Yesterday, at a hearing in Boone County, the family of Riley Strain had their wrongful death lawsuit dismissed by a 13th Circuit judge.
Strain was a 22-year-old Mizzou student whose body was found in the Cumberland River in Nashville, Tennessee in March of 2024. An autopsy noted a cause of death as drowning and ethanol intoxication, while his blood alcohol level was at .228, nearly three times the legal driving limit.
Strain’s family initially filed the lawsuit against multiple parties, including the Delta Chi Fraternity, Inc. and 30 members of the fraternity.
The claims were dismissed because the court did not determine if the defendants were at fault, and is currently ruled an accidental drowning.
Those defendants were never properly brought into the lawsuit, so the plaintiff’s attorney asked the judge to dismiss those claims, and he granted that request.
However, because the case was dismissed without prejudice, Strain’s family is allowed to bring another lawsuit forward if they wish to do so.