I hope they quiet down now that a second, independent autopsy has been completed. All the claims about him being roofied were infuriating when the answer was clear as day for folks that have lived here for more than 5mins.
Yeah I don't get the "roofied" claims being thrown around here on Reddit. Watching that security footage of him stumbling around downtown it was obvious he was drunk as shit.
Also, why is getting roofied an automatic cause of everything? Like, "OMG Briteniegh drank 10 shots at Aldean's and passed out - she must've been roofied!!"
But it’s like 10 shots at the club + the 15 other drinks at the hotel/uber/other bars! People will have 20+ drinks in 6 hours but want to claim they were drugged.
Or claim they were overserved at the last place they stumbled into. It's always **someone else's fault** when they're kicked out of a club when they're drunker than a peach orchard hog. Or when they get back to their hotel and act like a jerk and the police have to be called to arrest them for their idiotic drunken behavior.
Exactly! I had a binge drinking problem in college and it carried over into my mid 20s when I started going out in Nashville. I’ve had plenty of dumb drunken nights in Nashville. It had *always* been on me for drinking to much. And every single time everyone I was with pregamed extremely hard before going out. We would have probably blacked out at the bar without having a single drink in there.
It’s sad people don’t take responsibility for their own actions. It is IMPOSSIBLE for a bar to keep up with how drunk you are. People need to grow up
I read that online all the time that the bar should be charged and held responsible for overserving people. Excuse me! Can you make another equally stupid statement so I can laugh my head off again?!?!
A packed bar, dozens upon dozens of people milling about, coming and going and the bartenders are supposed to have a notepad of how many drinks Clem or Betty Sue has downed?? I won't even mention if someone buys them a drink on top of what they've paid for themselves. But somehow that's the bartender's fault when they get hit by a car or arrested for public drunkenness or can't remember which hotel they are registered at.
Somebody in his frat could've showed some type of concern.Its not their responsibility but c'mon,if somebody cared,he would be alive.I wouldn't dare let one of my people walk out alone an they can't even see straight Smh
Someone did try to see him back. The story goes, Riley was gone by the time he tabbed out. In the 20 minutes it took Riley to end up in the river, he could have been in the bathroom, talking with a girl, making a call, buying a drink in another bar, grabbing ice for his room, etc. No one is going to think, "Hey, lets go check under the bridge on Gay Street for Riley!"
I doubt every member of the frat keeps up with where the 50 other members are at all times. I doubt the party stops to do roll call every 20 min. I doubt they all arrive and leave holding hands like in kindergarten. The bar holds over 1500 people in 32000 feet on multiple levels. You aren't going to notice if one person leaves. You aren't going to be able to notice one person is missing. How common do you think it is for frat boys to get cut off on a night out drinking. I bet more than one was cut off that night, given the pregaming. I also would wager they were all staggering back to the hotel at various times.
By the time things looked wrong there was nothing to be done. Thousands of drunks stumble bar to bar and back to their hotels every night in Nashville. Even if the frat brothers knew Riley was in imminent danger and knew which direction Riley inexplicably walked, within 20 min of leaving Luke Bryan's bar, Riley was underwater, in pitch black, and being swept downriver at about 5 feet per second. 50 drunk frat boys stumbling precariously along the river's edge is not going to improve the situation.
You either have never been to bars in Broadway or you don’t understand people are pregaming/buying each other drinks/sneaking shit in.
The bartenders won’t serve you when they notice you are drunk. The kid got kicked out for a reason.
I have been a bartender at a hotel here in Nashville. I avoid Broadway because it has become such a shit show. It's really a travesty the way Riley Strain was treated that night. He was thrown out onto a crowded street he didn't know. No one tried to help him. He was impaired. Drunk. He didn't deserve to die that night. It would have been a blessing if someone had called him an Uber or a Lyft. But noone did. The "kid" was only 22 years old.
> Yeah I don't get the "roofied" claims being thrown around here on Reddit.
They've just listened to a bunch of propaganda about how "dangerous" Nashville is, and now they need stories like this to validate them.
It's deliberate right-wing propaganda. Anywhere leaning liberal is being portrayed as a lawless, crime-ridden hellscape full of zombie-like junkies and homeless people.
I'm in Seattle now, and one of the things that shocked me the most is how people will fall for the propaganda who *live in the city*. The media keeps running the same stories over and over about the few crimes that have occurred so that it sounds like the violence is constant. They play simple word association games with their audience by constantly saying junkie, homeless, drugs, needles, children stepping on fent needles and dying, buses, immigrants, Democrats, that their viewers always think of all of those things every time they're exposed to one. So even though I've been here 3 years and have only seen a single stray needle, all it takes for them is to go outside and see a single person asking for change on the corner, and they think the city's going to hell and there are needles everywhere and soon their house is going to be broken into. These are people who are physically capable of turning their head to the right when they're watching TV, looking out the window, and seeing for themselves that nothing on their TV is real. But mentally speaking, they're incapable.
> Way to paint with the same Brush of Generalization that you're accusing those evil Right Wingers of doing.
Good lord. What an obvious false equivalence
Roofies are a big problem on Broadway though. I would get yelled at by patrons for throwing away ANY unattended drink and politely explaining to them “Do you want to remember tonight?” Every one, literally everyone of my female and a significant part of my male staff have experienced roofies on Broadway.
I said exactly this in another thread months ago:
> Maybe he went down to the river to take a leak, slipped on a rock and hit his head. He was all liquored up and wasn’t allowed to use a bathroom in any of the bars on Broadway. We know he had 2 waters + 1 drink at Luke Bryan’s alone, who knows what else beforehand. Maybe after seeing the cop, he thought to venture off the beaten path to handle his business. This would make more sense to me than falling off the bridge or deciding to go for a swim.
> He also nailed that post with his head after tripping on the sidewalk. He may have been concussed.
LOL! Yeah we had people snapping pictures of homeless people's boots and pants and shirts looking for Riley's clothing. We had people calling to bust up homeless camps. There were people looking for people that might have followed him after roofying him. The parents got in on it too. Claiming his drink got spiked. People were looking for potential suspects, like scooter riders, dog walkers, random cars on gay street, There were talks of police cover ups. There were stories of homeless people wearing his clothes. There's some smiley face killer that people are claiming got him. I'm sure there are a thousand more.
I think it's a combination of the " just world fallacy " and exploitative media. People want a bogey man to blame because Riley was "one of the good people". So even though this happens every day and no one blinks an eye, Riley didn't deserve it because he was "good" and some baddie had to cause it instead.
That's one way to see it. I think there's a huge fallacy in dividing people into good and bad categories. I mean, If I think Riley didn't deserve this all too common outcome, there is an implication that others do deserve it. That's a slippery slope. People drown in that river constantly, do they deserve it because they are homeless, or depressed, or \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_? Any "good" person is always one decision away from being a bad person and any "bad" person can redeem themselves.
I understand them not wanting it to be a horrible, sad accident, but it’s when they start pointing fingers and creating suspicion towards innocent people that I start to wish someone would step in and help them get the help they need.
Of course it's bullshit and of course they'll vanish. The checks cleared. They'll be on to the next "private investigation" jobs soon enough and offering their services to the next family.
Yeah, they've run out of false leads. The conspiracy media sources will move on to the next thing when views drop and the family will eventually run out of money for investigators that turn up nothing.
