Southwest
Oklahoma authorities 'hesitant' to rule teen's death a homicide, famed pathologist suggests
As mystery surrounds the 2023 Labor Day death of Oklahoma teen military hopeful Noah Presgrove, a forensics expert broke down the medical examiner’s most recent findings and shared his theory on what caused the 19-year-old’s death.
Dr. Michael Baden, an American physician and board-certified forensic pathologist known for his work investigating high-profile deaths, told Fox News Digital that Presgrove’s death is a terrible case and that the medical examiner’s report revealed many details surrounding the night he died.
“He had a lot of internal bleeding. So, his heart kept pumping for a little bit after he was struck. But if there’s a possibility that in an ATV accident, he might have a punctured lung and was bleeding slowly. And then, as he’s walking along the highway, the bleeding gets worse, and he collapses, and then a truck hits him and causes all the injuries, on that account. But that would a lot depend on what his condition was when he gets back to the party,” Baden said.
Presgrove was found dead along a rural stretch of US-81 in Jefferson County on Labor Day in 2023. He was last seen alive at a party he attended with a group of friends that night, but nearly a year later, the family says that no one has come forward and told them how he ended up along the highway.
OKLAHOMA TEEN MILITARY HOPEFUL’S FAMILY ‘CAN’T IMAGINE’ HE WAS MURDERED, OFFERS THEORY ABOUT HIS LAST HOURS
Nearly eight months after the death of Oklahoma teen Noah Presgrove, the family is still searching for answers about this death. (Robyn Smith)
“My family is strong, but today is hard. We all miss him deeply. No one new has stepped out with different information, so it’s a waiting game,” Noah’s sister, Madison Rawlings, told Fox News Digital.
According to the medical examiner’s full report, after further investigation, it was determined that Presgrove was drinking at a house party where he was involved in an ATV rollover incident. The investigation revealed that Presgrove returned to the party where he got into an argument with his girlfriend after the ATV incident.
“No one new has stepped out with different information, so it’s a waiting game.”
“That is the only part of the party-goers’ stories that match. Each one that we have had the opportunity to talk to claims that a wreck did happen, but he was completely fine; still not sure on who the girlfriend is,” Rawlings said.
“I don’t know what to believe, honestly. Do I think they intentionally killed him? No. Do I think they were drunk and got into a fight with him? Yes …,” Kristen Smith, the mother of Noah’s best friend, Hayden, told Fox News Digital. Smith shares a birthday with Noah, who would turned 20 on Tuesday.
Baden said that due to the level of alcohol in Presgrove’s system, he may not have even been aware that he was severely injured.
CAUSE OF DEATH DETERMINED FOR OKLAHOMA TEEN MILITARY HOPEFUL FOUND ON SIDE OF ROAD
Noah Presgrove’s body was found along an Oklahoma highway on Labor Day in 2023, and the manner of his death is still unknown. (Madison Rawlings/Kristen Smith)
“The issue would be if he had any significant injuries from the ATV, such as internal bleeding. And he’s too intoxicated to think of going to a hospital or a doctor or something,” Baden said.
With the amount of alcohol believed to have been consumed at the party, Baden said the others at the party may not have even realized Presgrove was hurt when he returned, since his injuries were mostly internal.
“They assumed whatever differences of appearance he had was because he was drinking and not because of the ATV injury, which would not have caused him to collapse or anything until enough internal bleeding had occurred, since it was a small leak, a small laceration to the lung,” Baden said.
“Because the only thing that could cause the extent of the injuries to his head and spine would be a car wheel coming over him, you know, or a truck, more likely a truck and probably on the ground. And I think either he was internally bleeding and intoxicated, walking along the highway, and he collapses, and he’s lying there, and the vehicle comes and hits him in the head while he’s on the side of the road.”
NORTH CAROLINA SEARCH WARRANT SHEDS LIGHT ON MYSTERIOUS THERAPY CAMP DEATH OF 12-YEAR-OLD BOY
Noah Presgrove, 19, was wearing only his shoes when his body was discovered on a desolate stretch of US-81 near Terral, Oklahoma, on Labor Day of 2023. (Kristen Smith)
Baden added that Presgrove may not have even realized how hurt he was based on his blood alcohol level.
“So, the one thing alcohol does, it’s an anesthetic agent. And it can cover up pain caused by broken bones or a lacerated lung,” Baden said.
He said after reading the full medical examiner’s report, he believes an auto incident contributed to Presgrove’s death.
