Death of Missouri student puts focus on nightlife safety

By Cameron Montemayor

The death of a 22-year-old University of Missouri student is serving as a strong reminder about the responsibilities of friends and bars to watch out for one another when enjoying nightlife, especially when alcohol consumption comes into play.

Springfield native Riley Strain was out enjoying a weekend trip hundreds of miles from home in Nashville with his fraternity brothers for a spring formal when he was asked to leave a popular bar shortly before 10 p.m. on March 8.

After a friend escorted him to the door, Strain left by himself for their hotel just five blocks away. Eyewitnesses said the Springfield, Missouri, native was heavily intoxicated as video surveillance showed him stumbling as he took a wrong turn back to the hotel.

Strain never made it back. His body was discovered in the Cumberland River two weeks after he disappeared. A friend of Strain told local news outlets that they made attempts to contact him at some point in the hours after he left, but by that point, it was too late.

“Doesn’t matter if they’ve drank or not drank. You’ve just got to be there for them at the end of the day,” said Jake Murphy, a Missouri Western State University student and member of Alpha Sigma Phi fraternity. “I’m really big on being there for not only my friends, but also, you know, obviously my fraternity brothers.”

Murphy said the circumstances surrounding Strain’s death should be a wake-up call for other people to make sure friends get home safe, especially if alcohol is involved.

In light of the tragedy, he plans to emphasize a buddy system within his fraternity to make sure no one leaves unattended when out on the town. The responsibility to watch over friends becomes greater when nightlife is in an unfamiliar or crowded area.

“I think that’s really important. So that’s definitely something I’m going to make sure that my fraternity does going forward and just anybody in general,” the 20-year-old Parkville, Missouri, native said. “If you’re in a new place like Nashville and you’re from, you know, Missouri, like you need to have a buddy system.

A preliminary autopsy of Strain showed no signs of foul play. Nashville police have said his death appeared to be accidental. A second autopsy also showed no signs of foul play.

“You hate to see it … it seemed like he was just walking home from a night out having fun on the town,” said Ridge Morgan, owner and operator of Norty’s Bar and Grill. “You see that all the time … it’s kind of scary to think about.”

With the chance that something like that could happen to anyone, Morgan said it’s a reminder to bars of the importance of bartender supervision to ensure patrons are safely finding a way home.

“We always just make sure that our bartenders are not overserving,” he said. “You don’t wanna just send people out there willy nilly just intoxicated like that.”

The operator of the Nashville bar where Strain was last seen released a statement saying that Strain had purchased just one alcoholic drink and two waters during his visit.

Much like Murphy, Morgan said arriving and leaving with a group of friends is one way to avoid a situation where someone gets lost, or worse.

“ … Don’t go by yourself venturing out, especially in like unknown areas and everything,” Morgan said. “Call an Uber or try and call a taxi or something like that rather than just walking off.”

In an eerily similar case, University of Alabama student Garret Walker was found dead in the Black Warrior River in Tuscaloosa in 2021 due to an apparent drowning after reportedly being served an excessive amount of alcohol.

The 20-year-old’s body was found after two days of searching.

“I just ask that you mamas out there hug your babies tight tonight, please,” said Michelle Whiteid, Strain’s mother, after his body was discovered on March 22.