neesaki
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So only 12 dry drownings out of 4000 cases, and they had sustained a blow to the head? I don’t blame the family for having questions.
Found Deceased TN - Riley Strain, 22, missing after leaving bar, Nashville, 8 March 2024 #3
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iamshadow21
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How far in advance or close to entering the water would the blow to the head have to have happened to be a factor in this case, is the question. We know he took a hard blow to the head, it was on video. And people can walk away from a head injury, seem fine, then collapse later.
MOO
Interested_But_Confused
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I'm glad you were okay.
Anyone who has used a pressure washer should be under no illusion about what water can do. I do find it a little curious that Riley's underwear was intact, but the idea that water could tear off a pair of pants and boots isn't hard to believe at all.
I agree that the family should continue to investigate and get as much information as possible until they exhaust all possibilities. They owe that to Riley. No one knows the full picture of what happened and that is what the family is trying to find out.
I hope they get enough answers so they don't have to suffer with wondering, That, on top of grief stunts your ability to accept the death. I found my brother deceased. Coroner released initial findings within 24 hrs.( heart) I had to wait a whole year for tox and final autopsy to know why this happened (yes a whole year) and the waiting was pure hell, unanswered questions can drive you crazy. I know nothing will change the outcome for Rileys mom , but I pray she gets enough answers so that she doesnt get stuck in what can feel like purgatory.
I'm sorry about your experience and the loss of your brother.
I think Riley's family will exhaust every possibility to learn what they can. Although they may never know everything that happened that night, at least they will be able to say they tried their best, did everything in their power to leave no stone unturned, and do right by their son.
I admire their fortitude given the circumstances.
I understand the family's need to find out as much as they can about Riley's final hours. I expect they can't reach any sort of peace without doing that. But I wonder if they've been led to believe Riley was less drunk than he really was. (I'm not sure it's possible to determine BAC at time of death so long after death.) And both groups they've talked to about his condition at Luke's (the staff & his friends) may have had reasons to minimize his inebriation. I don't mean they would be intentionally lying but some staff may have reason to remember he wasn't in that drunk (so he wasn't over-served.) And his friends need to believe there was every reason for them to think he'd be fine walking back to the hotel by himself. And maybe he wasn't that drunk. But I'd hate for the family to feel driven to explore certain issues based partly on bad data.
Do we know what sort of belt he was supposed to be wearing? And how the family knows he was wearing a belt that night? Looks like he wore his shirt untucked. It can't be that he always wore a belt or this issue would have come up sooner, I'd think. The articles I've seen say something like "the family discovered he was wearing a belt that night." Is it just that a belt thought to be a favorite seems to be missing?
MOO
Do we know what sort of belt he was supposed to be wearing? And how the family knows he was wearing a belt that night? Looks like he wore his shirt untucked. It can't be that he always wore a belt or this issue would have come up sooner, I'd think. The articles I've seen say something like "the family discovered he was wearing a belt that night." Is it just that a belt thought to be a favorite seems to be missing?
MOO
From what I've seen of the family in the news media, it's my sense that they are able to deal with various and competing theories even if their hearts are pulling them in one direction or another. I think they can take all of the facts and the speculations in their stride and continue to investigate and rule in or out various issues.
According to the family spokesperson, Riley's parents were going to speak to the media once the memorial service and funeral were over, so we may hear from them soon. I wonder if they can raise some money or come up with some money to offer a reward for information about what anyone may have seen or heard that night near where RIley's bank card was found and hand out some flyers in that area about the reward. There may be some silent witnesses around who may know or not know that something they heard or saw has some relevance to how RIley ended up in the river. If it were me, I would think strategically about where to canvas and what kind of information to specify in relation to the reward money, etc.
I had a friend from Wales who told me once that if there was an accident in a local coal mine, you had to prove you were a good friend of the trapped miners so it was understood that you would not give up looking. I think of that situation when I think of Riley's family and their spokesperson. They're all in.
Only 12 out of 4000 does make dry drowning sound pretty rare, but as I heard it in the interview, that wasn't quite what he said about all of those 12 having had a blow to the head. Nancy Grace did seem to gloss over this part completely, but he did say that those 12 all either had some kind of head trauma OR inebriation. I don't know why she ignored that last word or why he let it slide. But in any case, it's a moot point really, because as the poster above me here noted, Riley DID have a "blow to the head" shortly before his death (as seen in a released video), and it's known that he was "inebriated."
On a side note, this was the first time I've watched Nancy Grace! I knew her voice, after hearing it in ads for her show, but never watched it. I'm afraid I personally don't like her style, too dramatic for me. Probably effective sometimes though, I bet. I can see her dragging a confession out of someone by just verbally beating them into submission.
Thats right, I was going to add that he said head trauma or intoxication, but thought the same, moot point because he had both. I was more interested in the other testing anyway, the diatom's. Fascinating what you learn about the things people can do to investigate cases.
LadyL
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I don't think we know that? It's just not mentioned. Or did I miss that info?
concernedmother
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Had to laugh. I love her but I wouldn't want to go before her. She hits hard. She is a pit bull. Jmo
SMK777
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That’s absolutely true. I can think of a few cases where people seemed fine, only to collapse with brain hemorrhaging later.
I’m wondering why the blow to his head didn’t factor into the autopsy reports, though. It was obvious from the footage that he fell and banged his head hard. Most found it painful to watch.
neesaki
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I think he glossed over it because he wanted to, for what reason I can’t understand. He initially included intoxication , but primarily head injuries.
If not, as you say, why would he let it slide? NG pointedly tried to get him to be specific. She was acting like a Prosecutor at that point, he’s a Bull Dog. And he said, “yes” when specifically asked if they all had head injuries. If that wasn’t true, why say it?
neesaki
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Same here. After his fall, he was walking really off gait and unbalanced, compared to prior to his fall. It seemed obvious to me that the fall had caused a bigger problem. JMO
In the video it looked like he hit his head; however, IMO, there is no possible way that anyone can know how hard he hit, where he hit (on his head), etc. Furthermore, people hit their heads all the time! If the autopsies do not say “head injury”…IMO, that theory needs to be dropped.
what I have not been able to bring resolution to is the two people that found his debit card. if he were missing his boots and his pants and these two found his debit card, I just don’t understand how? How were his boots and pants not found in the general vicinity of where the debit card was found??
It's been postulated in this thread that maybe he kept his debit card in his shirt pocket and it fell out of that pocket. Or, it was in his pants pocket and when he went to remove something from there, the debit card fell out.
CuriousCricket
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This makes sense to me as well. If Debit Card was in his shirt pocket, just bending over might have been enough for it to have fallen. Certainly the tumble in the bushes could have dislodged it. I've watched people tuck items into shirt pockets and have one jacket I use that way all the time, so shirt pocket seems reasonable to me. Also, IIRC his wallet was in his front pants pocket, meaning the shirt pocket would have been simpler unless, phone in one pocket, wallet in the other and the card in with the phone so debit card could have been pulled out with the phone. I see either as a valid possibility.