Found Deceased TN - Riley Strain, 22, missing after leaving bar, Nashville, 8 March 2024 #3

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MAR 29, 2024
www.news-leader.com

Friends, family mourn Mizzou student and Kickapoo grad Riley Strain at funeral service

"Green makes you look good," Riley Strain used to say. On Friday, friends and family of the late Mizzou student wore green to celebrate his life.
www.news-leader.com
One day when Riley Strain was about 4 years old, he was decked out in green while talking to a friend of his mother's. The friend told the little boy that he looked nice.

Strain quickly replied, "You know, green makes you look good."

That's why Friday, friends and family of the late University of Missouri student and Kickapoo High School graduate wore green to celebrate the life of Riley Strain. A line to speak to family formed inside Greenlawn Funeral Home East in Springfield as cars circled the already packed parking lot.

[...]
 
Celebration of Life - Riley Ray Strain
Video: 1:15:23 (1 hour - 15 minutes - 23 seconds)
Forget Me Not Ceremonies

March 29, 2024

Video by: Greenlawn Funeral Home East - Springfield, MO

On the right side of the page, click on Celebration of Life 2 to view the video.

Forget Me Not Ceremonies

event.forgetmenotceremonies.com event.forgetmenotceremonies.com
 
Last edited:
arielilane said:
Appreciate forensic pathologist Dr. Michelle Dupre and death investigator Joseph Scott Morgan for discussing the latest on Riley Strain. They explain what a "dry drowning" is and why Riley may have been found with no pants or boots. Both agree more investigation is needed.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1773476976193368566
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I haven't commented on this case, only because I haven't seen all the videos and tox reports. But I have to say that the videos they show in this news report with these 2 people, are eye opening. He looks so much more than a kid that drank too much. I have seen what bodies look like when they are pulled from a river or body of water, and a lot of them are missing cloths. But with that said, there is also damage to the body from the debris in the water, like roots from trees, or rocks, sticks and of course crab, fish or other wild life. Don't forget the skin slippage. It all takes a toll on the remains and what you see. And like the investigator said, he was in a bad area, and very compromised and it is not out of the real of thinking that someone took advantage of him. So I hope the parents get ALL the answers in this poor kids death. Just so sad that he had to go this way. So young too.
 
Megnut said:
Perhaps they thought he only had to navigate crossing the street, to where they'd all then meet up again, and from which ultimately leave together.
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Possible, at the same time, however, I think its being overly generous.

At the end of the day, even nice college students can make bad decisions as a collective. This can include not wanting to interrupt their own fun to ensure that a group member makes it back to their hotel.
 
Cryptic said:
Possible, at the same time, however, I think its being overly generous.

At the end of the day, even nice college students can make bad decisions as a collective. This can include not wanting to interrupt their own fun to ensure that a group member makes it back to their hotel.
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And probably not really considering at that age that something could go that catastrophically wrong. I know at that age I didn’t consider such things, and once left my sister to make her own way home in an unfamiliar vacation area, because I met a guy. Luckily it worked out. But it never occurred to me that I was endangering her life due to my own selfish behavior. I see now that I certainly was.
 
SMK777 said:
And probably not really considering at that age that something could go that catastrophically wrong. I know at that age I didn’t consider such things, and once left my sister to make her own way home in an unfamiliar vacation area, because I met a guy. Luckily it worked out. But it never occurred to me that I was endangering her life due to my own selfish behavior. I see now that I certainly was.
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True. I'd also wonder what that group usually did if one person got too drunk to continue partying. It may be it was common for the group, including RS, to simply bid the person goodnight and continue partying. We can't know but it's pretty likely this wasn't the first time someone in the group appeared too inebriated to continue drinking.

Being decades away from my own college years, I realize there are dangers in that approach. (I do shudder at some things I did back then and even did some iffy things later in my mid-20s.) I also realize there might need to be different strategies employed on one's home turf vs in an unfamiliar vacation environment although most home environments carry risks too. But I just don't find the behavior of the group unusual for college-aged people. People that age do tend to feel fairly invincible. And the hotel WAS only a few blocks away. I'm sure though the members of the group wish they had done something different.
MOO
 
NCWatcher said:
True. I'd also wonder what that group usually did if one person got too drunk to continue partying. It may be it was common for the group, including RS, to simply bid the person goodnight and continue partying. We can't know but it's pretty likely this wasn't the first time someone in the group appeared too inebriated to continue drinking.

Being decades away from my own college years, I realize there are dangers in that approach. (I do shudder at some things I did back then and even did some iffy things later in my mid-20s.) I also realize there might need to be different strategies employed on one's home turf vs in an unfamiliar vacation environment although most home environments carry risks too. But I just don't find the behavior of the group unusual for college-aged people. People that age do tend to feel fairly invincible. And the hotel WAS only a few blocks away. I'm sure though the members of the group wish they had done something different.
MOO
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There's a difference partying at home, on campus vs on the road in a strange city. I've got a kid same age as Riley and in a sorority. She gets the speech about sticking with her sisters every time she travels with them, which is frequently. As luck would have it they're going to Nashville next weekend and I made sure she knew what happened with Riley.
 
GatorFL said:
There's a difference partying at home, on campus vs on the road in a strange city. I've got a kid same age as Riley and in a sorority. She gets the speech about sticking with her sisters every time she travels with them, which is frequently. As luck would have it they're going to Nashville next weekend and I made sure she knew what happened with Riley.
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Of course there's a difference. People do tend to feel safer at home even though hometowns aren't always safe either. And depending on where one lives, there may be a big difference between partying on the west side of one's hometown vs the east side. People decades past high school/college realize all that. But I'm not sure college students, particularly college men, see things that way.

