Missing Riley Strain’s family calls in United Cajun Navy amid questions over Nashville police search: Live

After the discovery of Riley Strain’s bank card on Sunday by a pair of TikTokers searching the Cumberland Riverbank, there has been some question as to the efficacy of the police response to Mr Strain’s disappearance.

Metropolitan Nashville Police have been searching the Cumberland River with sonar-equipped boats, a drone, helicopters, and have searched the surrounding areas for Mr Strain.

However, friends of Mr Strain have questioned certain decisions the police have made, according to a report by FOX Nashville.

Chris Dingman, one of Mr Strain’s friends assisting in the search, questioned why a detective was not assigned to Mr Strain’s case until two days after he was reported missing.

“I wish something would have been done sooner The first 48 is so crucial,” Mr Dingman said.

The owners of shops near where Mr Strain stumbled into a pole — which was caught on surveillance video — have also reportedly not been questioned.

“People that owned the businesses were not talked to. That unfortunately is what’s going on in this situation,” one of the owners told FOX Nashville.

Mr Dingman also expressed frustration that it was amateur sleuths, and not the police, who managed to locate Mr Strain’s bank card near the river. He believes that police have jumped the gun on concluding that no crime had been committed.

“It blows our mind that the card that was found yesterday evidence that there was a crime and we’re being told that may not be what it takes to reclassify this from a missing person’s [case],” Mr Dingman said. “And that is very frustrating.”

Nashville police said they have briefed the family on the latest in their investigation.

“No evidence of foul play has surfaced as work continues to locate Riley Strain. On Sunday evening, Riley’s parents met with some of the detective team and received a full briefing on the work being done. They were also shown available video,” the department told FOX Nashville.

Riley Strain, a University of Missouri who went missing after reportedly getting kicked out of a Nashville bar, was just served one drink before being escorted out, the bar owners said.

The 22-year-old student was partying with friends at Luke Bryan’s 32 Bridge Food + Drink bar just before 10pm on 8 March.

The bar’s owner, TC Restaurant Group, said Mr Strain was served one alcoholic drink and two waters before he was asked to leave, debunking the theory that he had been overserved.

“No members of Riley’s party were required to stay inside the venue to close any open tabs, and no one from Luke’s 32 Bridge team prevented anyone from Riley’s party from leaving the venue with him,” the owners added.

Mr Strain and his fraternity brothers were reportedly on a trip to Nashville for a spring formal.

The news comes days after the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission announced on 13 March that it was looking into whether or not Mr Strain had been served alcohol while visibly intoxicated at the bar.

While not a college-organised trip, Mizzou officials have said that they are working with Nashville authorities and Riley’s family.

“The safety of our community is our highest priority,” Angela King Taylor, interim vice chancellor for Student Affairs, said in a statement.

“Our thoughts are with Riley’s family as the search continues. We will be offering any support to them that we can, and we encourage anyone who needs help to reach out to our counselling resources.”

Those resources are on offer at the college’s Wellness Resource Center and the Counseling Center within the Division of Student Affairs, as well as the Employee Assistance Program for faculty and staff.

A body was spotted floating in a river amid the search for missing student Riley Strain.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency reported at around 1pm on Sunday that a body was seen in the Cumberland River close to the Martin Luther King Bridge.

Search crews arrived on the scene.

However, the Nashville Fire Department (NFD) said that the body did not match the description of Strain – and was wearing a maroon-coloured shirt.

Strain’s family also said the body is not that of the missing student, WSMV reported.

The bank card of missing University of Missouri student Riley Strain was recovered near the Cumberland River in Nashville more than one week after the college senior vanished.

“Riley Strain’s bank card was discovered this afternoon on the embankment between Gay St. And the Cumberland River,” Metro Nashville Police Department wrote on X on the afternoon of 17 March.

“The search for him continues,” authorities added.

Mr Strain, 22, was last seen at a bar in Nashville — as part of a trip with his fraternity — on 8 March.

Security asked him to leave, prompting a probe into whether he had been overserved. However, the bar owners on 15 March said that he had just been served one alcoholic drink and two waters before being escorted out.

“No members of Riley’s party were required to stay inside the venue to close any open tabs, and no one from Luke’s 32 Bridge team prevented anyone from Riley’s party from leaving the venue with him,” the owners wrote.

Local reporters from WKRN 2 visited the embankment where two women who have been following the disappearance of Riley Strain found his bank card.

The women were documenting their search efforts on TikTok when they made the discovery.

Riley Strain, 22, was last seen on Friday night as he left Luke’s 32 Bridge Food + Drink in Nashville’s Broadway area.

The senior’s stepfather said in an interview on Monday that the days since Riley’s disappearance had been “pure hell”.

His family has travelled to the city and been walking the streets looking for the young man who called his frat brothers after leaving the bar, saying he was going back to their hotel.

Riley’s friends tried to call him repeatedly after that on Friday night and on Saturday morning, but the calls kept going to voicemail.

Metropolitan Nashville Police Department released video footage on Tuesday, showing Riley wearing a two-tone shirt, crossing 1st Avenue North to Gay Street at around 9.45pm on Friday. That spot is just over half a mile from the bar.

Investigators are asking anyone who could help locate the 6’5” tall man with a thin build, blue eyes and light brown hair to come forward.

The department said on Monday that it had searched the downtown area where Riley was last seen, including the riverbank, but “to no avail”.

A family friend of Riley Strain has revealed the last known communication the student had that night.

Chris Dingman told NewsNation that the student sent a text message to a girl that he was seeing.

“She texted him to see how he was doing and if he was having fun,” he said.

“He sent kind of a scripted text back to her saying ‘Good lops.’”

It is unclear what the confused message means.

Mr Dingman said that neither he nor the recipient of the text knew what it meant and described it as “unclear slang”.

After being kicked out, the student then wandered the streets, according to surveillance footage in the area.

His friends subsequently spent nine hours looking for him before filing a missing person report with the police. Mr Strain, from Springfield, Missouri, was in Nashville with his fraternity, Delta Chi, for their spring formal trip.

On Wednesday, friend Chris Dingman said he had learned from Mr Strain’s relatives that the missing student was seen by two groups of homeless people on the night he vanished.

“These are areas that the camera had stops. We don’t have any footage. Basically, the areas where his phone quit pinging. We now do have visual confirmation from two homeless camps that Riley was in that area,” Mr Dingman told local TV station, WSMV4.

Mr Dingman also spoke with a homeless person who saw Mr Strain wandering near the banks of the Cumberland River, which runs through the city close to downtown. However, the homeless resident could not recall where Mr Strain went, his friend said.

A doorman working at a different downtown bar also told WSMV4 that he had been approached by a homeless man who claimed to have seen Mr Strain stumble into some bushes, stand up, and then wander off in the dark.

There have been no other reported sightings of Mr Strain since.

The parents of University of Missouri student Riley Strain said they will “continue to search” after more than a week has passed since the college senior vanished.

Mr Strain was last seen on 8 March when he went to Luke’s 32 Bridge Food + Drink bar in Nashville as part of a fraternity trip but was asked to leave the nightspot.

“We’re still, you know, actively planning to bring Riley home with us,” Chris Whiteid, Mr Strain’s stepfather told NBC News on 16 March.

This case has been “taxing” due to them “not getting more updates of what’s going on,” Mr Whiteid said. Still, “we continue to search,” added Mr Whiteid.

“We’re very hopeful and we’re moving forward as, you know, he’s coming home and we’re graduating in May and life goes on just as normal,” he continued.