Riley Strain updates: Preliminary autopsy suggests student’s death was ‘accidental’

The missing student’s body was recovered from the Cumberland River on Friday

Riley Strain’s mother speaks out after his body is recovered

A preliminary autopsy has been completed on student Riley Strain’s body after he was recovered from Nashville, Tennessee’s Cumberland River this week.

The initial autopsy results suggest an accidental death, as there were no signs of foul play, police told WKRN. Authorities recovered his body Friday around eight miles from the downtown area where he was last seen.

Now, his family is thanking the Nashville community.

“I want to reiterate how thankful we are for everyone and how much we appreciate everyone’s support, love and prayers,” Strain’s mother, Michelle Whiteid, said.

“We are quite thankful for everything you’ve done — the grace you’ve given us,” Chris Whiteid, Strain’s stepfather, said.

The 22-year-old University of Missouri student was partying with his fraternity in Nashville on 8 March when he was kicked out of a bar around 10pm. Strain’s bank card was found a week later near the river.

The discovery came after Mr Whiteid and family friend Chris Dingman told NewsNation police had shown them footage of what was believed to be Strain’s last known movements.

In the video, Strain was seen jogging close to the river, away from the direction of his hotel, they said.

Key Points

• BREAKING: Body of missing Riley Strain found in Nashville river
• Preliminary autopsy reveals no signs of foul play
• ‘Hug your babies tight tonight’: Family gives statement after Riley Strain’s body was recovered
• Nashville responds to Riley Strain’s death
• WATCH: Surveillance footage shows student on night he disappeared

[22 March 2024 07:00 · Graig Graziosi]

Nashville police search by helicopter for Riley Strain

[22 March 2024 05:00 · Graig Graziosi]

Images from Cumberland River as Cajun Navy searches for Riley Strain

A NewsNation journalist shared footage from a Cajun Navy vessel searching for Riley Strain on the Cumberland River today.

Yesterday, Dave Flagg, the national director of operations for the Cajun Navy, said the group was bringing a hovercraft and more volunteers to assist in the search.

The Cajun Navy has been assisting with the search since it began.

[22 March 2024 03:59 · Graig Graziosi]

Riley Strain’s family defends police response

During a press conference on Tuesday, Riley Strain’s family defended the Metropolitan Nasvhille Police Department after some social media users following the case began questioning the department’s efficacy.

“We feel like [the police] have handled the search well ... It’s hard as a parent, 11 or 12 days into this. As the days drag on we are frustrated, but we know they’re doing their job, we see what they’ve got,” Chris Whiteid, Mr Strain’s stepfather, said.

The national director for the United Cajun Navy, David Flagg, also defended the police, calling speculation on social media “just that — speculation.”

The United Cajun Navy is assisting the family and will be coordinating the volunteer search effort.

MNPD detective Anthony Chandler and Sargent Robert Nielsen also spoke during the presser. When asked about the TikTokers who found Mr Strain’s bank card near a river bank, he praised the women who located the card but noted that during a missing person’s case the police are typically looking for a body or for a person, and that smaller pieces of physical evidence are secondary in priority until the person or body is located.

The police officers also said they were following up on numerous “actionable leads” and that the MNPD has been receiving a steady “influx” of information from people who believe they have information to offer.

[22 March 2024 03:00 · Graig Graziosi]

Riley Strain’s family asks the Cajun Navy to assist with the search and organise the volunteer effort

Riley Strain’s family held a press conference today in Nashville to provide updates on the search for the missing University of Missouri student.

The family is asking the Cajun Navy to assist in the search for Mr Strain.

The Cajun Navy is a natural disaster response organisation formed during Hurricane Katrina. The group also helps provide supplies to disaster stricken areas and assists with missing persons cases and search and rescue operations.

“Our goal is still to bring Riley home,” he said.

Dave Flagg, national director of operations for United Cajun Navy, said Mr Strain’s family has asked for the Cajun Navy to assist the search efforts.

Mr Flagg said the Cajun Navy has been involved since earliest days of the search, but said it would increase its efforts to help try to find Mr Strain.

He said a hovercraft was being brought in, and that it would be on the river today or early tomorrow, and added that an airboat that has already been searching the river would continue its search.

Mr Flagg said his people would both be searching for Mr Strain and organising the volunteer portion of the search to ensure searchers are safe. He asked individual volunteers to “come under the umbrella” of the Cajun Navy search.