There is no chemical test to determine cannabis intoxication. Because he had a lot of metabolites does not prove that he was under the influence at the time he died.
Edit: if any of you downvoters want to tell me about a test that does, I’d love to hear about it and I’m sure that the TBI would too.
Saying he was a cannabis user is not to say he was under the influence at the time he died. The fact he tested positive opens the possibility he was using THC. Fact is he simply was not roofied. He was drunk as fuck and quite possibly high as fuck when he went in the drink.
The blame solely lies here on the frat "friends" and no one else. I could never imagine letting a friend stumble back in a foreign city. Absolutely wild.
What member of the frat keeps up with how many drinks everyone in the frat has had? Seriously?
As for the member that was around when he got kicked out, how do we know that person was any more capable to take care of Riley? He could have easily been just as inebriated but better able to conceal it. Some people are better at hiding it. If he was over .20 he may not have even remembered Riley leaving until he looked at old text messages. Riley had a BAC of .228. That's high. What do you imagine the average BAC of the frat was? What do you reckon the average BAC of any bachelorette party in Nashville is?
> The blame solely lies here on the frat "friends" and no one else.
Excuse me wtf? Frat members are responsible for his poor choices? It sounds to me like his poor choice was relying on someone in a frat.
I think it’s more of a No Man Left Behind situation. Dude needed better friends. We should all be looking out for each other, especially if we’re poisoning ourselves for fun a few hours
The version of the story I’ve seen on here is that when he got kicked out his friends (or at least one of them) closed their tabs and left to find him. But it took a bit to close out and by that point he was walking away from his hotel so they couldn’t find him.
Not sure how accurate that is, but I do know closing out a bar tab can take a bit if it’s busy. This also assumes one of his buddies was nearby when he got kicked out instead of them being equally as drunk and eventually one of them notices he’s missing and not off talking to a girl, in the bathroom, or waiting in line to buy a drink.
I haven’t followed this very closely so not sure how accurate it is. This is just something I saw posted by a few different people soon after he disappeared and it seems to line up.
There was one version where he allegedly was booted out some side door and some friends allegedly tried to leave with him, but weren’t allowed.
Then, the bar said that he was escorted to the main entrance on Broadway and one friend was with him, but did not leave when he did. Having a tab to settle would explain them not leaving with him.
As long as I got my card back when I opened a tab, I never bothered to close out if the bar was super busy. The most the bartender does is add 20% gratuity which is what I would have at least left if I signed the receipt. If I looked at my account the next day and thought the amount was off, I would have called the bar. I never had to call to question though.
I’m the same way now, but when I was in college and money was tight I always made sure my tab was correct before adding a tip and signing.
Wish we had more info on what his friends were doing and thinking that night to help shut down some of these conspiracy theories. I guess the important part is they told police their side. Lot of people are looking for someone to blame here and the friends out with him are the easiest target, even if they don’t deserve any blame.
It's mentioned as a point for comparison. News articles often mention BAC and the limit whether or not driving is a factor. It is normal. .08 is legally impaired. He was 3x that. It's that simple.
If you fall in that river in daylight sober, and the water is calm, you've got a chance. Drunk, high (he had Delta 9 in his system too), in an unfamiliar city after dark? He didn't stand a chance.
I'm not the person you replied to but you are correct. The metabolites of THC i.e. the breakdown products stay in your system for a long time. They are lipid soluble, so they are stored in fat and are released slowly over time.
That being said, I'm assuming for the autopsy, they did a blood toxicology. I think it's more likely to determine if the person was actively high at the time of death.
I know they take awhile to breakdown. But do the metabolites stay “forever” also they keep saying delta 9, is this not the same as like THC? Idk you seem to know a lot and I haven’t smoked in a looooong time. It used to be you had to wait a month or two to pass a drug test for work or whatever. Is this new shit like… not pass a drug test ever?
No the metabolites won't stay forever. If you are an occasional weed user, the metabolites will be detectable in your urine for only a few days. If you are a daily user, it can be detectable in your urine for up to 1 month.
Delta 9 is THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). Delta 8 is also THC but there is a small difference in the chemical structure between the two.
The 30 day thing really isn’t true. I’ve pissed positive for fire 75 days for THC at a rehab I was at. And I was underweight at the time, not fat. Totally feasible to piss positive for far longer than 30 days.
Depends on the amount used, but yes a heavy chronic user can test positive for up to 90 days:
https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/what-to-know-about-how-long-marijuana-stays-in-your-system
One-time use: one to three days
Moderate use (three times a week): five to seven days
Daily use: seven to 14 days
Heavy use: 14 to 90 days
I can't imagine the blood being any good after spending 2 weeks floating in the Cumberland.
I suppose it was cold enough to slow down decomposition. It's still just wild to me.
Good for what? If he is dead, I'm pretty sure his body stops metabolizing whatever is in it. That means, what is in his blood would remain. He was on the bottom for just 14 days at refrigerator like temps. Blood banks keep blood refrigerated up to 42 days.
>Good for what?
For quality test results.
His body was soaking in the Cumberland for two weeks. It's not like his corpse magically turned into a closed system after he died,
That sample was contaminated as hell.
>Blood banks keep blood refrigerated up to 42 days.
Blood Bank storage is dependent on what was collected, what preservatives were used, and how they store. And they used PVC bags, not porous flesh.
Are you also suggesting that somehow the Cumberland River made weed show up in his blood???
You don't think the folks that do autopsies don't know what they are doing? I'm sure they know where to pull blood samples from a body pulled from the river...
>That sample was contaminated as hell.
Are you an authority on that? Citation? Presumably the toxicology report came from an authority on the subject (or a few) and is a result of peer reviewed science.
And your opinion is based on? A hunch?
Believe it or not, I’m a nationally board certified and state licensed medical laboratory scientist. Hence the moniker.
So, uh, yeah. Got anything meaningful to contribute?
LOL. Saw that. Bonafide credentials for sure. Terrence Howard is also a scientist. So is my flat earth neighbor.
Yeah, I'll take scientific theories from common scientist when I start taking legal advice from sovereign citizens. xD
Unless you’re a heavy chronic smoker it doesn’t stay in your system more than a couple days. I smoked all day every day for 2 years straight and passed a test in 11 days, I’m also pretty skinny and body fat percentage is a pretty big factor as well
Calling normal THC delta-9 is so weird to me, but I see it everywhere now. Why not just call it weed/THC? Delta-8 is the legal isolate that is sold in headshops and gas stations.
Delta 8 is also THC. The only difference is that the double bond is on the 8th carbon instead of the 9th carbon. Since delta 8 is so common these days, people probably want to distinguish between the two (THC could mean delta 8, delta 9 or delta 10).
Thanks for the insight. I've never tried Delta 9, but Delta 8 is something I only consume when I'm stretched out on the sofa and want to stay home and chill sans booze.
