Missing Missouri student: Crews continue to search the Cumberland River for Riley Strain

ASHLAND CITY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Working their way back and forth along the Cumberland River, Metro, Cheatham County, and Ashland City officials are still looking for missing Missouri student Riley Strain .

News 2 rode with search crews from the Cheatham County Sheriff’s Office and the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency (TWRA) on a search and rescue boat along the Cumberland River.

Search crews with TWRA and the Cheatham County Sheriff’s Office told News 2 that the search looks a little different than Wednesday’s . There are more boats in the water and resources in the air.

However, the grid plan remained the same for all search crews.

“It’s actually normal,” Lt. Shannon Heflin, Cheatham County Sheriff’s Office said. “I mean, of course the river flows down from Nashville to here and there’s been a lot of current, so it is possible that he has washed down this far and in the past that has happened.”

Using an app called CalTopo, search crews, including the Cheatham County Emergency Management Agency, Ashland City Fire Department, and Metro Organization of Emergency Management, comb through the river using a grid system near Gower Island and Rivergate Bluff.

Authorities say it is much like mowing a lawn with boat crews going back and forth.

Lt. Shannon Heflin with the Cheatham County Sheriff’s Office told News 2 that by using technology on the boat, they can see what’s under the water and along the shoreline.

Heflin told News 2 that the biggest challenge to water searches is examining every pile of debris and suspicious sonar image from below the water. He also explained that if Strain did fall in and his body traveled to Ashland City, he would most likely be floating or along the shoreline.

“It’s possible as well that getting washed down the river, you could get caught up in a log jam or log pile, so we see something that’s got debris built up in it, and we will pull in and kind of probe it just to make sure that there’s not a body in there,” Heflin said.

He added residents are keeping an eye out for Strain.

“There has been a lot of publicity on this,” Heflin said. “I think most of the community members in Cheatham County and Metro Nashville, and most of the people that own boats, probably everybody is out here. Even if they’re out for recreation activities, they are still keeping an eye out for the body.”

On Thursday night, search crews plan to be on the Cumberland River again. Officials told News 2 that searching the water at night makes for easier visibility below the water.

But with Friday’s chance of inclement weather, Heflin said for the time being, they plan to proceed with a plan similar to Thursday’s and day-by-day comb through the river.

More details about Riley Strain

University of Missouri student Riley Strain disappeared while on a fraternity trip in Nashville on March 8.

Surveillance video from Downtown Smoke & Vape Shop on Church Street caught Strain stumbling and falling in a parking lot at 3rd Avenue and Church Street around 9:45 p.m. Then, at 9:47 p.m., surveillance footage caught Strain crossing 1st Avenue North to Gay Street.

Strain’s last phone ping was near James Robertson Parkway and Gay Street between 9:55 p.m. and 10 p.m. Detectives said the last phone conversation Strain had with one of his friends was also during that same time period, but the ping covered about a two-mile radius and didn’t give them a direction of travel or any more details about where Strain might have gone.

A friend of the 22-year-old called 911 on Saturday, March 9 after saying he went to the Central Police Precinct and called the sheriff’s office to file a missing person’s report.

Then, on Sunday, March 17, police announced Strain’s bank card was found on the embankment between Gay Street and the Cumberland River amid the ongoing search effort for the missing college student.

On Monday, March 18, the department released bodycam video from an officer interacting with Strain on Gay Street just south of the Woodland Street Bridge from the night of Friday, March 8.

Strain is 6-feet, 5-inches tall, with a slender build, blonde hair, and blue eyes, according to his family. If you see Strain or have any information about where he may be, you are asked to call the MNPD at 615-862-8600 .

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