According to police investigations, Riley Strain, a University of Missouri student who went missing during a night out in Nashville in March and was later found dead along the Cumberland River, had consumed 12 to 15 drinks before his death.
According to a Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) investigation report, the medical examiner determined that Strain, 22, had a blood alcohol content of 0.228 percent and died from drowning and ethanol poisoning. WSMV4 investigates.
The MNPD investigation also shed more light on how Strain consumed a large amount of alcohol in one night while on an official spring trip with his University of Michigan sorority in Nashville – a roughly six-and-a-half hour bus ride from Missouri to Tennessee.
That’s when the drinking began, despite a strict no-alcohol policy for bus drivers, according to the report obtained by WSMV4.
Riley Strain’s cause of death announced: Drowning, ethanol poisoning kills college student during night out
Riley Strain was last seen out with friends on Broadway Street in Nashville on the evening of March 8. His body was found in the Cumberland River on March 22. (Handouts for families)
The business and finance student appears to have had at least five drinks, including vodka shots and IPAs, on his way to Nashville on March 8. Upon arriving around 4:30 p.m., they went to a Mexican restaurant downtown, where security footage showed Strain sipping a margarita.
According to WSMV4, surveillance footage showed Strain starting to stagger around 8:40 that night. Strain was asked to leave Luke’s 32 Bridge on Broadway after 9:30 p.m., then began walking toward the hotel and disappeared.
Riley Strain was last seen at Luke Bryan’s bar in downtown Nashville before his body was discovered in the Cumberland River. (Google Maps | Voice for the Voiceless)
“At 9:35pm, our bar’s security team made the decision, in accordance with our code of conduct, to escort him out of the venue via the Broadway exit at the front of the building,” the bar said in a statement on March 15. “He went down the stairs with one of his companions. The individual who was with Riley did not exit and instead returned upstairs.”
Riley Strain Found: Nashville police find body of college student who went missing after night out
According to FOX 17, Riley Strain’s cell phone last rang between 10 and 10:30 p.m. near the sheriff’s office and Public Square Park, near the Cumberland River. (Facebook)
The Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission conducted its own investigation, including reviewing security camera footage, and determined that Strain had not consumed excessive amounts of alcohol. It is unclear where and how Strain consumed 12 to 15 drinks on March 8.
Police say a bank card belonging to missing college student Riley Strain was found near a river in the Nashville area.
Riley Strain, a 22-year-old University of Missouri student, went missing in downtown Nashville on March 8 and her body was later found in the Cumberland River. (Metropolitan Nashville Police Department)
As WSMV4 reported, the footage reviewed by TABC did not appear to show Strain visibly intoxicated.
Video footage shared by Minnesota State Police after Strain’s death showed the 22-year-old staggering from downtown toward the river.
David Flagg embraces Riley Strain’s mother, Michelle Strain Whiteid, just before a press conference at Public Square Park on March 19, 2024 in Nashville. (Denny Simmons/The Tennessean via USA Today)
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On March 22, about two weeks after Strain disappeared, an employee of a business based along the Cumberland River reported seeing a body to police, and police were later able to identify Strain.
Strain’s obituary remembered him for his dedication to service, which included more than 500 hours dedicated to the wonders of wildlife, his love of hunting, fishing and spending time with his family, and his passion for “good food.”
