Metropolitan Nashville Police Department
College Student Riley Strain’s Cause of Death Revealed 3 Months After Disappearance
Riley Strain’s cause of death has been revealed nearly three months after he was reported missing and found dead.
The college student died from drowning and ethanol intoxication, according to an autopsy report obtained by TMZ on Tuesday, June 18, and his manner of death was listed as accidental.
Strain’s blood alcohol level was listed as 0.228 percent when his body was examined, and there were also “traces of THC” found in his system. The outlet added that there was “no evidence of significant trauma to his body.”
He went missing while on a trip to Nashville with his University of Missouri fraternity, Delta Chi, to attend a spring formal. Strain – who was 22 at the time of his death – was last seen on March 8 after he left Luke Bryan’s restaurant Luke’s 32 Bridge Food + Drink, and his friends reported him missing when he did not return to his hotel room at the end of the night.
“The boys called him, and he said, ‘I’m walking back to my hotel,’” Chris Whiteid, Strain’s stepfather, explained to local news outlet WSMV on March 11. “They didn’t think anything about it.”
Meanwhile, his mother, Michelle Whiteid, said his disappearance had been “so hard” on her. “I just need to know where my son is,” she added.
During his night at Luke’s 32 Bridge Food + Drink, Strain was asked to leave before he went missing. The restaurant and its owner, TC Restaurant Group, claimed that Strain was only served one alcoholic drink and two waters before he left the venue in a March 15 statement. Video footage later captured him stumbling down the street and taking a wrong turn away from his hotel, though it was not known where he was heading.
The search process was highly publicized, while Michelle said she was focused “on bringing Riley home” during a March 19 press conference. She added that her son’s friends were “heartbroken” over the situation, noting that “he’s their best friend.”
“We love these boys like our own. It’s just as hard on them as it is on us,” she continued about Strain’s fraternity brothers.
Two weeks after the search began, a body was found in Cumberland River in West Nashville and was identified as Strain on March 22.
“The body of Riley Strain was recovered from the Cumberland River in West Nashville this morning, approximately eight miles from downtown,” the Metro Nashville Police Department revealed in a statement via X on March 22. “No foul play-related trauma was observed. An autopsy is pending.”
One week after his body was found, Strain’s family later held a funeral for him in Missouri on March 29.
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