Police in Nashville are searching for a 22-year-old man who went missing during a trip to Nashville over the weekend.
According to reports, Missouri native Riley Strain got separated from a group of friends and went missing on Friday (March 8), after he was kicked out of Luke Bryan‘s bar in downtown Music City.
Nashville’s Fox 17 News reports that Strain is a senior at the University of Missouri, and he was in Nashville with his fraternity brothers for a convention when a bartender at Luke Bryan’s downtown 32 Bridge bar on Broadway asked him to leave.
“The bartender said he had been overserved,” Strain’s stepfather, Chris Whiteid, tells Fox 17. “He was trying to pay his tab.”
Strain told his friends he would walk back to their hotel, about five blocks away. According to WSMV news in Nashville, his friends realized he had not returned to the hotel the following morning, and they called his family and Nashville police to report him missing.
Fox 17 reports that according to police tracking of Strain’s phone, he went the wrong way when he left the bar at around 9:45. The last phone ping they were able to trace placed him near Public Square Park and the river between 10-10:30PM. His phone has been inactive since then.
“This is definitely the worst nightmare,” Whiteid states. “He talks to his mom three or four times a day. For him to go this long without talking is not normal by any means.”
Strain’s family traveled to Nashville immediately upon hearing the news of his disappearance, and they joined his friends and police in searching parking lots, hospitals and along the river. Though Strain stands between 6’5″ and 6’7″ and would stand out in any crowd, they have found nobody who appears to have seen him after he left the bar.
Strain is a white male who weighs about 160 lbs., according to his family. He has blond hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a black and brown button-up shirt with a black pocket on the chest, blue jeans, brown square-toed boots and an Apple watch at the time of his disappearance.
Nashville police are working to obtain surveillance video from Broadway and downtown Nashville, where Strain was last seen. Strain’s family is waiting on court paperwork that would grant them access to his banking activity and Apple Watch, which could provide more clues as to what happened after he left the bar.
In the meantime, Metro Nashville Police Department is asking for tips in relation to Strain’s disappearance. They are asking anyone with information to call 615-862-8600.
19 Country Stars With Their Own Bars + Restaurants
Of all of the side hustles country artists could partake in, opening a bar or restaurant is the most fitting — and very common. After all, many of these stars got their start on a barstool, tip jar nearby, playing their music for anyone who would listen.
These places feel like home for many of these singers. Over the years, several artists have gotten into the bar or restaurant game, and for a select few, brands have turned into franchises with several locations and/or concepts — we’re looking at you, Jimmy Buffett!
Let’s take a look at the country star food and entertainment venues that have opened over the years.