A volunteer group called the United Cajun Navy, which specializes in search and rescue missions, has joined the search in Nashville for Riley Strain, a 22-year-old from Springfield, Missouri, who has been missing since March 8.
“We were contacted by Riley's family and have been asked to step up and provide some more resources to this search activity,” said David Flagg, national director of operations for the United Cajun Navy.
“We were formed during Hurricane Katrina, when New Orleans was flooded so badly,” Flagg said March 19, during a Nashville press conference covered live by WSMV-4 TV in Nashville. “We had a bunch of good old boys that had boats and took it upon themselves to go out into the waters of New Orleans and start rescuing people, taking them supplies.”
Strain, a senior at the University of Missouri and a graduate of Kickapoo High School, was in Nashville with fellow Delta Chi fraternity members when he was asked to leave Luke Bryan's bar, Luke's 32 Bridge on Broadway, for inappropriate behavior that has not been described in detail. This was at 9:36 p.m. March 8.
Strain was reportedly escorted out of the bar and soon after, when his friends left the bar, he was gone.
Strain said via phone/text that he was heading back to the hotel. But at least four surveillance cameras in the city spotted him going in the opposite direction of the hotel, toward the Cumberland River.
His father, Ryan Gilbert, said it's possible his friends were delayed because they had to first pay their bar tabs. Strain's mother, Michelle Whiteid, said Strain's friends are devastated by his disappearance.
“I mean they're heartbroken,” said Michelle Whiteid, Strain's mother. “He's their best friend. We love these boys. Like our own. It's just as hard on them as it is on us.”
In the near future, Flagg said, the Cajun Navy will provide two boats to help search the Cumberland River in Nashville near where Strain was last seen.
In addition, he said, a Cajun Navy volunteer team will be organized, structured and work cooperatively with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department to search the steep riverbank areas in the area.
“People who work with us, volunteer with us have jobs, have families,” Flagg said.
“At any given time that number is going to fluctuate. Sometimes it might be two people and sometimes it might be 200 people.”