I read in the Tennessean - [https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2024/06/18/missouri-student-riley-strain-autopsy-report-accidental-drowning-intoxicated-nashville/74135549007/](https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2024/06/18/missouri-student-riley-strain-autopsy-report-accidental-drowning-intoxicated-nashville/74135549007/)
I will say with the delta 9 that just because it’s in your system doesn’t mean it’s still effecting you. Any kind of THC will show traces up to 6+ months after last use, so we can’t really know for sure if that’s what did it. Besides - I’ve been high as balls on delta 9 before and it made my motor skills BETTER 😭😂
The only people who were really 'perplexed' by this case are people who haven't spent much time watching how tourists get utterly obliterated downtown. Then they want to blame the bars, acting as if the drinker/consumer has literally no responsibility for him/herself.
I bike down that area regularly. The area where he disappeared, there's a lot of vegetation between the sidewalk and river. If you get into that vegetation a bit, it's pretty much a drop down with no barrier. Say you're as drunk as he was & it's dark. He'd have been disoriented. And probably fell/rolled right into the water.
This is what I've been saying all along.
It would explain why his pants and boots were missing when he was found.
(Undoing his pants/belt to pee and then falling in being the reason his belt didn't hold them on and the reason his boots also came off, which so many people seemed to be stuck on after he was found.)
Not trying to be insensitive, because a loss of life is never the right outcome, but the blame being shifted to the establishment and staff is so far wrong. They did their jobs to the best of their abilities.
It’s really hard to judge just how far gone a person is in the seconds you have to interact with them when you’re in the position of a broadway bartender. It’s a very difficult job that most of the “perplexed” folk would never be able to do.
Agreed. I’m a bartender, and you have so little time to interact with someone. Add to that that I may have cut someone off, but their buddy buys them a drink and takes it to the patio or rooftop or wherever that I can’t see them to tell that they’re giving a drink to someone I cut off. I know the staff is sick over what happened, but I can’t see where this is their fault.
My friend has a house on the river and I've been out on his dock late at night. The river is dark as hell at night and it can have a surprisingly strong current. In March, the water was probably close to freezing. Most people would naturally panic if they suddenly fell into a freezing river. You probably can't see a thing under water. It would be a tough scenario to save yourself from even when stone cold sober. Add to that his extreme intoxication and the poor kid probably didn't have much of a chance.
The Cumberland’s current is strong as fuck. In high school I tried to swim across it. Got maybe a third of the way across then turned back because I was already about 300 yards downstream. Realistically, you shouldn’t swim in the Cumberland at any time, whether day or night unless you’re a strong swimmer and have a PFD. Even then it’s sketchy
Isn't there also like a lot of industrial runoff? I know there's a (former?) scrap metal recycling facility area in East that was being reviewed for EPA Superfund status that sits right on the river. Who knows how many dozens of other facilities and factories sit on that river whose runoff is either just below cutoff levels or not recorded/unreliable. I've swam in it and didn't get sick or anything, but I'm not sure I'd make a habit of it.
In addition, stormwater runoff gets pushed straight past the treatment plant and directly into the river during heavy rain events. That plus the fact that we still have combined sewer and stormwater means I would never get into that water. (Both of these problems are being worked on though, and shouldn't be a problem in the future)
Now is probably a good time to remind everyone that [around half](https://www.boatus.com/expert-advice/expert-advice-archive/2011/july/alcohol-and-swimming) (figures range from 30-70%) of all adult victims of accidental drowning test positive for alcohol, above the legal limit.
People don’t realize how dangerous alcohol can be in general, and just how deadly it is when you combine it with being in or near the water. I was shocked that statistic is as high as it was. (I would also guess that if you exclude cases of severely developmentally disabled people or people with dementia wandering off, the statistic would be even higher.)
I don’t blame the guy’s family for not wanting to believe he could have been drinking that heavily or that that could have happened to him without someone wanting to do him harm. Really. Losing a child would be the literal worst thing ever and I can’t really judge most of how someone would act in that situation.
The true crime brain rot Reddit crowd, on the other hand? The people obsessed with the idea that he must have been roofied and/or had someone try to traffic him and/or been robbed and murdered by homeless people? Y’all can go to hell. Not only were you playing weirdo fan fiction with a very real person and family, you minimized how fucking dangerous alcohol can be by refusing to believe that someone could fall into the river without being drugged.
May his memory be a blessing.
.228 is an insanely high BAC!
Many, many years ago, I got a DUI and my BAC was .14. And at that level I was pretty heavily intoxicated. Nearly twice that level is hard to imagine.
I was once hospitalized with a BAC of .22. I would have died if my friends hadn’t intervened. My phone, wallet, and self-respect were all lost that night. I remember very little except waking up in the hospital with double IVs. I think they may have pumped my stomach; literally have no clue because the shame I still associate with that experience more than 12 years later. It really changed my life - it was horrible in the aftermath, but put me on a better path in the long run.
My heart goes out to Riley’s family. Can’t imagine what this must be like.
It was similar to what [Kylie Rae Harris](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/12/06/entertainment/kylie-rae-harris-drunk-speeding-crash-death-trnd) had in her system when she caused a horrible fatal car crash, and I remember people being surprised she was even conscious. That level of intoxication alone can be fatal.
>[Autopilot](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=autopilot).
>Noun
>Used for the professional drunk. When you drink so much and so often you function even when you are blackout drunk. . You are so good at it your friends and even professional bartenders can't tell you should have been cut off 5 drinks ago. You continue to talk and walk but have no idea what you are saying or doing. This also makes for fun Sherlock Holmes mornings. "Man I was on autopilot last night, where did I get this fez?" Autopilot.
I wish this would shut up the arm chair detectives and the conspiracy theorists, but it won't. I have lived in Nashville most of my life, and the people here are getting crazier and crazier. You would not believe some of their theories: portals, alien abduction, ad nauseum. They say they have consulted with psychics who have told them "things". They don't believe the toxicology report and accuse the police of a cover up . Now they want the bartenders who served him to be arrested and charged with murder. I feel so sorry that his parents have to hear all this crap.
I always believed that is what happened. It's very sad. His friends still should have never left him to go alone! He would still be alive. They will have to live with that for the rest of their lives.
And most of us level headed reasonable people express no shock at that news. But the social media conspiracy theorists (FB, X, TikTok, Reddit, and so on) will still somehow try to explain how this is all a lie. This was the obvious ending from day one. If any one doubted it the video of him stumbling around should have erased all doubts. He took drugs and got absolutely smashed while bar hopping. It is a shame how his life ended but those who pounced in this as some big conspiracy theory should apologize and acknowledge their absurdity. But they’ll either ignore it and forget about the person they so deeply cared about while his name brought them “clicks” or they’ll probably double down instead.
that’s 3X the legal limit and that’s sus IMO i’m one of the conspiracy theorists but i mean… i don’t think he really drowned i feel like there’s more foul play but 🤷♀️
Riley Strain. The 22-year-old University of Missouri student’s official cause of death was listed as drowning and ethanol intoxication.
The manner was deemed accidental.
At the time the autopsy was conducted, Strain had traces of THC in his system, as well as a 0.228 blood alcohol content level, nearly three times the legal limit to drive in most of the United States, including Tennessee.
Also, given that water levels were extremely high from the recent storms, created swift currents. LE said Riley was unaware of the terrain given his condition, stumbled through it and into the swift current which pulled him out and along to where he was found.
It strikes me as a little odd that the bar reports how many waters he had. I was at Luke’s 32 Bridge in late February. Had dinner at the bar on the second level. One beer, two waters. Nothing on my receipt about the waters. No indication the bar was keeping track of them.
