Riley Strain’s parents slam his frat brothers for continuing to party after he went missing: ‘Appalling’
Riley Strain’s grieving parents slammed his fraternity brothers at the University of Missouri for continuing to party after he went missing — calling their nonchalant behavior “appalling.”
Strain’s mom Michelle Whiteid, his father Ryan Gilbert, and their spouses described how the members of the Delta Chi fraternity waited until the following afternoon to alert police of their son’s disappearance, and then went to their formal instead of helping his family search Nashville, Tenn. for the missing 22-year-old
“We weren’t really happy with them say the least. It’s appalling,” Gilbert told the outlet.
Strain’s devastated mother had been texting her son throughout the night on March 8 and said she💟 was startled when she received a phone call from one of his fraternity brothers the next day asking if she had heard from him.
“I said,🔴 ‘What do you mean, he’s with you?꧟ Why would I? What do you mean you can’t find him?’” she recounted asking the college student.
“[The brother] goes ‘Well he’s not in the hotel and we can’t find him.’”
She then told the student to call the police but said the fraternity brothers waited ano🍌ther two hours to alert authorities of their friend’s disappearance.
“Why wouldn’t they have called the police when they got back at 3:15 in the morning and 𝔍didn’t see him then? Why didn’t they call the police? I don’t know,” Whiteid said.
Following the phone call, she, her husband Chris Whiteid, and Gilbert raced from Missouri to🃏 Tennessee to get answers.
Once they ꦉarrived, the family members gave a staꦜtement to the police who were still finishing up their report.
“The boys stayed out for a while, and theꦍn they disappeared,” Whiteid told💫 NewsNation between tears.
They had apparent𒁏ly gone back to their hotel to get ready for their formal later that night, while the family frantically searched the city for Strain.
“We spent the next four, four and a half hours, searching ꧑every emergency room to see if he was in the hospital,” Chris Whiteid recounted.
“We come back, and they’re coming back — some 🎶of them🌱 — from the party and they’re waving at us as we’re sitting in the truck.”
Strain had vanished shortly after he was kicked 🌱out of a downtown bar, Luke’s 32 Bridge Food + Drink.
He was later seen by wit🃏nesꦛses and in surveillance footage stumbling around and appearing “very, very intoxicated.”
After a lengthy search, Strain’s body was found in the Cumberland River in West Nashville on March 22. He was missing his pa🍰nts, belt, wallet, and cowboy boots he had been wearing earlier in the night.
Though investigators have ruled out foul play and a preliminary autopsy report lists his death as accidental, the college student’s family members say they have doubts.
“If he fell and truly fell in the water, and you can pro𒅌ve ಌthat to me, show me. I’ll accept it,” Chris said to NewsNation.
“But I can tell you from all the stuff that we’ve done as far as searchꦜ and looking, taking pictures — I don’t feel like it’s really possible that happened. He may have fallen, but someone helped him in the water,” he said.
The family requested a second autopsy after it was revealed that Strain had no water in his𒆙 lungs, as is typi🐲cal in drowning cases.
