Support truly
independent journalism
Unseen video footage of Missouri college student Riley Strain has shed light on the moment he was kicked out of a Nashville bar before ultimately falling into a local river and drowning.
The 22-year-old was seen on surveillance footage being led from a rooftop bar at Luke Bryan’s 32 Bridge Food + Drink by a staff member. Strain then can be seen shakily walking downstairs toward an exterior door while conversing witha male staffer, in a video obtained exclusively by News 5 Nashville.
Staff at the bar also took a photo of Strain on March 8, noting he had been kicked out of the bar for being “verbally aggressive” with staff. Strain was visiting Nashville with his Delta Chi fraternity brothers from the University of Missouri.
After he left the bar, Strain was seen on other surveillance cameras stumbling around the streets of downtown Nashville. He later encountered a police officer who asked him how he was doing, with Strain replying that he was doing fine. The interaction was captured by the officer’s bodycam.
GPS data pulled from Strain’s phone showed that after he left the bar he began wandering in the opposite direction of his hotel, which took him near the Cumberland River. Strain disappeared sometime after 9.45pm that night.
After a two-week search, the college student’s body was pulled from the Cumberland River in Nashville on March 22. His cause of death was drowning, and bore no signs of foul play. Workers removing an object from the water stumbled onto Strain’s body and notified the police.
An autopsy report, from the Davidson County Medical Examiner’s Office, determined Strain had fallen into the river on accident and drowned as a result. The report also found that his blood alcohol level was .228, approximately three times higher than the legal limit for driving.
The bar is owned by Luke Bryan, a country music star. TC Restaurant Group, which operates and owns Luke’s 32 Bridge Food + Drink, worked closely with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department on its investigation into the missing student, the singer previously said.
Bryan's bar is located in the busy Broadway area in downtown Nashville and offers live music every night. It sits around two blocks from the Cumberland River.
Although the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission announced on March 13 that it was investigating whether Strain had been overserved, the bar owners later revealed that the college senior had been served just one 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 said in a statement at the time.
