Body of Riley Strain, missing student, found in Nashville's Cumberland River: Police

NASHVILLE − The search for missing University of Missouri (Mizzou) student Riley Strain ended Friday morning, police said, when his body was pulled from a river in West Nashville.

Strain, 22, disappeared March 8 after being kicked out of a bar along Lower Broadway in Music City's downtown entertainment district known as honky-tonk row. Strain was a student at Mizzou and traveled to Nashville to attend the annual spring formal for his fraternity Delta Chi.

His body was found in the Cumberland River in West Nashville, about eight miles from downtown, the Metro Nashville Police Department police posted on X.

The river is a major waterway of the South which weaves through downtown Nashville and eventually flows back north into Kentucky.

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Autopsy will determine how Riley Strain died

An autopsy is pending by the Davidson County Medical Examiner's Office to determine Strain's cause and manner of death, police said.

"No foul play-related trauma was observed," Nashville police posted on X after Strain's body was found.

Just one day before his body was discovered, police spokesman Don Aaron said boats equipped with sonar were in the water searching for Strain.

The police department had been handling the missing person investigation with help from Nashville Office of Emergency Management, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency and the United Cajun Navy.

Since the start of the investigation, police have said there has been no indication of foul play in the case.

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Riley Strain's body found two weeks after he disappeared

Aaron told USA TODAY Strain "visited several establishments" in the downtown area throughout the afternoon and evening on the day he disappeared.

During its second week, the search for Strain lead authorities to find his bank card on the embankment of the Cumberland River. Also this week, body camera footage was released, with a portion showing Strain’s brief interaction with a Metro police officer the day he vanished, The Tennessean, part of the USA TODAY Network reported.

On Monday Chris Dingman, a family friend reported the last known communication Strain had was a text message he sent to a woman he was talking to.

“She texted him to see how he was doing... if he was having fun. He sent kind of a scripted text back to her saying ‘Good (what appears to read the word luck),'” Dingman said during an interview on NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”

A press conference is slated to take place later on Friday, police said.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.