Riley Strain texted his mother to say his drink tasted ‘strange’ shortly before he disappeared

Riley Strain texted his mother to say that his drink tasted odd not long before he disappeared that fateful night – his body later found in a Nashville river weeks later.

Strain’s mother Michelle Whiteid told NewsNation that her son texted her on the night of his disappearance while he was out with friends in downtown Nashville.

In the message, he told her that the rum and coke he had ordered “didn’t taste good” – raising fresh questions about the events leading up to his tragic death.

University of Missouri student Strain went missing shortly before 10 pm on 8 March after he was kicked out of a bar in Nashville and became separated from his friends.

His body was recovered from the Cumberland River 14 days later, with an initial autopsy ruling out foul play.

His mother has now shared fears that his drink may have contained something which may have contributed to the events leading to his death.

“Maybe there was something in it that shouldn’t have been,” Ms Whiteid said, explaining that her son told her the drink “tasted like barbecue”.

“I go, ‘Well, that sounds awful,’” Ms Whiteid added. “He said, ‘Well, it sounds good, but it’s not.’’’

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It is not clear what time those messages were exchanged.

But at around 10pm, the Delta Chi fraternity member was kicked out of the Luke’s 32 Bridge Food + Drink bar.

The bar later said in a statement that he was removed “based on our conduct standards” but insisted that he was only served one alcoholic drink and two waters by its staff.

After leaving the bar, surveillance video captured Strain falling as he walked through the streets of Nashville on his own. In another video, he appeared unsteady on his feet as he crossed a closed road near the water.

In the two weeks between his disappearance and his body being discovered, the 22-year-old’s family cast doubts on theories that the 22-year-old had been suffering from the effects of alcohol that night.

His stepfather Chris Whiteid told NBC News at the time: “I’ve done a fair amount of drinking in my life, and I still question whether it was alcohol or something else.”

Mr Whiteaid also revealed that Strain FaceTimed his mother that night and “didn’t even sound like he had been drinking a lot”.

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After an initial autopsy found no signs of foul play, the 22-year-old’s family ordered a second autopsy which confirmed there was no water in his lungs, raising questions that he may have been dead before he entered the water.

“One thing that threw the family for a loop was the coroner going on record stating about the lack of water in his lungs,” Mr Strain’s family friend Chris Dingam previously told NewsNation.

“Usually water in the lungs means that they were alive when they went into the water.”

However, the medical examiner previously told News Channel 5 that, even if Mr Strain did not have water in his lungs, it would not necessarily mean he was dead before he went into the river. A person struggling to breathe underwater can have a throat spasm, shutting off the airways and preventing water from getting into the lungs – a phenomenon known as “dry drowning”.

Mr Strain’s stepfather also previously said that the family would continue to look for answers.

“If he fell and truly fell in the water, and you can prove that to me, show me. I’ll accept it,” he said to NewsNation.

“But I can tell you from all the stuff that we’ve done as far as search 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 also previously told NBC News that, in the days after his stepson’s disappearance, he received messages from multiple people claiming they were drugged while visiting bars in Nashville.