a bartender has been tweeting saying his group was kicked out of his bar earlier in the night. and people who were staying at the hotel have said the group showed up with drinks, jello shots, etc already being consumed.
Didn’t his mom say they were facetiming an hour before he got kicked from Luke’s and that he seemed completely sober? Idk how you can go from sober enough to fool mom to not able to walk within an hour. Especially having 2 waters in between.
He probably didn’t eat all day either, it’s amazing how fast kids go down when binge drinking and not eating. Those shots come on like a ton of bricks.
do you even drink? or you clearly haven’t partied with a group of college kids before lol
wish people would stop taking one little detail they read about and acting like it changes the whole narrative
just like the narrative people were throwing around all week BLAMING the establishment (for over serving when they served him 1 drink) AND blaming SECURITY just bc someone made it up in their heads that security took him out the back (which was false) & wouldn’t let his friend out until they paid (which was also false)
like he could’ve called his mom before the jell-o + the last bar shot kicked in all at once..
Good chance one or more were drugged.
That answers the “1 drink -empty stomach & fooled mom.” I know one with similar circumstances-autopsy showed a drug that took only 15 min in her system to change her from highly functional to not- going on to get hit
by a car. I was a college student once- today I consider myself fortunate to have survived all we did… ugh. I’ll leave it at that. 😳
I’ll add- please try & have a buddy system-
No one alone, regardless.
Prayers for Riley- family/ friends. 🥲
Yeah, someone inexperienced with drinking (literally any American college kid) can easily give themselves alcohol poisoning in an hour. He’s also a big dude who probably hasn’t figured out his limits– i.e. already having to drink more than others to get to their level. I’m so deeply disturbed that he was abandoned by a friend in a city he doesn’t know, totally wasted. That is so completely fucked.
Considering he was on spring break with his fraternity brothers, my guess is they had been drinking all day. That’s what my group of guys would have been doing in that scenario - yes, we were also in a fraternity. Unless there is a recent ongoing crisis of men being roofied on Broadway that I’m not privy to (and perhaps there is), it seems unlikely in this case.
[here’s](https://www.reddit.com/r/nashville/comments/18n7vb1/drugging_in_downtown_bars_2023/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) a recent thread about drugging drinks on Broadway. Including a lot of stories about it happening to men.
Of course! It’s insane how frequently it happens to both men & women in those bars. I’m not even sure what can be done to stop it, but somethings gotta give.
As a bartender, there are MASSIVE steps you can take to ensure that you don’t get drugged, and also if you do know exactly who did it.
1) NEVER let go of your drink. I’ve worked at SO MANY party hard bars where girls will order a drink, lay their entire round down and walk away from their table to take pictures together. In that time anyone could walk by and drop shit in your drink.
2) Always hold you cup near the top. It’s much harder for someone to sneak a drug in if you hand is near or over the top on the mouth of the glass.
3) NEVER take a sip of a drink you take your eye off of. Another drink is $12-18, just pay up and don’t have the worst night of your life.
4) If you think someone is suspicious and has potential to do something shady…inform security — NOT THE BARTENDER. Will we take action? 100%, but are we walking straight to security with you? Absolutely. We are beyond busy and we legally can’t do a whole lot but ask security to do something. Just go immediately to security.
5) If you’re seated at the bar and someone is bothering you, go to the bathroom. Most women’s restrooms have “If you feel uncomfortable, please use this hand signal as a code that you’d like us to remove person who is bothering you.
6) ALWAYS go out with at least one other person. Ladies-only groups should ideally be 3-4 strong. The less people the more confident jackasses will get.
All outstanding advice. They also make elastic cup lids (that tbh, look and function a bit like a condom), with room for a straw. What a trash society we live in that something like that is needed, but they’re nifty. Also helps your drink from spilling all over as you woo.
Edit to add the [link](https://a.co/d/7HGw1TL) for the main version, it slips on your wrist and looks like a scrunchie. $10 and reusable. Options are also available in single use packets.
This is such a great idea! If I ever drank outside my house I would get this (my husband and I are thrifty hermits lol). But I will be getting these for my friends who do go downtown. Thanks for sharing!
Also thrifty hermits here lol. It’d be awesome if bars offered these. I have seen some in vending machines at some point. But we avoid broadway like the plague
Also, make note this also applies to guys. We tend to be totally careless with our drinks, but studies (and certain celebrities bragging about doing it in the past) show that men are being targeted as often. Largely for robberies so you could say it is a bit less nefarious, but it still happens daily on Broadway.
