Preliminary autopsy results indicated a University of Missouri student found dead in Nashville after he was missing for two weeks died accidentally.
Metro Nashville Police confirmed to WKRN on Saturday that the early results on Riley Strain’s autopsy indicated no foul-play related trauma and that the death was “accidental.”
Strain, 22, was in Nashville with his Delta Chi brothers for a fraternity conference earlier this month. The brothers were out bar-hoppin on March 8, and Strain was ultimately asked to leave Luke’s 32 Bridge that night. One of his fraternity brothers accompanied him downstairs to the front door, but went back upstairs after Strain left.
Strain was seen on surveillance cameras and a police officer’s body camera in the area for the next several minutes, but by 10 p.m. he was gone. His fraternity brothers reported him missing 16 hours later, prompting the intensive, two-week search that ended when Strain’s body surfaced eight miles down the Cumberland River in west Nashville on Friday, as CrimeOnline reported. He was still wearing the black and white checked shirt he was wearing when he disappeared, despite what turned out to be false reporting from some media outlets that a homeless person had been seen wearing the shirt.
Strain’s family thanked the Nashville community and first responders for their efforts to find the missing man.
“I just ask that you mamas out there hug your babies tight tonight, please,” Michelle Whiteid, Strain’s mother, said during a press conference after Strain’s body was discovered.
“Riley’s captured the hearts of people across the country, and we thank everybody for their thoughts and prayers and their efforts on trying to find him,” his father, Ryan Gilbert, said.
Luke’s 32 Bridge, owned by country star Luke Bryan, said it served the young man a single drink before he was to leave for undescribed “conduct” issues. The downtown area where the bar is located, and where Strain was seen after he left, hugs the river, with several bridges connected sections of the city.
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[Featured image: Riley Strain/family handout]
