 4, 2023.
What first responders saw when they found Presgrove
Recounting that morning to People, Wilson said when he got to the highway, he saw Presgrove naked and on his back, with “a couple of teeth laying next to his body.”
“There was blood on the scene, but not as much as there should have been, let me put it that way,” Wilson says. “Even if you were hit by a passenger car by highway speeds that night … there should have been a lot more blood.”
Along with more blood, Wilson says there should have been more road rash if he had gotten hit at 65 miles per hour.
In addition, there were no vehicular parts around Presgrove like the ones Wilson had observed at other crash scenes — despite authorities searching through “half a mile of the ditches.”
“This whole situation didn’t sit well with me,” Wilson said.
When investigating other cases, such as crashes, unattended deaths or suicides, law enforcement can usually recreate “99% of the scene,” Wilson told People. Not with Presgrove’s.
Wilson wasn’t the only one to notice the lack of blood around Presgrove — Williams said to The Daily Mail that he didn’t observe a lot either.
This aligns with what the first driver at the scene, Tyler Hardy, and Presgrove’s best friend, Jack Newton, have previously described.
Noah Presgrove’s family still has questions
Like the sheriff, Presgrove’s brother does not think what happened was a hit-and-run.
Dailen Presgrove, Noah’s brother, told NewsNation he suspected foul play.
“As I’m looking at it, it just seems weird. The placement of the body. The tooth, the shorts. It doesn’t look like a hit-and-run,” he previously said in an interview with NewsNation, where he walked along the highway with correspondent Alex Caprariello.
Madison Rawlings, Presgrove’s older sister, still has questions, even after an autopsy.
“Somebody knows exactly what happened” to her brother, Rawlings said.
“I just hope that they can find it in their hearts to just do the right thing,” she said in a May interview on “NewsNation Prime.” “And if you’re doing the right thing, then that’s all that we can ask of you.”
NewsNation local affiliate KFOR contributed to this report.