A 911 call released Monday details moments after the body of 22-year-old Riley Strain was found in the Cumberland River.
Strain’s body was found on Friday, March 22, eight miles downriver from where he was last seen. Strain still had on the black and white shirt he was wearing when he went missing on March 8 after getting kicked out of Luke’s 32 Bridge in downtown Nashville, police said.
The caller, who works at building materials company Holcim, knew when he saw the body floating face down that it was Strain, he told the 911 operator. Strain’s body was found after two weeks of extensive search by air, boat, and on foot by authorities and volunteers.
“I have just found a de*ad body,” the caller told a dispatcher. “I believe it to be Riley.”
“What’s it look like,” the dispatcher asked.
”Black shirt, kind of white, muddy looking on the front. It’s face down in the water. Caucasian.”
“It look like a male?” the dispatcher asked.
“Yes ma’am … he’s fully submerged besides his back sticking out of the water,” the caller said. “I had to move a log off of the head to confirm it was a body.”*
Authorities went out to the location to recover the 22-year-old’s body from the river off 61st Avenue North. Police said a preliminary autopsy report suggests Strain’s d*eath appears accidental. A Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission investigation continues to identify whether Strain was served alcohol at any other establishments on the night of his disappearance.
