The mystery of a promising teenager found dead and naked by the side of a highway next to his knocked-out teeth has eerie links to other tragedies.
Noah Presgrove, 19, was discovered on a desolate stretch of US-81 near Terral, Oklahoma, in September 2023, hours after a 22nd birthday party a mile away.
He suffered such horrific injuries that some of his teeth were scattered on the road around him, but the cause of those injuries remains a mystery two years later.
Now, the Daily Mail has learned that a man sued by Presgrove’s family in a wrongful death suit was also linked to two other horrific deaths.
Caleb Newton, who is the father of Presgrove’s former best friend Jack Newton, was behind the wheel of a boat in 2020 when a little girl fell overboard and was fatally struck by a propeller.
Then, in March 2023 – six months before Presgrove’s death – Caleb’s brother in law Lucio Herrera, 32, died after leaving a party at Caleb’s house.
Caleb and Jack Newton are two of seven people named in a the civil suit filed by Presgrove’s family. They both denied any responsibility in court filings.
His known first brush with death was on Lake Waurika, a popular boating spot near his home in Comanche, Oklahoma, in June 2020.
Noah Presgrove (pictured), 19, was wearing only his shoes when his body was discovered on a desolate stretch of US-81 in Terral, Oklahoma, in September 2023
Caleb Newton (pictured with his wife) is one of seven people named in a wrongful death civil suit filed by Presgrove’s family
Nine people aged six to 37 piled onto his 2007 Master Craft vessel as it putted along slowly near the boat ramp about 5.15pm.
Seven-year-old Kyndi Beth Harkins ‘for an unknown reason… ended up in the water from the swim deck and was struck by the propeller,’ police said at the time.
She suffered ‘massive injuries’ and was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol said Caleb reeked of alcohol when they arrived to investigate Kyndi’s death. However, he was never charged with a crime.
Caleb told the Daily Mail that Kyndi’s death was ‘just a tragic accident’ where she fell overboard at the wrong time.
He said he gave a blood sample at the scene and tests showed he was under the legal alcohol limit to operate a boat.
‘The only thing the police said was they smelled alcohol on me, but that’s because other people on the boat were drinking,’ he said.
Caleb said he was still on good terms with Kyndi’s parents Charles and Kamran Harkins and ‘everyone just wants to move on and not relive it.’
‘There’s always things in any accident – car accident, boat accident – that you wish you would have done differently, but this is something that could have happened to anyone,’ he said.
‘I still take the boat out on to that lake with my kids, but I’ll always remember it.’
Kyndi Beth Harkins (pictured), seven, was killed by a propeller after she fell off a boat Caleb Newton was piloting on Lake Waurika in Oklahoma in June 2020
Kyndi (first row, right) with her father Charles, her mother Kamran, and her brother Kross
The couple declined to comment, but Charles posted tributes to his daughter every year on the day of her death.
‘Not a day goes by that we don’t think of you. We love you and miss you, Kyndi,’ he wrote in 2023.
‘Last night was a rough one for me, it’s crazy that one little thing can remind you of a lost loved one.
‘It’s been a rough 3 years and I have grown a lot as an individual in that time and really learned what’s important in life. I look forward to making so many memories with my family and living every day like it’s our last.’
Then earlier this year he wrote: ‘Daddy misses you so much and I constantly think about what you would be doing if you were still here. I love you Kyndi Beth. Your sister looks like you but definitely does not act like you.
‘I look forward to the day I get to see you again in Heaven, I always keep in mind the way you lived life being kind to everyone.’
Police would not release any additional information about the case to the Daily Mail.
Charles posted tributes to his daughter every year on the day of her death
Kyndi suffered ‘massive injuries’ and was pronounced dead at the scene
Then three years later, in March 2023, Caleb’s brother-in-law Herrera died on his way home from a gathering at Caleb’s house.
He left after midnight, driving a Polaris Ranger side-by-side, and only made it two miles before he crashed into a parked Dodge Ram.
