22-year-old student Riley Strain vanished on March 8 after partying with his fraternity brothers in Nashville. He was allegedly kicked out of Luke Bryan’s bar, Luke’s 32 Bridge bar, for a reason unknown, and told his friends he would meet them up back at the hotel, but when they returned he wasn’t there. After failing to contact him or locate him through via his Snapchat location, they reported him missing on March 9.
Search efforts were launched right after the report.
According to the young man’s stepfather, Strain FaceTimed his mother on the night of his disappearance and revealed that he had gone to two more bars the same night before he was kicked out of a third. Speaking to NBC News, the stepfather said that “he didn’t even sound like he had been drinking a lot.”
The mystery had taken another twist after the release of a confusing message sent from the 22-year-old’s phone that night.
At 9:47 p.m., the young man was captured on surveillance footage crossing the street, and was later spotted on another camera five minutes later looking disorientated. This was the last known sighting of Strain.
His distressed family pleaded the public and the authorities to help find their son. “We’re looking for you. We are not leaving until we have you. We’re going to be with you at graduation…and everything’s going to be fine,” his step-dad said.
On the night he vanished, Strain sent a text message to a 22-year-old woman he was reportedly seeing. The text read “Good lops,” which only added to the mystery.
“He’s got several friends that are female, male. I don’t know the individual he talked to at that time,” his mother told People.
Sadly, on March 22, Riley Strain’s body was found eight miles downriver from where he was last seen.
Strain was found dead in a river. His body was spotted by a worker for a local building materials company that unloads barges at the river.
“My company works on the river. I have just found a, uh, dead body” the worker told the police after calling 911 before adding, “I believe it to be Riley.”
According to the Metro Nashville Police Department, a preliminary autopsy shows Riley Strain’s death appears to be accidental.
Don Aaron, spokesman for the department, said a detective attended the 22-year-old’s autopsy examination, and his death “continues to appear accidental.”
“No foul play-related trauma,” Aaron said in an email. “(Toxicology) pending per usual.”
We are so very sorry for the loss of this young man. May he rest in peace.