JAMES PATTERSON’S NEW TRUE-CRIME SERIES TO SPOTLIGHT 3 RIVETING UNSOLVED MURDER MYSTERIES
What led to the death of 19-year-old Oklahoma teen Noah Presgrove is still not known nearly a year later. (Madison Rawlings/Kristen Smith)
Authorities classified Presgrove’s manner of death as “undetermined,” though Baden says he believes the circumstances surrounding the teen’s death are “consistent with a hit-and-run.”
“If somebody struck him, stopped, looked at him and didn’t do anything about it and took off … that’s a hit-and-run. That could be a homicide kind of thing. So, they’re hesitant to classify it either as an accident or a homicide,” Baden said. “It’s a very sad case … but it’s consistent with a hit-and-run situation being that somebody hit him and didn’t stop.”
Presgrove had recently graduated from high school three months early with plans to enlist in the military alongside his cousin.
Baden, the host of HBO’s “Autopsy” series, was the chief medical examiner of New York City from 1978 to 1979. He has also been involved in some of the most high-profile civil rights and police brutality cases in U.S. history, from the government’s 1976 re-investigation of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. to the 2014 death of Michael Brown, whose case sparked the initial Ferguson protests that grew into the Black Lives Matter movement.
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Horse-mounted Texas Department of Public Safety officers captured a previously deported illegal alien child predator close to the border.
In a statement Tuesday, the state agency said officers from its Border Mounted Patrol Unit made “multiple” illegal immigrant apprehensions on New Year’s Day as part of an effort called Operation Lone Star.
The agency said the operation took place in Maverick County along the U.S. border with Mexico, just south of the town of Del Rio, Texas.
Among those arrested by Texas DPS officers was Marcio Steven Izaguirre, a 41-year-old Honduran illegal alien and child predator, according to the agency. DPS shared body camera video of the arrest in which horse-riding troopers discovered Izaguirre hiding in thick desert brush.
VIDEO SHOWS 23 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FOUND HIDDEN IN TRUCK CAB DURING TENSE TRAFFIC STOP: POLICE
Mounted Texas DPS officers arrested Marcio Steven Izaguirre, a 41-year-old Honduran illegal alien and child predator, on New Year’s Day. (Courtesy of Texas Department of Public Safety)
The video shows two mounted troopers riding quickly through rocky desert terrain and eventually discovering Izaguirre. The officers shouted commands for Izaguirre to exit the brush and handcuffed him and led him away in front of their horses.
The agency said it was alerted to the illegal’s presence by a drawbridge camera set off on a private ranch around 10:30 a.m. New Year’s Day.
DPS said, through further investigation, troopers learned that Izaguirre was a previously deported felon with multiple deportations dating back to 2004. The agency said Izaguirre also has a lengthy criminal history, including convictions from 2008 for furnishing alcohol to a minor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor and child molestation out of Cobb County, Georgia.
TWO ARRESTED AFTER DOZENS OF GUNS, INCLUDING ‘COP-KILLER’ MODEL, FOUND IN SPARE TIRE AT SOUTHERN BORDER: DPS
In 2025, Adan Delgado-Ortega was captured hiding in brush after crossing illegally into Texas with multiple deportations since 1998 and convictions for assault and weapons charges. (Texas Department of Public Safety)
The agency said it has since referred Izaguirre to U.S. Border Patrol.
Lt. Chris Olivarez, a Texas DPS spokesperson, said in an X post Jan. 1 that mounted officers, along with Border Patrol and aided by K-9 “Bona,” apprehended five illegal immigrants on New Year’s Day.
Olivarez said the operation prevented gotaways and was a way of “keeping Texas safe.”
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Texas law enforcement patrols the border between the U.S. and Mexico. (Fox News)
Texas makes up well over half of the U.S. border with Mexico, around 1,254 miles. It is the only southern border state to explicitly ban sanctuary jurisdictions. Texas also requires state and local law enforcement to cooperate with federal immigration authorities.
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Texas law also mandates that local sheriffs cooperate with federal immigration enforcement by seeking to enter federal 287(g) agreements under the federal Immigration and Nationality Act.
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The trial of a former Uvalde, Texas, school police officer accused of not doing more to save lives in the 2022 shooting that left 21 dead was halted after a key witness reportedly changed her testimony.
Adrian Gonzales has pleaded not guilty to 29 counts of child abandonment or endangerment following the attack at Robb Elementary. He could be sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison if he’s convicted, prosecutors said.
Former teacher Stephanie Hale testified on Tuesday that she saw the shooter on the south side of the campus, the same area where Gonzales was located, according to Texas Public Radio.
However, defense attorneys objected, arguing her testimony was different compared to statements Hale made to a Texas Ranger during a 2022 investigation when she placed the shooter closer to Gonzales than previously indicated, the outlet added.
