Officials released the autopsy results Tuesday for Riley Strain, a college student who went missing on a fraternity trip in Nashville in March.
Tennessee’s chief medical examiner ruled the 22-year-old’s death as accidental, determining the exact cause of death as “drowning and ethanol intoxication,” according to a Metropolitan Nashville Police Department (MNPD) press release.
A toxicology report apparently showed Strain’s blood alcohol level was .228, WKRN News reported, more than double the legal limit in Tennessee, which is .08%, according to Find Law. Delta 9, a compound in cannabis, was also found in his system, WKRN reported.
Strain went missing in downtown Nashville on March 8 while on a fraternity trip, according to WKRN News. A friend of his called 9-1-1 the next morning and filed a missing person’s report. (RELATED: Missing College Student’s Last Known Text Revealed As TikTok Sleuths Find Bank Card At Unusual Location).
The University of Missouri student was at Luke’s 32 Bridge Bar the night he disappeared, where he “was served one alcoholic drink and two waters” before being kicked out, the bar said in a statement.” The bar’s “security team made a decision based on our conduct standards to escort [out] him from the venue.”
The MNPD later discovered Strain’s body in the Cumberland River on March 22, “approximately 8 miles from downtown,” the police department said on Facebook.
Riley Strain, student who disappeared in Nashville, was extremely intoxicated when he died — and other startling revelations from autopsy https://t.co/bzews7fSe7 pic.twitter.com/CIBfXu5NAK
— New York Post (@nypost) June 18, 2024
“The MNPD’s investigation found that Strain consumed multiple alcoholic drinks at different establishments after arriving in Nashville with friends on March 8,” the police department said in a statement Tuesday. “The investigation found that he had become separated from his friends and was noticeably impaired as he walked onto Gay Street adjacent to the Cumberland River on the night of March 8.”
“Detectives have concluded that Strain, who was unfamiliar with Gay Street and the steep embankment leading to the river, did not realize the terrain conditions in the darkness as he stepped toward the overgrown area and fell down the embankment into the water,” the statement continued. “Due to recent rain, the river was very high that night with a swift current. Strain’s body was found in the river in West Nashville on the morning of March 22 several miles from Gay Street.”
“The MNPD continues to extend its heartfelt condolences to Riley Strain’s family and friends,” the statement reads.
