(NewsNation) — Newly released 911 calls shed more light on the scene where Oklahoma teenager Noah Presgrove‘s body was found last year.
Presgrove, 19, was last seen alive at a party he attended with a group of friends last Labor Day weekend. His body was discovered along U.S. 81 near Terral on Sept. 4, 2023.
People magazine obtained the audio of two 911 calls made to police that day and detailed them in an article published Monday. The magazine reported the calls were made just before 6 a.m. local time.
In the first audio, a man identified as “Tyler” said he wasn’t sure what he saw “laying on the shoulder of the road” as he drove down the highway on Labor Day morning. Although he suggested at first the figure could be a deer, “it looked like a body,” the caller said, describing it as “awful odd.”
Shortly after that, police got another call from “Tyler Hardy,” saying he had seen a body on the side of the road and also mistaking it for a deer.
“I’m pretty sure there’s somebody laying dead along the road,” Hardy said. “They look naked. I’m staying back.”
A dispatcher told Hardy she was aware and a deputy was on their way.
“It actually looks like there’s a piece of clothing maybe lying in the middle of the road,” Hardy said. “I don’t want to get too close.”
Hardy speaks out
Hardy, a field supervisor for Gulfmark Energy, had already talked about finding Presgrove in a June interview with The Daily Mail.
When he pulled over and saw Presgrove’s body lying in a fetal position, Hardy said he saw the 19-year-old was wearing nothing except for a pair of mismatched shoes. About 25 feet away from Presgrove were a pair of white shorts.
A little while later, Presgrove’s best friend, Jack Newton, arrived, Hardy recalled.
“Jack was the only person who walked up to Noah, and he told me who it was until the Terral Fire and Jefferson County Sheriffs showed up,” Hardy recalled. Newton said there was minimal blood at the scene, with a little coming out of Presgrove’s ears and on the top of his head.
Presgrove’s family still has questions
Initially, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation declared Presgrove’s death as “suspicious,” but the state’s Highway Patrol later said it was not investigating Presgrove’s death as a murder. A medical examiner’s report NewsNation local affiliate KFOR revealed in May states that Presgrove died from “multiple blunt force injuries” and labels his manner of death as “undetermined.”
Various injuries and abrasions could be seen on Presgrove, the medical examiner’s report said. Family members of Presgrove’s said to NewsNation’s Ashleigh Banfield that Presgrove’s skull was caved in, he had road rash on his hip, a gravel rash on his shoulder, multiple bruises and scattered teeth.
However, no vehicle parts or debris were observed in the area, KFOR wrote, casting doubt on theories that there had been a hit-and-run.
“At this time, what transpired on how the body was found on the road having multiple blunt force injuries is unknown,” the report said.
Madison Rawlings, Presgrove’s older sister, said the autopsy just left her with even more questions.
“He wasn’t hit by a vehicle, so I mean, I guess it puts you at ease,” Rawlings said to KFOR. “But then I would love to know, ‘OK, well, what caused these injuries?’”