Herrera – the brother of Caleb’s wife Rosa and a father of five – was pronounced dead at the scene.
Caleb told the Daily Mail that the ATV was his, and Herrera was drinking heavily before he took off to keep the night going with other friends.
‘I live on a farm so the keys [to different vehicles] are just in everything. I’d gone to bed and he took the ATV to go see what the neighbors were doing,’ he said.
No further details about that incident were provided by police, and there is no suggestion of wrongdoing by Caleb.
Caleb was accused in the Presgrove family lawsuit of allowing the teen to drive or ride on an ATV, which flipped and allegedly injured him.
That ATV was the same make and model as the one Herrera died on, but Caleb said it was a different vehicle.
Caleb’s brother in law Lucio Herrera, 32, (pictured with his mother Tina Gomez) died when he crashed an ATV into a parked car after leaving a party at Caleb’s house in March 2023
Herrera was the brother of Caleb’s wife Rosa (pictured together), and a father of five
Caleb has denied being at the party Presgrove attended on the night of his death, insisting that he was at a cookout at a friend’s house in Duncan, Oklahoma, about an hour’s drive away.
The ATV referenced in the lawsuit was generally referred to by Presgrove’s friends as being Jack’s, but it is unclear who actually owned it.
Caleb explained last year that he first heard of Presgrove’s death when Jack called him early that morning after coming across the body as other witnesses called 911.
‘At about 6.05 I got a call no parent ever wants to get, it was short and hard to understand him,’ he wrote in a Facebook post.
‘I was standing on my boat in my yard, I know exactly where I was when that call came in.
‘I was getting [the] boat ready. Dad was making coffee. We were very actively getting ready to go to the lake.’
Caleb picked up his father and drove 40 minutes to the scene, arriving after as Jefferson County Sheriff’s deputies were securing the scene.
Presgrove’s family claimed last year that Caleb picked up one of the teen’s teeth found close to his body. It is unclear what the family is accusing Caleb of in relation to touching the tooth, and what they believe he did with or to it.
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’s body was found between the two chalk lines, and teeth within the circles. In the background is a memorial set up for the teenager
He previously denied that claim, saying: ‘The tooth that was on the road was not moved that I seen (sic).
‘I watched a police officer circle it with white chalk. I pointed out a tooth to the police, I would not have picked that up ever,’ he wrote on Facebook.
Caleb and Jack filed a joint response to the $75,000 lawsuit in the Oklahoma District Court in August denying responsibility for Presgrove’s death.
They claimed Presgrove died because of his own negligence and his death was likely the result of an ‘unavoidable accident.’
Presgrove’s blood alcohol level was at 0.14, according to an autopsy report, close to twice the legal limit to drive.
Jack recently announced he is expecting a child with his girlfriend Carter Combs, 21, who was also at the party the night Presgrove died.
Carter, along with her older sister Avery Jo Combs and their friend Logan Jernigan, hosted the party for Avery’s birthday at her grandfather’s house off US-81.
Presgrove’s body was found about a mile north along the highway from the small street where the party was held
Jack Newton, 20, and Carter Combs, 21, recently announced that they were expecting a baby next March
The three women were accused in the lawsuit of providing Presgrove with alcohol ‘even after he was already intoxicated’ and breaching their duty of care by doing so.
The grandfather is also named in the suit as he is the property owner.
Carter denied any responsibility in her response to the lawsuit, and Avery and Logan are yet to file a defense.
OHP is not investigating Presgrove’s death as a murder, but his family has long believed he was beaten to death and his body dumped on the road.
‘[Presgrove] was beat to death by one or more of the defendants,’ the lawsuit claimed, without specifying who they believed did it.
The lawsuit left open the possibility that the alleged beating wasn’t meant to kill him, and included ‘unidentified individuals’ among the defendants.
OHP didn’t explicitly rule out manslaughter in its statement last year.