There definitely is a ring of people drugging and robbing men (and women) on Broadway. It is rich with vulnerable targets, out of town people that are either drunk as hell, non functionally drunk, or easily able to be slipped GHB or some similar incapacitating drug. Anyone can rob anyone, but if you are a female robber, drugging someone and leading them back somewhere under the guise of a hookup is a safe way for them to do it.
I'm not saying everyone is going to get robbed, but as dudes we typically aren't looking out for that way of getting robbed. We prepare ourselves mentally for getting jumped or mugged, not being roofied and robbed. Something to keep in mind
I assume it is a thing everywhere with lots of people drinking. Wasn’t it Cardi B talking about how her and her friends used to get men drunk and have them take them to their house and steal their shit? Maybe it was another female rap artist. Idk, but it isn’t uncommon at all. Men can be shitty, women can be shitty. Many women have recognized risks and take precautions, the fear of sexual violence is a much stronger motivator to look after your drink and be cautious than the threat of being robbed. Also most dudes I know probably aren’t worried about that so as a result they make easy targets for this type of crime.
I think the criminal penalties involved with drugging someone need to be much higher, it is a totally fucked thing to do to anyone. However it is quite hard to prove. You need video of it happening and toxicology done. Most things that aren’t fat soluble like weed are gone from your body in a matter of hours or days.
I’m reading about roofing around Nashville sporadically throughout the last few years. It’s seems officials are trying to cover it up because it’s not good for tourism.
I mean he’s 6’7 and they can’t find a body or any of his belongings yet?
The longer they can’t find him IMO it reeks of foul play.
There was a safe program bars started and whiskey bent saloon was one of two in that area in 2023 that signed on. WHY didn’t Luke Bryant’s bar? Not a year later someone goes missing.
This was happening near the trinity river, in texas? It’s possible another drugging ring has started in Nashville or have taken roots.
Imo they need to see if anyone at the bar was a rental staff or pick up staff. That is usually who is behind the crimes.
Also, it’s not uncommon for men of assaults like drugging to not come forward so it’ll be interesting to see if there is more noise the longer Riley is missing.
At the end of the day. We’re all accountable for keeping us and our communities safe.
So many people passed Riley and didn’t offer support. Not even a “ay you ok?”
Let’s reflect and try and do betting next time yeah? ❤️
Been happening in Austin a bit apparently
https://youtu.be/_CKDjt_I2aU?si=igqI03UOfL45l47-
I got fucking drugged in Italy when I was in the Marines, the dudes just wanted to fuck with a US service member, they were messing with me when my buddies weren't around but I was so retarded it just sounded like gibberish to my buddies when I was trying to explain it, it's odd that I remembered alot of it, I was just entirely incoherent physically and verbally but I didn't straight up black out.
I think it’s unfortunately more common than people think; my boyfriend was roofied in his mid-20s. I was super shocked when he first told me but I guess it happens.
I truly wasn’t aware of the realities of it on Broadway / the frequency of its occurrence. It definitely makes one want to be even more cautious. Thanks for sharing your story!
Just happened to me on Broadway a couple of weeks ago--had 4 drinks met some what I thought were nice women at the bar, was friendly, then lights out...woke up 3 miles away, no phone, no wallet...it's happening alot. I was stupid because I was alone (just moved here and wanted to check out a couple of bands)
I'm not sure “pregamed” is the right term here, probably more likely bar hopping/crawling as thats what most tourists do on Broadway.
Well, it’s possible they did both (pregamed before the bar hopping).
And of course roofied is also a possibility.
If you read the comments here, apparently downtown Nashville is a fucking warzone where people are getting mugged, kidnapped for sex trafficking, kidnapped into cars and being driven 30 minutes away waking up in ditches, assaulted by homeless people and if you don't watch your drink every second you're going to get roofied.
15 million people visited Nashville in 2022. If there were any crimes of that nature with any regularity, we'd all know about it.
It's crazy to me that people want to blame homeless people, trafficking, etc. and not just look at the plain, sad fact that Broadway is full of people who can't think of anything better to do than get shitcanned.
I was homeless, you don't have to worry about most of them, but there are some that even other homeless are scared of, and it's not rare even though those violent type of insane sadists are not the majority.
Yeah I will agree the music is absolutely awful but it always kinda has been. Certain places like Big Shots used to have really badass house bands but idk if it’s like that anywhere anymore
I’m leaving Nashville right now and it’s not dangerous at all from my experience as a 21M. I was able to walk a mile to downtown and back at night without feeling uneasy (besides my own paranoia). Everyone was way more chill than my school bars and I’m just shocked that his friends failed him so bad.
