The mother of Riley Strain – the University of Missouri student whose body was recovered from a river in Nashville – has claimed that the night before he vanished, he texted her about how strange his drink tasted. Michelle Whiteid shared the chilling March 8 messages from her son, during an interview with NewsNation on Tuesday.
Whiteid said that her son had ordered a rum and coke that "didn't taste good" on the night he vanished. Strain's half-naked body was found in the Cumberland River in Tennessee 14 days after he vanished but an initial autopsy ruled out foul play. His mother claims that anything in his drink led to his death.
Mother Makes Fresh Claims
Whiteid said she told her 22-year-old son that he probably shouldn't drink it. "Maybe there was something in it that shouldn't have been," Whiteid said, explaining that her son told her the drink 'tasted like barbecue'.
"I go, 'Well, that sounds awful,'" Whiteid added. "He said, 'Well, it sounds good, but it's not.'"
Luke's 32 Bridge Food + Drink, where Strain was last seen alive in person, said that he was asked to leave after being served one alcoholic drink and two waters.
After her son was kicked out of Luke's 32 Bridge Food + Drink, a downtown bar, later that night and disappeared, the seemingly ordinary texts have left Whiteid with serious questions.
Surveillance footage showed Strain stumbling as he walked the streets of Nashville before he vanished on March 8.
Additional footage released by Nashville police showed him wobbling and appearing disoriented as he crossed a closed road near the water.
The next morning, his fraternity brothers attempted to locate Strain using his Snapchat location but were unsuccessful. They then called police to report him missing.
Mystery Continues
Strain's body was found in the Cumberland River in West Nashville on March 22, less than two weeks after he disappeared. He was found without his pants, belt, wallet, and cowboy boots that he had been wearing earlier in the night.
While investigators have ruled out foul play, and a preliminary autopsy report indicates accidental death, the family members of the college student express doubts about the circumstances.
"If he fell and truly fell in the water, and you can prove that to me, show me. I'll accept it," his stepfather Chris Whiteid said to NewsNation.
"But I can tell you from all the stuff that we've done as far as search and looking, taking pictures — I don't feel like it's really possible that happened. He may have fallen, but someone helped him in the water," he said.
The family has requested a second autopsy after learning that Strain had no water in his lungs, a departure from the usual findings in drowning cases.
