‘Very intoxicated’ Riley Strain nearly fell into river: Witness

One of the last people to see missing college student Riley Strain after he got booted out of a Nashville bar said he appeared to be “very, very intoxicated” and nearly fell over the edge of a trail into a river.

A homeless man living with his wife near the Cumberland River revealed that he “heard a commotion” the night of March 8 and saw the 22-year-old Mizzou student stumbling and nearly falling over the edge into the water.

“We looked back up. He almost fell over the edge right there. The last bush right there caught him,” the man, who asked to not be identified, told Fox17 in an interview that aired Sunday.

“He was very, very intoxicated… I’ve never seen anybody stumble that hard before.”

The man said he yelled out to someone closer to the street to check on Strain.

“I yelled up. They said, ‘He’s just drunk. He’s okay,’” he recalled.

He later reported the entire encounter to detectives and Strain’s family, he told the station.

Strain, a 22-year-old University of Missouri student, vanished earlier this month after he was kicked out of country star Luke Bryan’s honky-tonk bar, Luke’s 32 Bridge, for being too drunk.

The 6-foot-7 finance major had been visiting Nashville with his Delta Chi fraternity brothers for an annual event. After getting booted from the bar, he told the group he would meet them back at their hotel.

But Strain staggered off in the opposite direction, eventually landing by the James Robertson Bridge, where some transient people live.

Surveillance video last captured Strain near the Cumberland River, though extensive searches using boats, K9s and sonar along the riverfront have not provided authorities with any leads of what might have happened to Strain.

Strain continued in the same direction up First Avenue, but that’s where his trail stopped. No other surveillance footage or cellphone activity goes beyond that point.

Phone tracking last placed him about a half mile from the bar between Gay Street and James Robertson Parkway — which is yards from the river and the Woodland Street Bridge. No other surveillance footage captures him beyond that point.

Metro Nashville Police told the station foul play is not suspected at this point.

While conducting their search of the riverfront on Sunday, police found Strain’s bank card on the embankment of the Cumberland River.

“Riley Strain’s bank card was discovered this afternoon on the embankment between Gay St. And the Cumberland River. The search for him continues,” police said in a post on X.

Strain’s distraught parents claimed a bartender “overserved” their son, who was trying to pay his tab at the time he was kicked out.

But the bar responded claiming they only served him one alcoholic drink and two waters.

“This is definitely the worst nightmare,” Strain’s stepfather Chris Whiteid said last week. “He talks to his mom three or four times a day. For him to go this long without talking is not normal by any means.”