Noah Presgrove’s family alleges that the teenager was beaten, pursued on an all-terrain vehicle and killed in a premeditated attack before his body was left beside a deserted Oklahoma highway, according to a newly leaked court filing.
Presgrove, 19, was found near US-81 outside Terral, Oklahoma, on September 4, 2023. He had attended a 22nd birthday party about a mile away just hours earlier.
He was discovered naked except for his shoes, with his teeth knocked out and severe injuries to his head and upper body. The trauma caused fatal internal bleeding, but the circumstances surrounding his death remain unexplained nearly three years later.
After years of what the family described as limited information from police, Presgrove’s relatives filed a wrongful-death lawsuit last June against four of his friends and three parents.
The $75,000 lawsuit alleged that the teenager was “beat to death by one or more of the defendants” before being left on the roadside. However, the original complaint did not identify who was allegedly responsible.
A significant update to the case has now emerged after a revised complaint was leaked, introducing new allegations and naming two additional people in connection with the mystery.
The first amended complaint has not yet been publicly released. But the opening page obtained by the Daily Mail appears to substantially alter the alleged sequence of events.
“On the morning before Noah’s death, defendant Avery made one or more statements about harming or killing him,” the document alleges.
A leaked court document obtained by the Daily Mail alleges that a plot was formed to kill Noah Presgrove (right, pictured with his sister Madison Rawlings) on the night he was found dead
Presgrove, 19, was wearing only his shoes when his body was discovered on a remote stretch of US-81 near Terral, Oklahoma, on September 4, 2023
Avery Jo Combs, now 25, was described as one of Presgrove’s closest friends and was reportedly romantically involved with him. She hosted the party at her secluded property, located off a gravel road just outside Terral.
The allegation about Combs’ purported statement may refer to a police interview with Kaden Pressy, another friend of Presgrove’s who was present that night.
Pressy told investigators: “Noah fell asleep on the ground with Logan [Jernigan] on Saturday night – they didn’t do anything, but when I woke up I remember Avery saying to Logan, ‘If you did anything, I was gonna kill y’all,’ but they laughed it off.”
The amended complaint’s first page alleges that the remark was an early indication of a planned attack in which Presgrove was later beaten.
“Hours later, defendants provided Noah with alcohol past the point of intoxication. Then defendants stood by as multiple boys jumped him,” the filing states.
It further alleges: “The defendants pursued Noah on a side-by-side off-road during the period before he was found near Highway 81.”
The leaked page does not identify the “multiple boys” who allegedly attacked Presgrove.
Combs previously denied the allegations made against her in the original lawsuit. The Daily Mail has contacted her attorneys for comment on the leaked amended complaint.
The revised lawsuit, filed by Presgrove’s sister Madison Rawlings on behalf of his estate, also names three additional defendants.
Avery Jo Combs was named in the lawsuit after allegedly hosting the party held to celebrate her 22nd birthday. The amended filing accuses her of making “statements about harming or killing” Presgrove the morning before his death
Presgrove was a high school football player until his graduation in May
The first amended complaint is yet to be made public, but the leaked first page, obtained by the Daily Mail, includes a huge change to the existing alleged narrative
One is Presgrove’s friend Brylan Sweat, who was seen in a video filmed during the party on the night the teen died.
The video showed Presgrove repeatedly daring him to slap him across the face, Sweat eventually only giving him a light tap before sprinting away in playful fear of retaliation.
The video was posted at 1.42am and is the last known footage of Presgrove alive.
Another of Presgrove’s friends, Jasmine Millan, was also included in the updated complaint.
Millan posted a selfie to Snapchat the night Presgrove died with the caption ‘well, Noah’s missing’ and tagged at 3.41am – two hours before his body was found.
Truck driver Christopher Payette is the third new defendant added to the list, and like Sweat and Millan there is no explanation in the first page as to why.
Payette was driving along US 81 and passed where Presgrove’s body was found about 5.30am – minutes before another truck driver called 911 at 5.43am.
Missing from the latest the list of defendants is Caleb Newton, father of Presgrove’s best friend Jack Newton, 21.
Caleb has repeatedly denied he was at the party and said he first learned of Presgrove’s death at 6.05am when Jack called him and he quickly drove to the scene.
Caleb confirmed to the Daily Mail that he was removed from the lawsuit, but he wasn’t told why.
‘I guess they finally figured out, after the first round of discovery, that I didn’t have anything to do with it from the beginning,’ he said.
‘It was strange that I was dragged into it, but I’m just anxious for it to all be settled.’
Jack was also named in the lawsuit along with Avery, her sister Carter, 22, their mother Stevie Howard, 44, and friend Logan Jernigan, 21.
