Riley Strain updates: Preliminary post-mortem suggests scholar’s dying was ‘accidental’ | EUROtoday

At one level, a debit card on a river embankment was the one main clue within the disappearance of University of Missouri scholar Riley Strain – and it was found by two TikTokers.

Read extra from The Independent’s Andrea Cavallier:

“I want to reiterate how thankful we are for everyone and how much we appreciate everyone’s support, love and prayers,” Riley Strain’s mom, Michelle Whiteid, mentioned.

“I just ask that you mamas out there hug your babies tight tonight, please, for me,” she continued.

Their phrases got here at Friday night press convention, simply hours after authorities recovered 22-year-old Strain’s physique from the Cumberland River.

“We are quite thankful for everything you’ve done — the grace you’ve given us,” Chris Whiteid, Strain’s stepfather, mentioned. “We have learned through this ordeal that everybody has brought all the good to us. We’ve had a little bad, but it has given us faith in people that sometimes gets clouded by what we are constantly hearing.”

David Flagg, the director of the United Cajun Navy, a catastrophe reduction and search and rescue group volunteering within the seek for Riley Strain, instructed native reporters that the Cumberland River’s present was shifting rapidly on the day the coed disappeared.

“Somehow, Riley may have fallen into the river and was swept away by the current,” Mr Flagg instructed WTVF. “The current was very, very swift on the day that he disappeared.”

Police searched Cheatham Dam yesterday for any signal of Mr Strain, however didn’t discover any proof of the coed.

As data emerged about Strain’s final identified actions, household pal Chris Dingman has revealed the ultimate textual content message the coed despatched.

He instructed NewsNation Strain despatched a complicated textual content to a lady he was talking with who “texted him to see how he was doing”. Strain responded with: “Good lops.”

Read extra from The Independent:

Riley Strain’s dad and mom and kin gave an emotional assertion on Friday night, all carrying inexperienced — the coed’s favorite color.

Riley’s mom, Michelle Whiteid, gave an emotional deal with to members of the media after her son’s physique was recovered from the Cumberland River.

“I just want to reiterate how thankful we are for everyone, how much we appreciate everyone’s support,” Ms Whiteid mentioned.

“I just ask that you mamas out there hug your babies tight tonight, please, for me,” she continued.

Before authorities recovered his physique from the Cumberland River, Riley Strain was final seen by way of surveillance footage after being requested to go away a bar earlier this month.

Authorities found Strain’s physique roughly 8 miles from downtown Nashville within the Cumberland River, Nashville Police Chief John Drake mentioned at a press convention. Workers had been eradicating an object from the river once they stumbled upon Strain’s physique.

According to police, Strain was carrying his distinctive black and white shirt when he was discovered, contradicting earlier claims by that the shirt had been taken and worn by a person named Ross.

An preliminary post-mortem revealed there have been no indicators of foul play-related trauma, native outlet WKRN stories.

Mr Drake made word of a grim element through the presser that would shed some mild on why it took so lengthy to seek out Strain; a physique matching Strain’s top and weight would usually take roughly 14 to twenty days to floor after being submerged in a physique of water. He mentioned the police had been anticipating to seek out him someday this week in consequence.

Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell urged residents and guests to be cautious and to be aware of one another within the metropolis within the wake of Riley Strain’s dying.

“I think this is an important reminder to everyone to also look out for one another,” Mr O’Connell mentioned throughout a Friday morning assembly. “You know, I think some of this is just about how we as a city look after each other as neighbors and as people interacting in the entertainment district.”

Riley Strain, the 22-year-old University of Missouri scholar whose physique was recovered from the Cumberland River on Friday, was lacking for 2 weeks.

From The Independent, a timeline of Strain’s disappearance, together with the final moments he was seen alive: