The mystery of how a teenager ended up dead beside a lonely highway could finally be solved if a bombshell lawsuit sees his friends grilled under oath.

Noah Presgrove, 19, was wearing only shoes when his body was discovered 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 with his teeth scattered around his body, but the cause of those injuries remains a mystery.

His family, who have long believed he was beaten to death and his body dumped on the road, filed a $75,000 lawsuit almost two years later that could force Presgrove’s friends to explain what happened at depositions, under threat of perjury charges. 

The lawsuit claims at least two of the defendants beat Presgrove to death, and others negligently contributed to his demise by hosting the party and getting the underage teen drunk.

The six-page complaint offered no evidence 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. 

But legal experts told the Daily Mail this didn’t matter as much as it appeared, as even if the lawsuit never saw the inside of a courtroom it could still blow open the case.

That is because well before a trial, the legal process of discovery and compelling witnesses to give depositions could reveal key evidence.

Next Law managing partner Dan Gerl said this may allow Presgrove’s family to access crucial information that only the defendants and others knew.

‘Defendants will be mandated to provide sworn testimony and relevant documents, potentially revealing previously undisclosed facts, contradictions in prior accounts, or specifics that bolster the plaintiffs’ claims,’ he said.

‘Consequently, irrespective of the lawsuit’s initial evidentiary strength, it distinctly holds the capacity to compel sworn testimony and evidence that could substantially reshape its course and final determination.’

Presgrove’s 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.

Hauled into a deposition and under oath for the first time, those who know how he died could finally crack and reveal what happend.

Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Shaheen Manshoory agreed the lawsuit’s process could finally solve the mystery even if it never reaches a courtroom.

‘The discovery phase will undeniably bring new facts to light surrounding the circumstances of Noah’s death, in addition to more facts relating to the nature and extent of the defendants’ involvement in his death,’ she said.

Presgrove’s family’s lawyers, Austin Vance and Ryan Sailors from All Rise!, said this was a big part of why the lawsuit was brought in the first place. 

‘As we get more evidence through discovery and depositions in addition to what we already have, the story of what really happened to Noah will become more clear and people can actually be held accountable,’ Sailors told the Daily Mail.

Vance believed some of Presgrove’s friends were keeping what happened to him to themselves and aimed to force them to talk.

‘How can so many people attend a party and no one have come out and said what happened to him in almost two years?’ he said.

‘It seems unbelievable that someone didn’t see or know something that would explain his death, and we hope this lawsuit will lead to them revealing key information.’

Manshoory said the lawsuit appeared doomed to fail in its stated goal of winning damages from the defendants for wrongful death.

‘But the estate might be successful on a claim relating to negligence on the defendants’ part given that the party was at the home of one of the defendants, the alcohol was furnished by one or more of the defendants, and Noah was permitted to drive one of their vehicles while intoxicated,’ she said.

Presgrove’s autopsy report found he had a blood alcohol level of 0.14. 

Gerl agreed that even if the most serious claim was dropped before trial, the family could still have a case that negligence contributed to his death.

‘Should the plaintiffs demonstrate a breach of duty in providing alcohol to a minor that directly caused or materially advanced Presgrove’s death, these arguments could resonate strongly with a jury,’ he said.

This secondary part of the lawsuit could also crucially help the case clear its first hurdle – avoiding being thrown out before it could collect enough evidence.

‘Even absent direct witnesses or explicit forensic connections to alleged attackers, the very character of Presgrove’s injuries could serve as inferential proof a jury might plausibly consider indicative of an assault,’ Gerl said.

‘Should the injuries, alongside the case’s broader circumstances, lay out a credible theory of responsibility for a reasonable jury, the action would likely endure this phase.’

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 Oklahoma Highway Patrol is not investigating Presgrove’s death as a murder, but didn’t explicitly rule out manslaughter.

The lawsuit left also 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.’

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.

Sailors said exactly where Presgrove died was another thing the lawsuit hoped to clean up.

‘We can’t say for certain whether his body was dumped on the highway after he was killed, or if he walked away with serious injuries until he collapsed where he was found. But that is our working theory,’ he said. 

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.

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, 41, has long maintained he was never at the party and the ATV has in the past been referred to as belonging to Jack.

He told People magazine that nothing in the lawsuit had any truth to it, and disputed its claim that Jack gave Presgrove the alcohol.

‘It’s a huge waste of everybody’s time and emotion,’ he said.

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 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.