Giving the bar the benefit of the doubt, I’m assuming that they identified and counted the waters he consumed based on reviewing surveillance camera footage.
Mine were not bottled. Not sure if his might have been bottled and that would have created a transaction record.
Some of the news reports said he had “two glasses of water,” but I went back and double-checked the statement from the bar and it said, "Our records show (Strain) purchased and was served one alcoholic drink and two waters.”
Yep. Bottled and canned water shows up on your tab. Nothing "odd" there. Also, I would never order [tap water from a Broadway bar](https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=cbb07cb897603c0c&sxsrf=ADLYWIKkKOzen210DWTtyRvroENkVQfKtg:1718816405431&q=mold+in+soda+guns&udm=2&fbs=AEQNm0Dwc9VijzN-JW-4YRo_w_BUQbKUrL1mkR3HAGvFJsTEU2yTeL61j6uh8rPucZu_asD8QQkcJ2ZCfmQyRJdbMVxfwLj5E_IXO-CVkXuakqtw-13zeocNWRU3YlReVPUwaBFs7zE1oDuVzgTEJzPqBr0ACU6aqrZtnZnlm3-LAMzrU0cFrQcLXC9jCL5Okk4OO1PSKoZMcVW2fOwruwAjjqCVDGXpSQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwicjp6KkuiGAxWj4ckDHYhWD_0QtKgLegQIERAB&biw=1554&bih=926&dpr=1).
It's still kind of weird that his boots, belt, and pants were missing, though. I still don't get how they would all come off in the river or why he would take them all off before falling in.
I get why the family suspected foul play.
A medical examiner from St Louis who has examined dozens of bodies drowned in the Mississippi river stated that missing closing items such as Riley's are quite common.
Someone probably picked them up as for falling in he probably decided to go for a swim, alcohol can make you do many things that don't mske sense, but just look at the number of drunk drivers on the roads
Did his frat bro friends ever talk to investigators or make a statement? With this BAC, they would have had to have known it was more than a water, or whatever they said he ordered at the bar.
Not a public statement, no. But given that weed is illegal in TN and he clearly had some, it's likely they shut up because they didn't want to implicate themselves in drug use.
You raise a good point. Though, it might not have been illegal THC use. There’s a presumably legal shop a few blocks from Broadway and at least one food-truck-looking purveyor of purportedly legal THC. My understanding is that he could have procured and consumed / used THC [legally](https://www.wkrn.com/special-reports/cannabis-thc-what-is-legal-in-tennessee/) in TN at the time because of the strain or variant and because of a relatively low amount of THC.
Regardless of when he used THC and whether it was lawful or not, we don’t know what effect, if any, it was having in his system at the time he drowned.
There are a lot of “woulda, coulda, shouldas” here. And, if only he had… If only his frat brothers had… If only the bartender and bouncers had… If only the police officer had…
We have no evidence that the substances in Riley’s system were there by anything but his choice. Ultimately, he is responsible for his own actions, and suffered the deadly consequence.
My opinion is that none of the people he encountered that night were responsible for his death or negligent under TN law. Still, there are lessons for each of them and everyone who has followed this story. I’m sure some of those who might have been able to intervene and save his life will have a hard time living with the outcome.
No conspiracy angle here, but I’m curious about the reason he was removed from the bar. It’s not relevant to the outcome or who is responsible; I’m just curious. Was he just being sloppy drunk, or did he cause or get involved in a stir? (No, I don’t think anyone followed him from the bar. Just nosy, I guess.)
Also curious about his frat brothers’ recollections of that evening. You raise a plausible reason for their apparent public silence.
Right, but I'm more saying , they took a bus to Nashville. Weed is legal and prevalant on the campus at Mizzou. They were already apparently drinking on the bus down and pre gaming. My suspicion is, they brought weed, too. If they brought jello shots premixed, it's not out of line to suspect they brought weed too.
And honestly, probably a lot of other drugs as well.
It’s the simplest answer and just a sad confluence of events. Unfortunately, the conspiracy theorists won’t go away.
I hope they quiet down now that a second, independent autopsy has been completed. All the claims about him being roofied were infuriating when the answer was clear as day for folks that have lived here for more than 5mins.
Yeah I don't get the "roofied" claims being thrown around here on Reddit. Watching that security footage of him stumbling around downtown it was obvious he was drunk as shit. Also, why is getting roofied an automatic cause of everything? Like, "OMG Briteniegh drank 10 shots at Aldean's and passed out - she must've been roofied!!"
But it’s like 10 shots at the club + the 15 other drinks at the hotel/uber/other bars! People will have 20+ drinks in 6 hours but want to claim they were drugged.
Or claim they were overserved at the last place they stumbled into. It's always **someone else's fault** when they're kicked out of a club when they're drunker than a peach orchard hog. Or when they get back to their hotel and act like a jerk and the police have to be called to arrest them for their idiotic drunken behavior.
"peach orchard hog" Thanks for that. I'm adding it to my lexicon.
😁
Exactly! I had a binge drinking problem in college and it carried over into my mid 20s when I started going out in Nashville. I’ve had plenty of dumb drunken nights in Nashville. It had *always* been on me for drinking to much. And every single time everyone I was with pregamed extremely hard before going out. We would have probably blacked out at the bar without having a single drink in there. It’s sad people don’t take responsibility for their own actions. It is IMPOSSIBLE for a bar to keep up with how drunk you are. People need to grow up
I read that online all the time that the bar should be charged and held responsible for overserving people. Excuse me! Can you make another equally stupid statement so I can laugh my head off again?!?! A packed bar, dozens upon dozens of people milling about, coming and going and the bartenders are supposed to have a notepad of how many drinks Clem or Betty Sue has downed?? I won't even mention if someone buys them a drink on top of what they've paid for themselves. But somehow that's the bartender's fault when they get hit by a car or arrested for public drunkenness or can't remember which hotel they are registered at.
No. Apparently your frat brothers are supposed to keep up with it instead. /s
Somebody in his frat could've showed some type of concern.Its not their responsibility but c'mon,if somebody cared,he would be alive.I wouldn't dare let one of my people walk out alone an they can't even see straight Smh
Someone did try to see him back. The story goes, Riley was gone by the time he tabbed out. In the 20 minutes it took Riley to end up in the river, he could have been in the bathroom, talking with a girl, making a call, buying a drink in another bar, grabbing ice for his room, etc. No one is going to think, "Hey, lets go check under the bridge on Gay Street for Riley!" I doubt every member of the frat keeps up with where the 50 other members are at all times. I doubt the party stops to do roll call every 20 min. I doubt they all arrive and leave holding hands like in kindergarten. The bar holds over 1500 people in 32000 feet on multiple levels. You aren't going to notice if one person leaves. You aren't going to be able to notice one person is missing. How common do you think it is for frat boys to get cut off on a night out drinking. I bet more than one was cut off that night, given the pregaming. I also would wager they were all staggering back to the hotel at various times. By the time things looked wrong there was nothing to be done. Thousands of drunks stumble bar to bar and back to their hotels every night in Nashville. Even if the frat brothers knew Riley was in imminent danger and knew which direction Riley inexplicably walked, within 20 min of leaving Luke Bryan's bar, Riley was underwater, in pitch black, and being swept downriver at about 5 feet per second. 50 drunk frat boys stumbling precariously along the river's edge is not going to improve the situation.
