The body of the college student who was found dead in a Nashville river after being kicked out of a bar for being drunk was discovered by a barge worker — who immediately realized his identity.
University of Missouri student Riley Strain, 22, died of “accidental” causes after being 86ed from a Broadway honky-tonk owned by country artist Luke Bryan on March 8, preliminary autopsy results revealed on Monday.
A worker with the building materials company Holcim found his body “face down in the water” Friday while he was unloading a barge on the Cumberland River and “checking around my dock,” he told a 911 operator, according to WKRN-TV.
“My company works on the river. I have just found a dead body — I believe it to be Riley,” the unnamed man reportedly said during the call.
Strain’s corpse was “fully submerged apart from his back sticking out of the water,” and the caller had to “move a log off of the head to confirm it was a body.”
The worker, and others who work along the river, had been keeping an eye out for any sign of the missing man as local media coverage about his disappearance swelled over the past two weeks.
Holcim’s headquarters are located a little less than two miles downriver from the Woodland Street Bridge, near where the student was last seen, according to Google Maps.
Strain had come to the touristy section of Music City with his Delta Chi fraternity brothers, and told them he was going back to his hotel after getting the boot from Luke’s 32 Bridge.
However, security video showed that he made a wrong turn and ended up jogging away from his hotel before his disappearance.
He was last seen on security video a block away from the river after vanishing without a trace.
A witness reported seeing a “very, very intoxicated” Strain nearly stumble into the river before a bush prevented the 6’7″ finance major from falling into the water, according to WZTV.
Toxicology reports were still pending, but officials said Monday that no foul play or trauma was apparent.
A “detective attended the autopsy examination” — and the death “continues to appear accidental,” Metropolitan Nashville police spokesperson Kris Mumford told The Tennessean.