The parents of Riley Strain are slamming his fraternity brothers after finding out they partied after he went missing in Nashville.
While speaking to NewsNation, Strain’s mother, Michelle Whiteid stated her son’s Delta Chi brothers allegedly went to formal while he was still missing.
“[The fraternity brothers] all of a sudden disappeared,” Whiteid explained. “All of the boys. A little later, [they showed up ] in their dress clothes to go out to their formal that night.”
Along with going to formal instead of helping in the search efforts, Ryan Strain’s mother said the fraternity brothers who were with him in Nashville didn’t call 9-1-1 the night he went missing.
“Why wouldn’t they?” she asked. “Why wouldn’t they have called the police when they got back at 3:15 in the morning and didn’t see him then?”
Riley’s mother also said he had mentioned the fraternity’s formal to her. “He was excited,” Whiteid said. She then admitted she was nervous about his Nashville trip.
Ryan Strain went missing on March 8 while on a trip to Nashville with his Delta Chi fraternity brothers. Before he disappeared, the Mizzou student was kicked out of Luke Bryan’s 32 Bridge Bar. None of the fraternity brothers left with him.
The night after her son disappeared, Whiteid said she received a photo call from one of his fraternity brothers asking her if she had recently spoken to him.
“I said, ‘What do you mean, he’s with you?’” Whiteid said. “Why would I? What do you mean you can’t find him?’ [The brother] goes, ‘Well he’s not in the hotel, and we can’t find him.’”
His body was discovered in the Cumberland River in West Nashville on March 22. His death has since been ruled as “accidental,” with NewsNation reporting there was no trauma suggesting foul play.
Strain’s family has since ordered a second autopsy.
Riley Strain Told His Mother One Of His Drinks Tasted Strange The Same Night He Went Missing
Meanwhile, Michelle Whiteid told NewsNation that Riley Strain had been texting her while he was on his Nashville trip.
On the night he went missing, Strain told his mother that one of his drinks, a rum and Coke, “didn’t taste good” to him. He also told her the drink tasted “like barbecue.”
“I go, ‘Well that sounds awful,’” Whiteid recalled. “He said, ‘Well, it sounds good, but it’s not.’ Maybe there was something in [the drink] that shouldn’t have been.”
The TC Restaurant Group, which owns and operates 32 Bridge Bar, previously told the media outlet that Riley Strain was asked to leave the establishment after being served only one alcoholic drink and two waters.