Search for Riley Strain: Officials focusing efforts on dam outside Nashville

CHEATHAM COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — The search for missing Missouri student Riley Strain intensified Wednesday morning as officials focused efforts at the Cheatham Lock and Dam near Ashland City, about 25 miles northwest of Nashville.

The Cheatham County Sheriff's Office arrived at the dam around noon and called the efforts a "basic shutdown" at the facility where the Cumberland River flows into Cheatham Lake.

Debris from underneath the dam was able to float to the top of the water, giving crews the chance to search through the detritus for any relevant items possibly associated with Strain.

University of Missouri student Riley Strain disappeared while on a fraternity trip in Nashville on March 8.

Surveillance video from Downtown Smoke & Vape Shop on Church Street caught Strain stumbling and falling in a parking lot at 3rd Avenue and Church Street around 9:45 p.m. Then, at 9:47 p.m., surveillance footage caught Strain crossing 1st Avenue North to Gay Street.

Strain’s last phone ping was near James Robertson Parkway and Gay Street between 9:55 p.m. and 10 p.m. Detectives said the last phone conversation Strain had with one of his friends was also during that same time period, but the ping covered about a two-mile radius and didn’t give them a direction of travel or any more details about where Strain might have gone.

A friend of the 22-year-old reported him missing on Saturday, March 9.

Then, on Sunday, March 17, police announced Strain’s bank card was found on the embankment between Gay Street and the Cumberland River amid the ongoing search effort for the missing college student.

On Monday, March 18, the department released bodycam video from an officer interacting with Strain on Gay Street just south of the Woodland Street Bridge from the night of Friday, March 8.

Tuesday, the United Cajun Navy, a nonprofit agency that often responds to natural disasters to conduct search and rescue operations, announced it would be helping to organize search parties.

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“We appreciate more than you’ll ever know the outpouring that we’ve received from the community, from the press, and everyone else involved,” Strain's stepfather, Chris Whiteid, said during a press conference. “Our goal is still to bring Riley home. We feel that is still a very pliable goal.”

Strain is 6 feet, 5 inches tall, with a slender build, blonde hair, and blue eyes, according to his family. If you see Strain or have any information about where he may be, you are asked to call the MNPD at 615-862-8600.