A lawsuit filed against a University of Missouri fraternity has been dismissed after a student’s family alleged the organization was negligent in his death. 

The legal filing, brought forward by Riley Strain’s family, was dropped by a Boone County judge on June 8.

Strain, 22, was found dead in the Cumberland River on March 22 after he was reported missing following a night out with his fraternity brothers. 

Strain and other members of the Mizzou chapter of the Delta Chi Fraternity were taking part in a bar crawl in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 8, 2024, when he was kicked out of Luke’s 32 Bridge Bar – an establishment owned by country singer Luke Bryan. 

Eerie surveillance footage captured him being escorted out by staffers as he appeared to stumble down the stairs from the rooftop bar. He was last seen walking toward the hotel before making a wrong turn in another clip. 

Strain, a senior at the school, was reported missing around 1.45pm the following day by a friend. Two weeks later, his body was pulled from the river. 

An autopsy report revealed that Strain died from accidental alcohol poisoning and drowning. His blood alcohol level was .228 – which is three times the legal limit. 

The college senior’s disappearance and death quickly became a huge story, and led Strain’s family to file a lawsuit against the fraternity in March 2025. 

Riley Strain, 22, was found dead in the Cumberland River on March 22 after he was reported missing following a night out with his fraternity brothers

He was last seen appearing to stumble on a walk back to a hotel after getting kicked out of Luke’s 32 Bridge Bar in Nashville, Tennessee, on March 8, 2024

The wrongful death suit, filed against the fraternity and several of its members, alleged that Strain was pressured into attending a ‘spring formal’ event where he consumed excessive amounts of alcohol, according to court documents obtained by The Kansas City Star. 

He initially declined attending the event, but ultimately agreed after his peers pressured him into doing so, the lawsuit stated.  

Strain’s fraternity brothers failed to follow their own alcohol policies that night, which prohibit members from drinking more than 15 percent alcohol by volume, the outlet reported. 

The legal filing also alleged that Strain’s friends saw that he was visibly intoxicated when the group first arrived downtown that night, and that they left him on his own when he was unable to fend for himself, the report stated. 

The fraternity members were also accused of failing to report Strain missing in a timely manner, the lawsuit alleged. 

The fresh blow for Strain’s family came just months after a judge partially dismissed the case in December 2025, citing that while his death is a ‘tragic loss’, it came from his copious consumption of alcohol and the lack of ‘duty owed’ to him by his frat brothers. 

‘While the Court has great sympathy for the profound and tragic loss suffered by Plaintiffs, it is unaware of any court in the United States which has recognized the existence of a so-called “special relationship” that might give rise to a claim for damages based on a duty owed by one adult fraternity member to another due to their shared status as “fraternity brothers”,’ the judge said. 

Strain’s family was seeking damages for funeral, medical, and burial expenses in the lawsuit. They also wanted to be compensated for his pain and suffering before his death, WKRN reported. 

Strain, a senior at the school, was reported missing around 1.45pm the following day by a friend. Two weeks later, his body was pulled from the river

It also requested additional damages and a jury trial so a court could decide on any further relief for the family, which was deemed ‘a matter of right,’ the legal filing stated, per the outlet. 

Strain downed up to 15 alcoholic drinks on the night he vanished, a police investigation found. 

A report that came out in August 2024 revealed that Strain began drinking on a bus on his way to the Nashville bars with his fraternity brothers. 

He did so even though the driver had warned the University of Missouri students that boozing was banned, authorities said. 

One of Strain’s frat brothers said he downed at least two vodka shots and three IPA beers on the bus, WSMV previously reported.

Arriving in Nashville at 4.30pm on March 8, Strain was seen drinking a Margarita within 30 minutes, investigators said. 

An examination of footage from downtown Nashville bars showed that Strain was served alcohol three more times over the course of the evening. 

That puts the late student at around nine drinks. The Nashville Metropolitan Police did not disclose where they believe the remaining three drinks were consumed. 

The wrongful death suit, filed against the fraternity and several of its members, alleged that Strain was pressured into attending a ‘spring formal’ event where he consumed excessive amounts of alcohol

Riley’s mother, Michelle Whiteid, and her husband, Chris Whiteid, during a news conference on the day he was found dead in the river

In addition to alcohol, Strain’s body also had traces of Delta 9, a form of THC that is legal and readily available in Tennessee. 

After Strain left the bar that night, one of his fraternity brothers told police that he tried to contact him by phone at 9.47pm,  but all he heard was Strain speaking with a slurred speech.

During the call, the now completely-intoxicated Strain indicated that he was on his way back to the hotel.

But at around 1am, his frat brothers discovered that he was not in his room or answering his phone. 

It wasn’t until about 12 hours later that they reported him missing. 

The Daily Mail contacted Strain’s mother, the University of Missouri, and the school’s Delta Chi Fraternity for comment.