MYSTERY DEEPENS

Riley Strain Texted That His Drink Tasted Odd Just Before Disappearance

The college senior’s mom said one of her last texts with her son, who was found dead in a Nashville river, was him complaining that his drink tasted like barbecue.

The mom of Riley Strain, the University of Missouri student who turned up dead in a Nashville river weeks after he disappeared after a night out with his fraternity brothers, told NewsNation that one of her son’s final texts was to complain that one of his drinks “didn’t taste good.” Michelle Whiteid suggested that may mean that Strain’s lone drink at a Nashville bar was spiked, providing a potential clue into how Strain, 22, became so intoxicated he fell into the Cumberland River on March 8. The drink that “didn’t taste good” was a rum and coke, Whiteid said, adding that her son wrote in a follow-up text that it tasted like barbecue. “Maybe there was something in it that shouldn’t have been,” she told NewsNation. Police said last month that there was no evidence of foul play in Strain’s death, speculating that likely fell into the river and drowned. A preliminary autopsy determined Strain’s death was accidental, but his family aren’t convinced. They ordered a second autopsy to be completed and have publicly cast doubt on police’s explanation. “He may have fallen, but someone helped him in the water,” said his dad, Chris Whiteid, to NewsNation. The findings from the second autopsy have not been released.