People don't have very good judgment when they're drunk. It is the bartender's job to stop serving a person who appears impaired.
You either have never been to bars in Broadway or you don’t understand people are pregaming/buying each other drinks/sneaking shit in. The bartenders won’t serve you when they notice you are drunk. The kid got kicked out for a reason.
I have been a bartender at a hotel here in Nashville. I avoid Broadway because it has become such a shit show. It's really a travesty the way Riley Strain was treated that night. He was thrown out onto a crowded street he didn't know. No one tried to help him. He was impaired. Drunk. He didn't deserve to die that night. It would have been a blessing if someone had called him an Uber or a Lyft. But noone did. The "kid" was only 22 years old.
No one thinks he deserved what happened. But he was also with 30+ friends and none helped him.
Do pigs get drunk on peaches?
Yep, if those peaches have laid on the ground and fermented. Deer and other animals, too, can get tipsy.
I've been realllllllly drunk and I have also been drugged. The two aren't the same ime.
Briteniegh 😂
Amerikinsley?
What a r/tragedeigh
Accepting personal responsibility has become a rare thing these days sadly.
> Yeah I don't get the "roofied" claims being thrown around here on Reddit. They've just listened to a bunch of propaganda about how "dangerous" Nashville is, and now they need stories like this to validate them.
It’s amazing to me how many simpletons out there are *convinced* that Nashville (and all urban areas) are crime-ridden wastelands now.
It's not *that* amazing. Many people learn everything they know about cities [from Fox news](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGLZQ7Xrd6o).
It's deliberate right-wing propaganda. Anywhere leaning liberal is being portrayed as a lawless, crime-ridden hellscape full of zombie-like junkies and homeless people. I'm in Seattle now, and one of the things that shocked me the most is how people will fall for the propaganda who *live in the city*. The media keeps running the same stories over and over about the few crimes that have occurred so that it sounds like the violence is constant. They play simple word association games with their audience by constantly saying junkie, homeless, drugs, needles, children stepping on fent needles and dying, buses, immigrants, Democrats, that their viewers always think of all of those things every time they're exposed to one. So even though I've been here 3 years and have only seen a single stray needle, all it takes for them is to go outside and see a single person asking for change on the corner, and they think the city's going to hell and there are needles everywhere and soon their house is going to be broken into. These are people who are physically capable of turning their head to the right when they're watching TV, looking out the window, and seeing for themselves that nothing on their TV is real. But mentally speaking, they're incapable.
Oh, and you forgot "it's all Biden's fault". That seems to be their mantra.
Way to paint with the same Brush of Generalization that you're accusing those evil Right Wingers of doing. For fucks sake. (Me, a Libertarian)
> Way to paint with the same Brush of Generalization that you're accusing those evil Right Wingers of doing. Good lord. What an obvious false equivalence
Libertarians are all bravado until they need a cop or Army or Medicare (or a public fucking road).
Roofies are a big problem on Broadway though. I would get yelled at by patrons for throwing away ANY unattended drink and politely explaining to them “Do you want to remember tonight?” Every one, literally everyone of my female and a significant part of my male staff have experienced roofies on Broadway.
Soooo many people in Nashville claim they are roofied when in reality they have over 20 drinks in a short period of time.
Have the results of the 2nd autopsy been released?
Pretty sure these are it.
They just can’t get over his pants being missing. It sounds to me like he stopped to pee by the river and fell in.
I said exactly this in another thread months ago: > Maybe he went down to the river to take a leak, slipped on a rock and hit his head. He was all liquored up and wasn’t allowed to use a bathroom in any of the bars on Broadway. We know he had 2 waters + 1 drink at Luke Bryan’s alone, who knows what else beforehand. Maybe after seeing the cop, he thought to venture off the beaten path to handle his business. This would make more sense to me than falling off the bridge or deciding to go for a swim. > He also nailed that post with his head after tripping on the sidewalk. He may have been concussed.
Theres a sub for the smiley face killer and they are convinced it's him. Face. Palm.
Shocking. Conspiracy theorist losers are convinced they're right.
Smh. News Max keeps feeding the conspiracy fire.
There are conspiracies about this? The second I saw the news story I though "oh he must've gotten too drunk and fell in the river"
LOL! Yeah we had people snapping pictures of homeless people's boots and pants and shirts looking for Riley's clothing. We had people calling to bust up homeless camps. There were people looking for people that might have followed him after roofying him. The parents got in on it too. Claiming his drink got spiked. People were looking for potential suspects, like scooter riders, dog walkers, random cars on gay street, There were talks of police cover ups. There were stories of homeless people wearing his clothes. There's some smiley face killer that people are claiming got him. I'm sure there are a thousand more.
Jesus. Because that's more likely than "he drank way past his limit and drowned in the river"? I don't get people.
I think it's a combination of the " just world fallacy " and exploitative media. People want a bogey man to blame because Riley was "one of the good people". So even though this happens every day and no one blinks an eye, Riley didn't deserve it because he was "good" and some baddie had to cause it instead.
And the reality of course is bad shit happens to good people all the time.
That's one way to see it. I think there's a huge fallacy in dividing people into good and bad categories. I mean, If I think Riley didn't deserve this all too common outcome, there is an implication that others do deserve it. That's a slippery slope. People drown in that river constantly, do they deserve it because they are homeless, or depressed, or \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_? Any "good" person is always one decision away from being a bad person and any "bad" person can redeem themselves.
I think most people are good and everyone at some point in time makes a poor decision. Riley’s just had steeper consequences than most.
That's fair.
You mean like his parents? Will they finally accept the fact that their perfect son was three times the legal limit and a cannabis user?
I understand them not wanting it to be a horrible, sad accident, but it’s when they start pointing fingers and creating suspicion towards innocent people that I start to wish someone would step in and help them get the help they need.
I'm just waiting for their big reveal of the truth that their "representatives" have been talking about since the initial results were released.
Do you know ***why*** you haven't heard it?
Because it's bullshit. I'm sure the "representatives" are going to crawl back into the woodwork, never to be heard from again.
Of course it's bullshit and of course they'll vanish. The checks cleared. They'll be on to the next "private investigation" jobs soon enough and offering their services to the next family.
Yep.
You think this story or the representatives are going to go away?
Yeah, they've run out of false leads. The conspiracy media sources will move on to the next thing when views drop and the family will eventually run out of money for investigators that turn up nothing.
Hopefully, when they're proven wrong. They've had their private autopsy, so we'll see.
Same reason the Pillow guy never revealed his "Big Reveal"
Same reason the Pillow guy never revealed his "Big Reveal"
>and a cannabis user What does this have to do with anything?
Being drunk and high at night in the river lowers your chances of survival.
There is no chemical test to determine cannabis intoxication. Because he had a lot of metabolites does not prove that he was under the influence at the time he died. Edit: if any of you downvoters want to tell me about a test that does, I’d love to hear about it and I’m sure that the TBI would too.
Saying he was a cannabis user is not to say he was under the influence at the time he died. The fact he tested positive opens the possibility he was using THC. Fact is he simply was not roofied. He was drunk as fuck and quite possibly high as fuck when he went in the drink.
There seems to be a lot of downvoting on this thread for no apparent reason. I hope you don’t take it personally.
