GhLinks Media
Over a week has passed since Riley Strain, a 22-year-old student at the University of Missouri (Mizzou), disappeared in Nashville, Tennessee.
Strain was last seen on Friday, March 8th, while attending his fraternity’s spring formal event in Nashville.
He traveled there from his hometown of Springfield, Missouri.
Friends, colleagues, and family, including his father, mother Michelle Whiteid and stepfather Chris Whiteid, are deeply concerned about his disappearance.
Who Riley Strain parents and their response to Riley’s disappearance?
While Riley Strain’s biological parents are not together, both have been actively involved in the search for him.
- Michelle Whiteid, Riley’s mother, is married to Chris Whiteid. Chris is therefore Riley’s stepfather.
- Ryan Gilbert is the name of his biological father.
His parents describe him as a good kid who is full of energy and full of life, with lots of love for his family, friends, sports, and the outdoors.
“I just miss his attitude… Just miss everything about him, he’s a good kid,” said his father Ryan Gilbert.
Strain’s mother, Michelle Whiteid, and his stepfather, Chris Whiteid, drove to Nashville from Springfield, Missouri, after they learned he disappeared while on a fraternity trip, news outlets reported.
“It’s so hard,” Michelle Whiteid told WSMV on Monday. “I just need to know where my son is.”
The last place Michelle and Chris Whiteid, Strain’s stepfather, believe their son was located is near the Davidson County Court House after his friends said he left a bar on Broadway and was heading to their hotel, six blocks away in the opposite direction.
“Friday night, after they had arrived from the bus trip down from Columbia, him and some of his fraternity brothers were out and about,” Chris Whiteid said.
It’s a trip Strain has made before, but this year, something went horribly wrong.
“At approximately 9:45 p.m., he was asked to leave Luke Bryan’s bar,” Chris Whiteid said. “They got separated. The boys called him, and he said, ‘I’m walking back to the hotel.’ They didn’t think anything about it.”
The friends told Chris Whiteid they went out searching for hours, checking his SnapChat locations, and assumed he made his way back to one of the other 30 fraternity brothers’ rooms.
“They started going through all the fraternity brothers’ rooms. No one had him. So, at that point, they called us,” Chris Whiteid said.
Chills shot through the parents’ bodies when they heard the news, and the two jumped into their car and drove straight from Springfield, Missouri, to Nashville.
