The family of Riley Strain, a Mizzou student who seemingly stumbled into a Tennessee river after a night out on the town, has requested a second autopsy after new details emerged regarding his disappearance and death.
Strain went missing earlier this month during a trip to Tennessee with his fraternity brothers for spring formal. He was last seen alive on surveillance video the night of March 8, shortly after getting kicked out of Luke’s 32 Bridge, a bar on Broadway.
Strain’s disappearance sparked a weekslong search effort, which culminated in the recovery of his body on Friday. A worker for a company based along the Cumberland River was removing litter from the water when he spotted the University of Missouri student and called 911.
When he was found, Strain was missing his cowboy boots, pants and wallet, News Nation reported.
A preliminary autopsy report from the Metro Nashville Police Department later determined 22-year-old Strain died of accidental causes after he was booted from Luke Bryan’s bar. A toxicology report is also still pending.
While authorities do not suspect foul play, his family is a little less sure.
“The only thing that was found with him, as the police stated in the report, was the watch and the shirt,” family friend Chris Dingman told NewsNation.
The second autopsy focused on “more testing on specific things,” he added.
“One thing that threw the family for a loop was the coroner going on record with a news person in Nashville stating about the lack of water in his lungs,” Dingman said. “Usually, water in the lungs means that they were alive when they went into the water.”
An investigation into Strain’s disappearance and death is ongoing.