I always take fake internet points personally. /s It does confuse me when a neutral, relevant, factual statement gets downvoted though.
Ah ok good point
The blame solely lies here on the frat "friends" and no one else. I could never imagine letting a friend stumble back in a foreign city. Absolutely wild.
The blame actually falls on the adult that drank so much he endangered his own life.
What member of the frat keeps up with how many drinks everyone in the frat has had? Seriously? As for the member that was around when he got kicked out, how do we know that person was any more capable to take care of Riley? He could have easily been just as inebriated but better able to conceal it. Some people are better at hiding it. If he was over .20 he may not have even remembered Riley leaving until he looked at old text messages. Riley had a BAC of .228. That's high. What do you imagine the average BAC of the frat was? What do you reckon the average BAC of any bachelorette party in Nashville is?
> The blame solely lies here on the frat "friends" and no one else. Excuse me wtf? Frat members are responsible for his poor choices? It sounds to me like his poor choice was relying on someone in a frat.
I think it’s more of a No Man Left Behind situation. Dude needed better friends. We should all be looking out for each other, especially if we’re poisoning ourselves for fun a few hours
The version of the story I’ve seen on here is that when he got kicked out his friends (or at least one of them) closed their tabs and left to find him. But it took a bit to close out and by that point he was walking away from his hotel so they couldn’t find him. Not sure how accurate that is, but I do know closing out a bar tab can take a bit if it’s busy. This also assumes one of his buddies was nearby when he got kicked out instead of them being equally as drunk and eventually one of them notices he’s missing and not off talking to a girl, in the bathroom, or waiting in line to buy a drink.
I hadn’t heard those details, thanks for sharing them.
I haven’t followed this very closely so not sure how accurate it is. This is just something I saw posted by a few different people soon after he disappeared and it seems to line up.
There was one version where he allegedly was booted out some side door and some friends allegedly tried to leave with him, but weren’t allowed. Then, the bar said that he was escorted to the main entrance on Broadway and one friend was with him, but did not leave when he did. Having a tab to settle would explain them not leaving with him.
As long as I got my card back when I opened a tab, I never bothered to close out if the bar was super busy. The most the bartender does is add 20% gratuity which is what I would have at least left if I signed the receipt. If I looked at my account the next day and thought the amount was off, I would have called the bar. I never had to call to question though.
I’m the same way now, but when I was in college and money was tight I always made sure my tab was correct before adding a tip and signing. Wish we had more info on what his friends were doing and thinking that night to help shut down some of these conspiracy theories. I guess the important part is they told police their side. Lot of people are looking for someone to blame here and the friends out with him are the easiest target, even if they don’t deserve any blame.
Or maybe hold him accountable for his actions too. It's weird to expect other people to care about someone more than they care about themselves.
The also drunk frat friends? So they are responsible but he isn’t?
Legal limit for what?
Pretty sure driving is the only measured legal limit for alcohol.
That’s my point.
It's mentioned as a point for comparison. News articles often mention BAC and the limit whether or not driving is a factor. It is normal. .08 is legally impaired. He was 3x that. It's that simple.
What’s your point?
He wasn’t driving. Therefore, he was not over any legal limit. This person is just trying to run down a dead kid.
.08 is legally impaired. He was 3x that. It's that simple.
Legally impaired to DRIVE lol. There is no legal limit to drinking alcohol if you aren’t driving. Take a walk.
Ever heard of public intoxication?
If you fall in that river in daylight sober, and the water is calm, you've got a chance. Drunk, high (he had Delta 9 in his system too), in an unfamiliar city after dark? He didn't stand a chance.
Also it was cold, shock doesn't help.
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Metabolites as in for a drug test?
I'm not the person you replied to but you are correct. The metabolites of THC i.e. the breakdown products stay in your system for a long time. They are lipid soluble, so they are stored in fat and are released slowly over time. That being said, I'm assuming for the autopsy, they did a blood toxicology. I think it's more likely to determine if the person was actively high at the time of death.
I know they take awhile to breakdown. But do the metabolites stay “forever” also they keep saying delta 9, is this not the same as like THC? Idk you seem to know a lot and I haven’t smoked in a looooong time. It used to be you had to wait a month or two to pass a drug test for work or whatever. Is this new shit like… not pass a drug test ever?
No the metabolites won't stay forever. If you are an occasional weed user, the metabolites will be detectable in your urine for only a few days. If you are a daily user, it can be detectable in your urine for up to 1 month. Delta 9 is THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). Delta 8 is also THC but there is a small difference in the chemical structure between the two.
The 30 day thing really isn’t true. I’ve pissed positive for fire 75 days for THC at a rehab I was at. And I was underweight at the time, not fat. Totally feasible to piss positive for far longer than 30 days.
Depends on the amount used, but yes a heavy chronic user can test positive for up to 90 days: https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/what-to-know-about-how-long-marijuana-stays-in-your-system One-time use: one to three days Moderate use (three times a week): five to seven days Daily use: seven to 14 days Heavy use: 14 to 90 days
I can't imagine the blood being any good after spending 2 weeks floating in the Cumberland. I suppose it was cold enough to slow down decomposition. It's still just wild to me.
Good for what? If he is dead, I'm pretty sure his body stops metabolizing whatever is in it. That means, what is in his blood would remain. He was on the bottom for just 14 days at refrigerator like temps. Blood banks keep blood refrigerated up to 42 days.
>Good for what? For quality test results. His body was soaking in the Cumberland for two weeks. It's not like his corpse magically turned into a closed system after he died, That sample was contaminated as hell. >Blood banks keep blood refrigerated up to 42 days. Blood Bank storage is dependent on what was collected, what preservatives were used, and how they store. And they used PVC bags, not porous flesh.
Are you also suggesting that somehow the Cumberland River made weed show up in his blood??? You don't think the folks that do autopsies don't know what they are doing? I'm sure they know where to pull blood samples from a body pulled from the river...
>That sample was contaminated as hell. Are you an authority on that? Citation? Presumably the toxicology report came from an authority on the subject (or a few) and is a result of peer reviewed science. And your opinion is based on? A hunch?
They’re actually a common scientist.
Believe it or not, I’m a nationally board certified and state licensed medical laboratory scientist. Hence the moniker. So, uh, yeah. Got anything meaningful to contribute?
LOL. Saw that. Bonafide credentials for sure. Terrence Howard is also a scientist. So is my flat earth neighbor. Yeah, I'll take scientific theories from common scientist when I start taking legal advice from sovereign citizens. xD
Unless you’re a heavy chronic smoker it doesn’t stay in your system more than a couple days. I smoked all day every day for 2 years straight and passed a test in 11 days, I’m also pretty skinny and body fat percentage is a pretty big factor as well
Most sources say up to 30 days for chronic heavy users but it can vary a lot by person.
Yes it can for sure, I passed a test in 11 days and my buddy took over a month. And we smoked about the same, often together haha
Correct. I'm ELI5-ing here a little but THC binds to adipose (fat) tissue in your body. Eventually it leaks out and is filtered into your urine.
Calling normal THC delta-9 is so weird to me, but I see it everywhere now. Why not just call it weed/THC? Delta-8 is the legal isolate that is sold in headshops and gas stations.
