The search continues for a Missouri man who vanished in Tennessee earlier this month.
Family friend Chris Dingman told “Crime Stories With Nancy Grace” that Riley Strain, 22, told his mother she was his “favorite person” during his last conversation with her. Strain was with friends in Nashville for a fraternity conference on March 8 when he vanished.
Dingman also claimed that on the night of Strain’s disappearance, a friend texted Strain asking if he was having a good time, to which Strain responded “Good lops.” The meaning of that text remains unclear.
“If you ever communicated … [with Riley], the kid was extremely punctual even if he had a few beers in him,” Dingman said, adding that Strain never used speech-to-text. “That correspondence was really odd.”
Reports indicated that Strain was kicked out of Luke Bryan’s bar in Nashville because staff believed he had too much to drink. The Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission is investigating whether the bar overserved him the night of his March 8 disappearance. However, the bar said they only served Strain one drink. The bar also said one of his friends walked down the stairs with him as he was escorted from the premises but went back upstairs as Strain left.
Strain’s friends reportedly closed their tab at the bar and left only to realize Strain was missing.
A follow-up 911 call suggests that the initial call to 911 was placed on Saturday afternoon, 16 hours after Strain was last seen. At some point, Strain’s friends tried to report him missing at a police precinct and to Davidson County police.
Strain, a University of Missouri student, was in Nashville for a fraternity conference at the time of his disappearance. His family claimed they last tracked his phone to a location less than a mile from the bar he was ousted from. Strain’s location was unavailable on Snapchat and his phone eventually went straight to voicemail.
Strain was described as being 6 feet, 5 inches tall, weighing 160 pounds, and having blue eyes and blonde hair. He was last seen wearing a brown button-up shirt with a black chest pocket, blue jeans, brown boots, and a black Apple watch.
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[Feature Photo: Riley Strain/Handout]
