Riley Strain’s family is still holding out hope that he’ll be found alive after he went missing in Nashville on March 8, 2024.
Ten days since University of Missouri student Riley Strain vanished, more details have emerged about his movements before he disappeared in Nashville, Tennessee, according to NBC News.
Police released new video Monday showing Strain, 22, briefly interacting with an officer who was responding to a vehicle burglary on March 8, the night he disappeared.
And his stepfather told NBC News on Monday that Strain had gone to two more bars the same night before he was kicked out of a third.
The new video, which Nashville police shared on social media, shows Strain briskly walking past an officer on a sidewalk adjacent to the Cumberland River on Gay Street at about 9:52 p.m.
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The video shows the officer asking how Strain is doing, to which Strain replies, "I'm good, how are you?"
In security video recorded in the minutes before the latest video and released by police last week, Strain stumbles at times and in one instance falls. In the video released Monday, Strain appears to be walking upright.
“To those who are saying that they believe he could have been in distress, that somebody could have been after him as he walked onto Gay Street, well, as you see in the video, he’s walking by himself on the river side and speaks to a police officer as the officer is looking at a vehicle that had been broken into," police spokesperson Don Aaron said.
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Aaron said no evidence of foul play has surfaced as police continue to try to find Strain and that no video of Strain walking on Gay Street after 9:52 p.m. has been obtained.
Strain had been visiting Nashville with friends from his college fraternity, Delta Chi. He disappeared after he was kicked out of Luke’s 32 Bridge Food + Drink, a bar owned by country singer Luke Bryan in the city's downtown.
The bar said in a statement last week that security kicked Strain out at about 9:35 p.m. “based on our conduct standards," but it did not provide further details about Strain's behavior. It added that Strain was served only one alcoholic drink and two waters.
Chris Whiteid, Strain's stepfather, told NBC News that Strain FaceTimed his mother between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. the night he went missing and that Whiteid was sitting nearby and listening to their conversation.
Whiteid said Strain called his mother from Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk, a bar owned by country singer Garth Brooks a few buildings over from Luke's 32 Bridge. Strain also mentioned he and his fraternity brothers had been to Miranda Lambert's Casa Rosa that evening.
Attempts to reach members of Strain’s fraternity were unsuccessful. In a statement, the fraternity's CEO, Karl Grindel, referred NBC News to the police and asked that journalists not reach out to individual fraternity members.
Whiteid said that although he assumed Strain had more than one drink that evening, “he didn’t even sound like he had been drinking a lot" on the call and had been texting his mother coherently in the hour or so after the call ended.
“I’ve done a fair amount of drinking in my life, and I still question whether it was alcohol or something else," Whiteid said, referring to how Strain appeared to have lost control of his balance in some of the security video.
Whiteid said that since Strain was reported missing, he has received messages from up to 10 people who claimed they were drugged while visiting bars in Nashville.
"We're hearing the horror stories," Whiteid said. "I hope that this helps bring it to light for people that are coming to town so they're aware, so they watch and pay more attention, but I definitely feel that there is a very good possibility that this is a common problem in this town."
Authorities said Strain's bank card was found on the embankment between Gay Street and the Cumberland River on Sunday.
Whiteid said it does not appear Strain was robbed — there have been no new charges on any of his debit or credit cards, and the only account his family cannot access is the one associated with the card found Sunday.
"I want Riley to know: We're actively looking for you, son," Whiteid said through tears. "We're going to bring you home."
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