[22 March 2024 02:00 · Graig Graziosi]

Questions about police response

After the discovery of Riley Strain’s bank card on Sunday by a pair of TikTokers searching the Cumberland Riverbank, there has been some question as to the efficacy of the police response to Mr Strain’s disappearance.

Metropolitan Nashville Police have been searching the Cumberland River with sonar-equipped boats, a drone, helicopters, and have searched the surrounding areas for Mr Strain.

However, friends of Mr Strain have questioned certain decisions the police have made, according to a report by FOX Nashville.

Chris Dingman, one of Mr Strain’s friends assisting in the search, questioned why a detective was not assigned to Mr Strain’s case until two days after he was reported missing.

“I wish something would have been done sooner The first 48 is so crucial,” Mr Dingman said.

The owners of shops near where Mr Strain stumbled into a pole — which was caught on surveillance video — have also reportedly not been questioned.

“People that owned the businesses were not talked to. That unfortunately is what’s going on in this situation,” one of the owners told FOX Nashville.

Mr Dingman also expressed frustration that it was amateur sleuths, and not the police, who managed to locate Mr Strain’s bank card near the river. He believes that police have jumped the gun on concluding that no crime had been committed.

“It blows our mind that the card that was found yesterday evidence that there was a crime and we’re being told that may not be what it takes to reclassify this from a missing person’s [case],” Mr Dingman said. “And that is very frustrating.”

Nashville police said they have briefed the family on the latest in their investigation.

“No evidence of foul play has surfaced as work continues to locate Riley Strain. On Sunday evening, Riley’s parents met with some of the detective team and received a full briefing on the work being done. They were also shown available video,” the department told FOX Nashville.

[22 March 2024 01:00 · Graig Graziosi]

Images from spot where Riley Strain’s bank card was found

Local reporters from WKRN 2 visited the embankment where two women who have been following the disappearance of Riley Strain found his bank card.

The women were documenting their search efforts on TikTok when they made the discovery.

[22 March 2024 00:00 · Graig Graziosi]

Riley Strain’s bank card found near Tennessee river

The bank card of missing University of Missouri student Riley Strain was recovered near the Cumberland River in Nashville more than one week after the college senior vanished.

“Riley Strain’s bank card was discovered this afternoon on the embankment between Gay St. And the Cumberland River,” Metro Nashville Police Department wrote on X on the afternoon of 17 March.

“The search for him continues,” authorities added.

Mr Strain, 22, was last seen at a bar in Nashville — as part of a trip with his fraternity — on 8 March.

Security asked him to leave, prompting a probe into whether he had been overserved. However, the bar owners on 15 March said that he had just been served one alcoholic drink and two waters before being escorted out.

“No members of Riley’s party were required to stay inside the venue to close any open tabs, and no one from Luke’s 32 Bridge team prevented anyone from Riley’s party from leaving the venue with him,” the owners wrote.

Read the full story...

[21 March 2024 23:00 · Graig Graziosi]

ICYMI: Body spotted in river amid search for missing student

A body was spotted floating in a river amid the search for missing student Riley Strain.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency reported at around 1pm on Sunday that a body was seen in the Cumberland River close to the Martin Luther King Bridge.

Search crews arrived on the scene.

However, the Nashville Fire Department (NFD) said that the body did not match the description of Strain – and was wearing a maroon-coloured shirt.

Strain’s family also said the body is not that of the missing student, WSMV reported.

[21 March 2024 22:00 · Graig Graziosi]

Riley Strain had only one alcoholic beverage before being kicked out of bar

Riley Strain, a University of Missouri who went missing after reportedly getting kicked out of a Nashville bar, was just served one drink before being escorted out, the bar owners said.

The 22-year-old student was partying with friends at Luke Bryan’s 32 Bridge Food + Drink bar just before 10pm on 8 March.

The bar’s owner, TC Restaurant Group, said Mr Strain was served one alcoholic drink and two waters before he was asked to leave, debunking the theory that he had been overserved.

“No members of Riley’s party were required to stay inside the venue to close any open tabs, and no one from Luke’s 32 Bridge team prevented anyone from Riley’s party from leaving the venue with him,” the owners added.

Mr Strain and his fraternity brothers were reportedly on a trip to Nashville for a spring formal.

The news comes days after the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission announced on 13 March that it was looking into whether or not Mr Strain had been served alcohol while visibly intoxicated at the bar.

[21 March 2024 21:00 · Graig Graziosi]

WATCH: Police bodycam footage shows Riley Strain speaking to officer on night he disappeared