Brylan Sweat, another close friend of Presgrove who went with Kaden, Issack, and Mikey to the scene soon after Presgrove’s body was found
Presgrove daring Brylan Sweat to slap him across the face as they partied in an outside patio area at the house. Kaden posted it at 1.42am and it is the last known video of Presgrove alive
Avery, Carter and Logan were included because they hosted the party, and Howard because she owned a trailer on the property.
Carter has since welcomed a baby girl, Nobie Tate Newton, with Jack Newton.
The leak of the first page of the updated complaint followed months of legal wrangling between Presgrove’s family and local police.
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The Oklahoma Highway Patrol, which is leading the investigation, and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation both refused to hand over their files.
Eventually they agreed to let the parties and their lawyers see the evidence under the condition that none of it was made public.
That meant the first amended complaint was to be filed under seal, until the first page leaked onto Facebook in recent weeks.
Presgrove’s family lawyers petitioned the court to be allowed to file the document publicly, since key details were already out there.
A tiny image of the first page of the leaked document was included in that public filing. The Daily Mail obtained a clear copy of the same page that included the new allegations.
Stephens County District Judge Lawrence Wheeler approved the request for the document to be released but it is not known when the full amended complaint will become public or if it has been filed with the court.
A major goal of the lawsuit is to compel deposition testimony from the defendants and witnesses in the hope of finding out how Presgrove died. It remains unclear if that will ever happen.
All the accused parties denied liability in their initial responses to the lawsuit and entered affirmative defenses claiming Presgrove caused his own death.
Carter Combs – Avery’s sister – was also named in the lawsuit as one of the hosts of the party
Logan Jernigan was there the night Presgrove died and is named as a defendant in the lawsuit
Jack Newton, 20, and his fiancée, Carter Combs, 21, are both named in the Presgrove family lawsuit. The couple have since welcomed a baby together after announcing they were expecting in March last year
Avery’s birthday, which ran over the 2023 Labor Day weekend, was held at her and Carter’s family home, owned by their grandfather Johnnie Trout Wilcoxson.
‘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 initial lawsuit claimed.
The hosts 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, which is almost double the legal limit to drive.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is not investigating his death as a murder, but Presgrove’s family has long believed he was beaten to death and his body dumped on the road.
The lawsuit offered no proof that he was beaten to death, let alone by anyone at the party, and none has emerged since his body was found, other than the violent nature of his injuries.
A rough sequence of events has emerged over the years 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 but uninjured after a late-night ATV accident on the grounds of Avery and Carter’s home, which is also mentioned in the lawsuit.
Carter and another friend, Jasmine Millan, then helped him shower due to how drunk he was, and he changed into a pair of white shorts borrowed from Jack Newton.
Presgrove’s body was found on the side of the highway, in the area marked between the two chalk lines. The circles show where his teeth were found. In the background is a memorial set up for the teenager
Photos of police chalk outlines showed where his body (marked by the white line) and at least one of his teeth (marked by the circle) were found
Presgrove (center) with his father Victor (left) and mother Kasey (right)
Presgrove soon after argued with Avery after he asked to sleep in her bed and she refused and told him he had to sleep on the floor. Pressy and others claimed the pair were enjoying a casual relationship at the time.
‘She told him he couldn’t sleep in her bed because he messed with her friend the night before,’ Jack told a friend in 2024.
Pressy also mentioned Avery banishing Presgrove from her bed during his recorded interview with police.
The argument upset Presgrove, and he wandered off into the night ‘to cool off,’ never to be seen alive again.
In Facebook messages to a friend, Jack explained his own argument with Presgrove that occurred earlier in the night.
‘We argued about girls for a second then ended up holding each other crying telling each other how much we meant to one another,’ he wrote.
Presgrove was found at 5.43am, according to both police and the lawsuit, naked, wearing only his shoes, 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 in 2024.
‘[Presgrove] was not one you usually worry about. I wasn’t really thinking about it.’
Jasmine Millan posted this selfie to Snapchat at 3.41am with the caption ‘well, Noah’s missing,’ which continues to fuel condemnation a year later
This timeline is disputed by Presgrove’s friend Kaden Pressy, who claimed he was woken up at 5.15am by Jack bursting through the door.
‘Jack bursts through the door saying, “Noah is dead.” Like, frantic, tearing up,’ he told detectives in a leaked recording of a June 21, 2024, interview.
Pressy also claimed when he followed Jack to the body, that Presgrove had black shorts on, in contrast to accounts of him being naked with a pair of white shorts on the road nearby.
His claims are popular with Presgrove’s family and followers of the case who are convinced the teen was murdered.
However, they conflict with the accounts of every other witness who has spoken publicly and what little police have said about the investigation.
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