After weeks of searching, the body of missing 22-year-old Missouri college student Riley Strain was found Friday, police said, marking a tragic update to a case that has gripped the nation.
Strain, a University of Missouri student, went missing on March 8 after traveling to Nashville for a "private event." Family members reported Strain had gone out with fraternity members that night but was separated and hadn't been seen since.
So what happened?
Here's what we know so far about the case:
Where was Riley Strain's body found?
Metro Nashville police officials confirmed that Strain's body had been recovered from the Cumberland River approximately 8 miles west of downtown at around 7:30 a.m. Friday.
Police Chief John Drake told reporters that workers on the river initially found Strain's body and alerted authorities. Medical examiners later confirmed it was Strain, he said, adding that an autopsy will be conducted later Friday.
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“We have reports that normally under these circumstances ... with his height and weight, he could have surfaced between 14 and 20 days,” Drake said. “This is the 14th day. So we were really expecting to find him.”
No foul play is suspected, investigators said.
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When did Riley Strain go missing?
Strain was last seen in downtown Nashville on March 8. The University of Missouri senior was visiting Nashville on a trip with his fraternity, Delta Chi, which was reportedly for a spring formal.
After the bus ride from Columbia, Missouri, Strain and some of his fraternity brothers went out, according to his stepfather Chris Whiteid. Strain was asked to leave a bar, and they got separated, he said.
After his removal from the bar, Chris Whiteid said fraternity members tried to reach Strain.
“The boys called him, and he said, ‘I’m walking back to my hotel,’" Chris Whiteid said. “They didn’t think anything about it.”
But Strain never returned to the hotel.
Police previously said Strain, 22, was last seen just before 10 p.m. that night.
What is known about the investigation so far?
A massive search was quickly launched following Strain's disappearance, with just small clues available to help investigators trying to find him, including finding his bank card along a river bank and using surveillance footage to track his final moments.
Police had previously released two video clips showing Strain on the night of his disappearance.
On Monday, Nashville police released video of an encounter Strain had with an officer in the minutes before he was last seen.
The short clip, which was posted to social media, showed Strain walking down Gay Street near the Cumberland River just before 10 p.m.
The officer, who had been called to the area for a report of a vehicle burglary, police said, asks Strain how he is doing. Strain replies, "I'm good, how are you?" and continues walking down the street.
"Riley did not appear distressed," police wrote in their post.
The department added that "no video has been discovered that shows Riley away from Gay Street after the 9:52 p.m. timeframe."
“To those who are saying that they believe he could have been in distress, that somebody could have been after him as he walked onto Gay Street, well, as you see in the video, he’s walking by himself on the river side and speaks to a police officer as the officer is looking at a vehicle that had been broken into," police spokesperson Don Aaron said.
A separate video released last week also captured the young student crossing 1st Avenue North toward Gay Street just before 10 p.m. that night.
In that footage, Strain is seen wearing a two-tone shirt, which apears black on one side and cream or white on the other. He is seen standing in front of a road closed sign before following a group of people walking across the same street. He appears to stop and turn back multiple times before walking out of view of the camera, at times possibly losing his balance.
The river had been a focus of search efforts since Strain's disappearance. Authorities had recently searched from both air and water this week, including at a dam located more than 40 miles from downtown Nashville.
In one of the more recent developments, Strain's bank card was discovered in an embankment along the Cumberland River. The card was located Sunday afternoon between Gay Street and the Cumberland River, though police said it does not appear Strain was robbed and no new charges have been made on any of his accounts.
Two TikTokers were live streaming their search efforts in the area when they appeared to find the card, though police did not say how the card was found.
The discovery marked one of the first findings released in the case outside of two videos showing Strain the night he disappeared.
What else is known about the night Strain went missing?
The last bar to serve Strain was Luke’s 32 Bridge Food + Drink, which is owned by country singer Luke Bryan.
The bar told NBC News in a statement last week that security kicked Strain out at about 9:35 p.m. “based on our conduct standards," but noted that Strain was served only one alcoholic drink and two waters. Further details on why he was kicked out have not been released.
But Chris Whiteid said the fast turn of events raises questions.
He told NBC News that Strain FaceTimed his mother that same evening between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.
Chris Whiteid said Strain called from Garth Brooks' Friends in Low Places Bar & Honky-Tonk, though he also noted he and his fraternity brothers had already stopped at Miranda Lambert's Casa Rosa.
Strain's stepfather said Strain "didn’t even sound like he had been drinking a lot" and texted his mother coherently in the hour or so after the call ended.
“I’ve done a fair amount of drinking in my life, and I still question whether it was alcohol or something else," Whiteid said, referring to how Strain appeared to have lost control of his balance in some of the security video.
The family has received numerous reports of "horror stories" from people claiming they were drugged at bars in Nashville, though authorities have said no evidence of foul play has been discovered so far.
Strain's family have not released a statement on the heartbreaking update in the case.
