A second autopsy on the body of a University of Missouri student found dead in a Tennessee River after he was thrown out of a Nashville bar returned the same results as the first: no signs of foul play.
Chris Dingman, a family friend acting as a spokesman for Riley Strain’s family, told NewsNation that that Strain’s family had the second autopsy conducted in Tennessee after the official one.
“The [second] autopsy came out just like [the official one] did, with no obvious signs of trauma as in weapons, guns or knives,” Dingman said.
Both the second autopsy and the medical examiner’s report are awaiting toxicology reports to provide more information, and no cause or manner of death has been released.
As CrimeOnline reported, Strain was tossed from a downtown Nashville bar where he was partying with fraternity brothers from the university on March 8. None of his fraternity brothers left the bar with him, and he was seen on surveillance video stumbling along the streets and on a police officer’s body camera, where he passed by and said he was fine. Minutes after those sightings, he disappeared, and his body surfaced eight miles down the Cumberland River two weeks later.
Dingman told NewsNation that Strain’s body was found without his pants or boots, not unusual for a body that’s been in a river for 14 days.
Dingman also claimed there was no water found in Strain’s lungs, indicating that he died before he went in the water, but the Nashville-Davidson County medical examiner’s office has not confirmed that information. The ME’s office also told WTVF that a drowning victim would not automatically have water in the lungs, because a person struggling to breathe can have a spasm after taking in water through the nose or mouth, but not the lungs, that shuts off the air ways. That is known as dry drowning.
Still, Dingman said, “The family deserves more answers than we have.”
Strain’s funeral is scheduled for Friday.
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[Featured image: Riley Strain/family handout]