TRIAL UNDERWAY FOR FORMER UVALDE SCHOOL POLICE OFFICER ACCUSED OF SLOW RESPONSE TO SHOOTING
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales leaves the courtroom during a break at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (Eric Gay/AP)
The jury in the trial was then dismissed until Thursday as attorneys are preparing arguments on motions related to Hale’s testimony, the report said. The judge in the case is expected to hear those arguments on Wednesday, and the defense has raised the possibility of a mistrial, Texas Public Radio also reported.
Gonzales, who was among the first to respond to the attack, arrived while the teenage assailant was still outside the building. The officer allegedly did not make a move, even when a teacher pointed out the direction of the shooter, special prosecutor Bill Turner said Tuesday during opening statements in the trial.
Former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales, right, and his attorney Nico LaHood, left, arrive in the courtroom at the Nueces County Courthouse in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (Eric Gay/AP)
The officer only went inside Robb Elementary minutes later “after the damage had been done,” Turner said.
FORMER UVALDE SCHOOL POLICE CHIEF, OFFICER INDICTED OVER RESPONSE TO ELEMENTARY MASS SHOOTING
“When you hear gunshots, you go to the gunfire,” Turner added, noting that Gonzales, a 10-year veteran of the police force, had extensive active shooter training.
Attorney Nico LaHood makes opening arguments during a trial for former Uvalde school district police officer Adrian Gonzales on Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2026. (Eric Gay/AP)
An indictment accused Gonzales of putting children in “imminent danger” of injury or death by failing to engage, distract or delay the shooter and by not following his training. The allegations also said he did not go toward the gunfire despite hearing shots and being told the shooter’s location.
Gonzales’ attorneys disputed accusations that he did nothing at what they called a chaotic scene, saying that he helped evacuate children as other police arrived.
Adrian Gonzales, a former police officer for schools in Uvalde, Texas. At right is a memorial dedicated to the 19 children and two adults killed on May 24, 2022, during a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. (Uvalde County Sheriff’s Office/AP/Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
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“The government makes it want to seem like he just sat there,” defense attorney Nico LaHood said on Tuesday. “He did what he could, with what he knew at the time.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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President Donald Trump on Tuesday endorsed Tano Tijerina in Texas’ 28th Congressional District race after criticizing Rep. Henry Cuellar for running again as a Democrat following a presidential pardon.
“I don’t know why, but the fact that Henry Cuellar would be running against Donald J. Trump, and the Republican Party, seems to be a great act of disloyalty and, perhaps more importantly, the act of a fool who would immediately go back to a Political Party, the Radical Left Democrats, whose views are different from his, but not nearly good or strong enough to be a true Republican,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform in part.
The president said if he had to do it again, he would still pardon Cuellar, arguing the prosecution against him was politically motivated, but criticized his decision to run for re-election.
“Henry should not be allowed to serve in Congress again,” Trump added before endorsing Tijerina, a judge in Webb County, Texas, who switched his party affiliation from Democrat to Republican.
HOUSE DEM PARDONED BY TRUMP REVEALS WHETHER HE WILL SWITCH POLITICAL PARTIES
Webb County Judge Tano Tijerina poses for a portrait in his office on February 20, 2025, in Laredo, Texas. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
“Tano’s views are stronger, better, and far less tainted than Henry’s, and he has my Complete and Total Endorsement to be the next Representative from Texas’ 28th Congressional District — HE WILL NEVER LET YOU DOWN!” said Trump.
The commander in chief pardoned Cuellar in December after he was indicted by the Justice Department in May 2024 on charges alleging he accepted roughly $600,000 in bribes from an Azerbaijani state-owned oil and gas company and a Mexican bank in exchange for using his office to influence U.S. foreign policy.
ABBOTT ORDERS COMPREHENSIVE FRAUD PROBE INTO TEXAS CHILD CARE FUNDING AFTER MINNESOTA SCANDAL
Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, was accused of taking more than half a million dollars in bribes from an Azerbaijan-owned energy company and a Mexican bank. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Cuellar and his wife, Imelda, were facing multiple counts, including bribery, money laundering and unlawful foreign influence.
After Trump granted him clemency, the congressman thanked the president for what he called his “tremendous leadership,” and said the decision allowed South Texas to move forward.
President Donald Trump announced his pardon of Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas on Truth Social in December. (Nathan Howard/Politico/Bloomberg via Getty Images / Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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“This pardon gives us a clean slate. The noise is gone. The work remains. And I intend to meet it head on,” Cuellar wrote on X.
Cuellar won re-election in November 2024 and has been in Congress since 2005.
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