Young people, both men and women, do tend to see themselves as invulnerable. And in our society, men are socialized to "take care of themselves" while women are socialized to "look out for others." I wouldn't be at all surprised if a sorority housing director/sorority mother emphasized looking out for one's sisters while traveling but I'd be less sure that would be emphasized before a fraternity trip. And males DO take more risks. According to the CDC (2001-2021) in the 15-24 age group in the US 11,313 males died from an unintentional injury while only 4,479 females did. So a definite sex difference exists. (And while drowning wasn't high on the list of COD, within the group dying accidentally, males were about twice as likely as females in that age group to have drowning as a COD: 3.6% vs 1.6%)

Leading Causes of Death and Injury - PDFs | Injury Center | CDC

Charts of the 10 leading causes of death and injury by age group for the US
www.cdc.gov www.cdc.gov

Anyway, my point really was that we don't know what the group usually did if one member needed to leave. What do they do at home? What did they do last year when they also went to Nashville? What about other trips? I suspect they haven't all gone home if one person needed to leave early on a Friday night. But I expect they all wish they had this time.
MOO
 
NCWatcher said:
I suspect they haven't all gone home if one person needed to leave early on a Friday night. But I expect they all wish they had this time.
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SBM
Definitely, but they are able to see this in retrospect, because they now know the outcome. At that age, most wouldn’t have viewed Riley as being in mortal danger when he left for the quick walk back to the hotel. I’m sure he himself did not consider that his life hung in the balance.
 
I learned Riley didn't have pants on or his boots. From the waist down, only his boxer shorts and socks remained. However, police confirmed when his body was found that Riley had his shirt and Apple watch still on.
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Tennessee Body Farm expert questions the state of Riley Strain when he was found

I feel like some news sources such as NewsNation have sensationalized this by claiming he was found naked with just his shirt on but actually his boxer shorts and socks were still on.
 
Thinking about Riley, I remembered a 20-year Doe, Maritime John Doe recently ID'ed as Donald Kirk. He was found in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Boynton Beach, FL. PBSO has evidence photos, you can see his pants were almost off and like Riley, and his underwear and socks intact.

Websleuths thread here: FL - FL - “Maritime John Doe", Wht, 65-75, maritime tattoo, Atlantic Ocean, Sep'03 - Donald H. Kirk

NSFW PBSO Evidence Photos: Case 05-056017 - Maritime John Doe - Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office

Just some food for thought on how somebody can be in the water even for a short time and how their clothing is affected.
 
skylaker said:
Tennessee Body Farm expert questions the state of Riley Strain when he was found

I feel like some news sources such as NewsNation have sensationalized this by claiming he was found naked with just his shirt on but actually his boxer shorts and socks were still on.
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Dr Bill Bass is a 96-year-old researcher and professor, forensic anthropologist (not a forensic pathologist medical doctor) and I see nothing to show his expertise in drowning victims. Being an expert in human bones and decomposition does not show him to have any experience in recovery of drowning victims. He was not a first responder nor work at a medical examiner's office. While he is highly respected, I think he was stepping outside his area of expertise.
Kicking off of shoes on purpose, is not uncommon when people fall into water, shoes getting filled with water/sand/dirt are very heavy, and for his comments on the pants, he has never been a tall, skinny, stick of a figure who has pants that easily drop to the floor. Those of us that have lived with these body types in our households know that it is no mystery to the pants coming off in the water. Perhaps he didn't remember that in middle/high school, other males would target those body types and cruelly pull their pants down as they walked down the hallways.

en.wikipedia.org

William M. Bass - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 
Bosie said:
Isn't it quite possible that he had to relieve himself, drunk and hurried, pants slipped down, bent down to drag them up and fell over? Died when hitting the ground and rolled into river? Therefor no water in lungs. However, if this is the case there should prob. be some visible head injury from the fall. Dry drowning is possible, especially if he had some muscle relaxant drugs in his system and combine that with alcohol. Interesting to see what the toxicology report finds.
He was in the water for weeks, and decomposition and the moving of tissue as well as the stream of water, objects in water, may have pulled boots off?
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Very possible. The part I am struggling with, and sadly as a result of a friends son dying from an accidental drowning, was that Riley's boots would have filled up with water and dragged him down. He would have had no hope of getting the water filled boots off. Possibly he did soil himself, and take off his pants and boots before falling into the river, but where are these items? All possibilities are open a this time.
 
Boxer said:
Riley was lucky he lived through the uncontrolled fall I saw him take in the street, head first nearly into a cement post.
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True lucky if someone had seen him fall, rendered aid, and gotten him to his hotel, away from the river.

It would never have been a headline.

And Riley would've called his mom the times today.

Sometimes I wonder if we're all one misstep away from our world spinning off its axis.

JMO
 
Megnut said:
True lucky if someone had seen him fall, rendered aid, and gotten him to his hotel, away from the river.

It would never have been a headline.

And Riley would've called his mom the times today.

Sometimes I wonder if we're all one misstep away from our world spinning off its axis.

JMO
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You are correct about the world spinning off its axis. I don't know how many times I have fallen and hit concrete and survived without any injury other than a scrape. I wasn't even toasted or had 1 drink. I don't drink though I have in the past. I got so sick I vowed not to do it again. It only took twice of getting sick that I didn't drink again.
 
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