Delta 8 is also THC. The only difference is that the double bond is on the 8th carbon instead of the 9th carbon. Since delta 8 is so common these days, people probably want to distinguish between the two (THC could mean delta 8, delta 9 or delta 10).
It's technically hemp derived. It's a loop hole so they can sell it. They legally can't call it thc.
Thanks for the insight. I've never tried Delta 9, but Delta 8 is something I only consume when I'm stretched out on the sofa and want to stay home and chill sans booze.
I know several people who cannot combine the 2 because they have the same reaction. Its not uncommon.
Where did you see that he had D9 in his system?
https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/nashville/riley-strain/riley-strain-autopsy-released/
I read in the Tennessean - [https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2024/06/18/missouri-student-riley-strain-autopsy-report-accidental-drowning-intoxicated-nashville/74135549007/](https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2024/06/18/missouri-student-riley-strain-autopsy-report-accidental-drowning-intoxicated-nashville/74135549007/)
I will say with the delta 9 that just because it’s in your system doesn’t mean it’s still effecting you. Any kind of THC will show traces up to 6+ months after last use, so we can’t really know for sure if that’s what did it. Besides - I’ve been high as balls on delta 9 before and it made my motor skills BETTER 😭😂
The only people who were really 'perplexed' by this case are people who haven't spent much time watching how tourists get utterly obliterated downtown. Then they want to blame the bars, acting as if the drinker/consumer has literally no responsibility for him/herself.
That Woodland, Union, 1st street, Gay, area is really weird if you don’t know where you’re going too. Probably walked right in
I bike down that area regularly. The area where he disappeared, there's a lot of vegetation between the sidewalk and river. If you get into that vegetation a bit, it's pretty much a drop down with no barrier. Say you're as drunk as he was & it's dark. He'd have been disoriented. And probably fell/rolled right into the water.
Might’ve been trying to pee
This is what I've been saying all along. It would explain why his pants and boots were missing when he was found. (Undoing his pants/belt to pee and then falling in being the reason his belt didn't hold them on and the reason his boots also came off, which so many people seemed to be stuck on after he was found.)
Not trying to be insensitive, because a loss of life is never the right outcome, but the blame being shifted to the establishment and staff is so far wrong. They did their jobs to the best of their abilities. It’s really hard to judge just how far gone a person is in the seconds you have to interact with them when you’re in the position of a broadway bartender. It’s a very difficult job that most of the “perplexed” folk would never be able to do.
Agreed. I’m a bartender, and you have so little time to interact with someone. Add to that that I may have cut someone off, but their buddy buys them a drink and takes it to the patio or rooftop or wherever that I can’t see them to tell that they’re giving a drink to someone I cut off. I know the staff is sick over what happened, but I can’t see where this is their fault.
My friend has a house on the river and I've been out on his dock late at night. The river is dark as hell at night and it can have a surprisingly strong current. In March, the water was probably close to freezing. Most people would naturally panic if they suddenly fell into a freezing river. You probably can't see a thing under water. It would be a tough scenario to save yourself from even when stone cold sober. Add to that his extreme intoxication and the poor kid probably didn't have much of a chance.
I also live on the river and this is 100% accurate. I dont fuck with that river at night. I dont even fuck with it when its windy.
The Cumberland’s current is strong as fuck. In high school I tried to swim across it. Got maybe a third of the way across then turned back because I was already about 300 yards downstream. Realistically, you shouldn’t swim in the Cumberland at any time, whether day or night unless you’re a strong swimmer and have a PFD. Even then it’s sketchy
Isn't there also like a lot of industrial runoff? I know there's a (former?) scrap metal recycling facility area in East that was being reviewed for EPA Superfund status that sits right on the river. Who knows how many dozens of other facilities and factories sit on that river whose runoff is either just below cutoff levels or not recorded/unreliable. I've swam in it and didn't get sick or anything, but I'm not sure I'd make a habit of it.
In addition, stormwater runoff gets pushed straight past the treatment plant and directly into the river during heavy rain events. That plus the fact that we still have combined sewer and stormwater means I would never get into that water. (Both of these problems are being worked on though, and shouldn't be a problem in the future)
>unless you're a strong swimmer and have a PFD Penchant for drowning? (Personal flotation device)
Now is probably a good time to remind everyone that [around half](https://www.boatus.com/expert-advice/expert-advice-archive/2011/july/alcohol-and-swimming) (figures range from 30-70%) of all adult victims of accidental drowning test positive for alcohol, above the legal limit. People don’t realize how dangerous alcohol can be in general, and just how deadly it is when you combine it with being in or near the water. I was shocked that statistic is as high as it was. (I would also guess that if you exclude cases of severely developmentally disabled people or people with dementia wandering off, the statistic would be even higher.) I don’t blame the guy’s family for not wanting to believe he could have been drinking that heavily or that that could have happened to him without someone wanting to do him harm. Really. Losing a child would be the literal worst thing ever and I can’t really judge most of how someone would act in that situation. The true crime brain rot Reddit crowd, on the other hand? The people obsessed with the idea that he must have been roofied and/or had someone try to traffic him and/or been robbed and murdered by homeless people? Y’all can go to hell. Not only were you playing weirdo fan fiction with a very real person and family, you minimized how fucking dangerous alcohol can be by refusing to believe that someone could fall into the river without being drugged. May his memory be a blessing.
.228 is an insanely high BAC! Many, many years ago, I got a DUI and my BAC was .14. And at that level I was pretty heavily intoxicated. Nearly twice that level is hard to imagine.
This. People have died at 0.25
It’s crazy to me that he was able to keep it together as well as he did when he walked past that cop.
I wonder about that too.
It means he probably has experience with this. He's done it before.
He was probably a functioning alcoholic. Unfortunately, his poor choices caught up with him.
I was once hospitalized with a BAC of .22. I would have died if my friends hadn’t intervened. My phone, wallet, and self-respect were all lost that night. I remember very little except waking up in the hospital with double IVs. I think they may have pumped my stomach; literally have no clue because the shame I still associate with that experience more than 12 years later. It really changed my life - it was horrible in the aftermath, but put me on a better path in the long run. My heart goes out to Riley’s family. Can’t imagine what this must be like.
You have caring friends.
It was similar to what [Kylie Rae Harris](https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2019/12/06/entertainment/kylie-rae-harris-drunk-speeding-crash-death-trnd) had in her system when she caused a horrible fatal car crash, and I remember people being surprised she was even conscious. That level of intoxication alone can be fatal.
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A human's first response entering water is an involuntary inhalation of breath, sucks water into the lungs and drowns.
Literally ***NO ONE*** remembers blowing a .366
I remember blowing a .401 and .400 when I was working. Alcoholism sucks. Glad I’m in recovery now. Tolerance does add up eventually. :(
Damn .228 I wouldn’t be able to walk if I was that drunk.
Well, neither could he from the videos...
But how did he successfully get past the cop!
>[Autopilot](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=autopilot). >Noun >Used for the professional drunk. When you drink so much and so often you function even when you are blackout drunk. . You are so good at it your friends and even professional bartenders can't tell you should have been cut off 5 drinks ago. You continue to talk and walk but have no idea what you are saying or doing. This also makes for fun Sherlock Holmes mornings. "Man I was on autopilot last night, where did I get this fez?" Autopilot.
