Human Interest Human Interest News Tragedy News Noah Presgrove’s Brother Recalls Getting Call That 19-Year-Old Was Found Dead: 'That Drive Felt Like a Year' Driving to the scene where the teen's body was found, his brother remembers the agony of "not knowing if we were about to see Noah on the side of the road" By Emily Palmer Emily Palmer Emily Palmer is a Senior Crime Writer at PEOPLE, where she has been a reporter since 2023. Her work has frequently appeared in The New York Times. She has also been published in The Boston Globe, Cosmopolitan Magazine and ELLE Magazine. People Editorial Guidelines Published on May 4, 2024 10:30AM EDT Noah Presgrove. Photo: Courtesy of Madison Rawlings Dailen Presgrove got the call around 7 a.m. on Sept. 4, 2023, that his teen brother, Noah Presgrove, had been found dead on the highway. Dailen and their father, Victor Presgrove, drove some 30 minutes along Oklahoma’s Highway 81, looking for the 19-year-old. “We didn’t know exactly where he was, so as we were going, we’d go up this hill, not knowing if we were about to see Noah on the side of the road,” Dailen, 24, recalls to PEOPLE in an interview. “That drive felt like a year.” When they arrived, investigators had covered Noah’s body with a sheet. However, Dailen says, he could still see the form of his brother curled in the fetal position. Noah Presgrove during his 2022-2023 senior year of high school. Shanna Reece “Walking up to him that day, I was in disbelief that he was gone,” Dailen says. “And I continued to believe throughout the day and night that he was just going to get up and be okay, that the emergency workers would be able to bring him back. There was just a disbelief that he was actually gone. It didn’t make sense that he was dead.” Earlier that Sept. 4 morning, the teenager had been found naked, wearing only mismatched slip-on Hey Dudes shoes. Noah Presgrove (center) at his wrestling team's senior night, with his parents, Victor Presgrove and Kasey Elliot. Courtesy of Madison Rawlings Blood pooled by his head and seeped through the sheet covering him, Dailen recalls, adding that several of Noah’s teeth had fallen out and investigators had collected Noah’s white shorts from the middle of the road and folded them by Noah’s body. That September, the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation said they were investigating the “suspicious death.” On Monday, April 29, the Oklahoma medical examiner said in a one-page summary report obtained by PEOPLE that Noah died of “multiple blunt force injuries” but that the manner of his death was still “unknown.” Noah Presgrove at his 2023 senior prom. Courtesy of Madison Rawlings Noah Presgrove's Mom Speaks Out After Officials Reveal Cause of Death, But Say They're Not Investigating as Murder Sarah Stewart of the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety confirmed to PEOPLE in an emailed statement this week that, while authorities do not believe Noah was murdered, “The investigation is not over.” The state’s Department of Public Safety and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for additional comments on the ongoing case and the full autopsy report, which has not yet been publicly released. Noah Presgrove. Madison Rawlings/GoFundMe Noah Presgrove Died of 'Multiple Blunt Force Injuries' — but Authorities Are Not Investigating Death as Murder Over the Labor Day weekend, Noah attended a four-day house party in Teral, Okla. Partygoers passed “in and out of the place,” throughout the weekend, and have given varying accounts of what happened there, Dailen says. “I feel that people know what happened,” Dailen says, but: “It’s hard to figure out whose stories are true.” Although Dailen says that he agrees with investigators that his brother was not murdered: “An accident occurred, and we don’t know what that accident is, so the next approach is figuring out how the incident played out.” Thinking back to that September morning on the roadside, Dalien says, “We need to figure out what caused the bleeding to his head, the abrasions across his body. All of that is still left to find out.”