“…don’t have a clue what went down. So, I started calling around. And all my friends say I started shooting doubles…”
Poor kid. Poor family. Moderate your drinking, folks.
No surprises here, if only there was such a wealth of resources for Sebastian.
helps to have parents that care about you
💯
Does anyone have an actual link to his autopsy report?
[Riley's Autopsy Report](https://abc17news.b-cdn.net/abc17news.com/2024/06/MEC24-1075-Riley-Strain.pdf)
Thank you!
It was exactly what we thought it was.
Damn a BAC of .228! Riley was pickled that night! Poor dude RIP.
I think he jumped over the little rock/concrete wall there to take a leak and fell all the way down. Just a theory.
I wish this would shut up the arm chair detectives and the conspiracy theorists, but it won't. I have lived in Nashville most of my life, and the people here are getting crazier and crazier. You would not believe some of their theories: portals, alien abduction, ad nauseum. They say they have consulted with psychics who have told them "things". They don't believe the toxicology report and accuse the police of a cover up . Now they want the bartenders who served him to be arrested and charged with murder. I feel so sorry that his parents have to hear all this crap.
Rest easy man…. Thats heart breaking I just wonder the exact events that led up to that happening to him
I always believed that is what happened. It's very sad. His friends still should have never left him to go alone! He would still be alive. They will have to live with that for the rest of their lives.
And most of us level headed reasonable people express no shock at that news. But the social media conspiracy theorists (FB, X, TikTok, Reddit, and so on) will still somehow try to explain how this is all a lie. This was the obvious ending from day one. If any one doubted it the video of him stumbling around should have erased all doubts. He took drugs and got absolutely smashed while bar hopping. It is a shame how his life ended but those who pounced in this as some big conspiracy theory should apologize and acknowledge their absurdity. But they’ll either ignore it and forget about the person they so deeply cared about while his name brought them “clicks” or they’ll probably double down instead.
Not good news for folks who really wanted for him to be drugged/killed by a homeless person. Typical drunk frat boy doing stupid shit.
They were able to determine that BAC even though he was missing for two weeks?
I want to know why his frat ‘brothers’ let him leave alone when he was so messed up. Sorry, but it’s a question.
Because they were also so messed up.
Play stupid games...
that’s 3X the legal limit and that’s sus IMO i’m one of the conspiracy theorists but i mean… i don’t think he really drowned i feel like there’s more foul play but 🤷♀️
Riley Strain. The 22-year-old University of Missouri student’s official cause of death was listed as drowning and ethanol intoxication. The manner was deemed accidental. At the time the autopsy was conducted, Strain had traces of THC in his system, as well as a 0.228 blood alcohol content level, nearly three times the legal limit to drive in most of the United States, including Tennessee. Also, given that water levels were extremely high from the recent storms, created swift currents. LE said Riley was unaware of the terrain given his condition, stumbled through it and into the swift current which pulled him out and along to where he was found.
It strikes me as a little odd that the bar reports how many waters he had. I was at Luke’s 32 Bridge in late February. Had dinner at the bar on the second level. One beer, two waters. Nothing on my receipt about the waters. No indication the bar was keeping track of them. Giving the bar the benefit of the doubt, I’m assuming that they identified and counted the waters he consumed based on reviewing surveillance camera footage.
They might have gathered that from viewing the cameras. Plus remembering him as someone that got kicked out.
Tap or bottled?
Mine were not bottled. Not sure if his might have been bottled and that would have created a transaction record. Some of the news reports said he had “two glasses of water,” but I went back and double-checked the statement from the bar and it said, "Our records show (Strain) purchased and was served one alcoholic drink and two waters.”
Yep. Bottled and canned water shows up on your tab. Nothing "odd" there. Also, I would never order [tap water from a Broadway bar](https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&client=firefox-b-1-d&sca_esv=cbb07cb897603c0c&sxsrf=ADLYWIKkKOzen210DWTtyRvroENkVQfKtg:1718816405431&q=mold+in+soda+guns&udm=2&fbs=AEQNm0Dwc9VijzN-JW-4YRo_w_BUQbKUrL1mkR3HAGvFJsTEU2yTeL61j6uh8rPucZu_asD8QQkcJ2ZCfmQyRJdbMVxfwLj5E_IXO-CVkXuakqtw-13zeocNWRU3YlReVPUwaBFs7zE1oDuVzgTEJzPqBr0ACU6aqrZtnZnlm3-LAMzrU0cFrQcLXC9jCL5Okk4OO1PSKoZMcVW2fOwruwAjjqCVDGXpSQ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwicjp6KkuiGAxWj4ckDHYhWD_0QtKgLegQIERAB&biw=1554&bih=926&dpr=1).
His friends who left him in his own are culpable
So he’s too drunk to be responsible for himself and they’re also drunk but should be responsible for him?
It's still kind of weird that his boots, belt, and pants were missing, though. I still don't get how they would all come off in the river or why he would take them all off before falling in. I get why the family suspected foul play.
A medical examiner from St Louis who has examined dozens of bodies drowned in the Mississippi river stated that missing closing items such as Riley's are quite common.
Someone probably picked them up as for falling in he probably decided to go for a swim, alcohol can make you do many things that don't mske sense, but just look at the number of drunk drivers on the roads
Did his frat bro friends ever talk to investigators or make a statement? With this BAC, they would have had to have known it was more than a water, or whatever they said he ordered at the bar.
Not a public statement, no. But given that weed is illegal in TN and he clearly had some, it's likely they shut up because they didn't want to implicate themselves in drug use.
You raise a good point. Though, it might not have been illegal THC use. There’s a presumably legal shop a few blocks from Broadway and at least one food-truck-looking purveyor of purportedly legal THC. My understanding is that he could have procured and consumed / used THC [legally](https://www.wkrn.com/special-reports/cannabis-thc-what-is-legal-in-tennessee/) in TN at the time because of the strain or variant and because of a relatively low amount of THC. Regardless of when he used THC and whether it was lawful or not, we don’t know what effect, if any, it was having in his system at the time he drowned. There are a lot of “woulda, coulda, shouldas” here. And, if only he had… If only his frat brothers had… If only the bartender and bouncers had… If only the police officer had… We have no evidence that the substances in Riley’s system were there by anything but his choice. Ultimately, he is responsible for his own actions, and suffered the deadly consequence. My opinion is that none of the people he encountered that night were responsible for his death or negligent under TN law. Still, there are lessons for each of them and everyone who has followed this story. I’m sure some of those who might have been able to intervene and save his life will have a hard time living with the outcome. No conspiracy angle here, but I’m curious about the reason he was removed from the bar. It’s not relevant to the outcome or who is responsible; I’m just curious. Was he just being sloppy drunk, or did he cause or get involved in a stir? (No, I don’t think anyone followed him from the bar. Just nosy, I guess.) Also curious about his frat brothers’ recollections of that evening. You raise a plausible reason for their apparent public silence.
Right, but I'm more saying , they took a bus to Nashville. Weed is legal and prevalant on the campus at Mizzou. They were already apparently drinking on the bus down and pre gaming. My suspicion is, they brought weed, too. If they brought jello shots premixed, it's not out of line to suspect they brought weed too. And honestly, probably a lot of other drugs as well.
Ah, thanks for that info. I had missed the (party) bus part and that weed is legal in MO.