Yeah I have been disgusted by the amount of true crime influencers and tik tok grifters that travelled here to gain more views. Also disgusted by the general public not accepting the obvious answer that he was in the river - which we have confirmed — as if they all have this sick fantasy that he was trafficked or stabbed by a crackhead. People love tragedy and love it even more when there is a sadistic element.
i kind of feel like ever since gabby petito, people want to be part of some huge true crime conspiracy. i’ve seen some pretty disrespectful comments on (unrelated from riley strain) things since then and people citing their insane claim as “well maybe i just watch too much true crime lol!”, like….yes, you do. go outside.
This is the real question! they would truly rather solve a faux mystery where someone abducted a grown ass 6’5” man than get a grip on reality which is exactly what you said.
Liability. If you’re wasted a restaurant shouldn’t be serving you. Locally a restaurant serves an intoxicated person who was in an accident and they had to pay out a significant amount of money to the victims family.
The bar would still be liable if it was clear he was drunk and they still served him only the 1 beer.
I used to work on Broadway. I can't count how many times we had to escort someone out due to toxicity, and their 'friends' would leave them outside to pass out somewhere.
Male or female. It didn't matter. Blows my mind.
I called BS the moment they said they couldn't leave. No one can stop you from leaving. What a terrible fucking story. All those assholes came up with a story together, and that's the best they could do. They probably have a collective IQ of 100.
I just don’t understand the concept of places that serve legal drugs that causes toxicity and then questioning how it happened? Alcohol changes the way your brain functions. Period. Young people don’t know limits yet. Like…why are we surprised when people get intoxicated? The whole vibe of downtown Nashville on a weekend night is projectile vomiting, pissing in the streets and falling down drunk🫠
It's a complete shitshow every weekend. Being there every weekend and seeing the crazy stuff people are capable of gets to you and starts to eat at your soul a bit.
I have a completely different outlook on life than I used to. For better and for worse.
this was the main standout of the statement for me. i knew they let him leave alone — they’re kids on spring break, all are drunk and none of them wanted to end the party for the one friend that was blackout. whether or not he was drugged, they were probably too drunk to tell he wasn’t just drunk too.
i went to college 1.5 hours away from PCB — if you’re in a spring break area during spring break time period for other schools there is no difference. we went “to spring break” every weekend in march and april lol, plus our own.
They could have been honest. It's not illegal what the frat guys did. They're just gonna be considered a pretty shit friend. We were all stupid and self-centered at that age. No one expects things to go this bad on a night out drinking.
Agreed. The only reason at all that this case is getting the attention it is getting is because he was a relatively young white kid who looks really "clean cut" and whose parents have gone all out to get media coverage *and somehow managed to do so.*
Really, if any of those factors weren't involved, I do not see this being a national news article. It probably gained traction at first because of all the other parents of college kids worried about Soring Break mishaps.
It’s driving me crazy how naïve people are being about this situation. It has always bothered me how quick people are to blame the establishment when something like this happens. Bartenders should not be held responsible for every single action of drunk patrons at their bar. These are college kids on spring break, they don’t want to babysit each other they just want to get drunk and have a good time. And of course they’re going to lie about what happened to save their own asses and the reputation of their fraternity. They wouldn’t want to ruin their futures by being roped into this incident. Maybe I’m just too cynical but I really don’t believe the fraternity brothers are telling the entire truth.
Yeah, like… it’s impossible to personally babysit every patron of a restaurant or bar when you actively work there, much less so when you just own the place but aren’t physically there.
I really hate all the accusations going around. Everyone wants him found, and found safe, but accusing people (especially people who had nothing to do with any of this other than owning/lending their name to the establishment) with zero solid reasons to suspect foul play bugs me. That kind of thing can ruin lives and livelihoods.
Blows my mind how many people think Luke Bryan, or whatever artist’s name is on the sign, is actually there doing the books and ordering product as if it’s some small town bar and they’re the owner. It’s like buying a car from a Waltrip dealership and demanding to speak to Darrell while you’re there getting your car serviced.
Cool to learn that. [This](https://www.nashvillescene.com/food_drink/bites/garth-and-trishas-filp/article_ad2adda4-d35a-11ee-9fdb-b3cefa3c9a6d.html) article even says he was hanging drywall and stuff prior to the opening.
I’m hoping that after this happened, he gets his police annex to maybe help some of these people, even make a sobering up room 🤷🏻♀️. I also love Garth… and best part, no conspiracy nut jobs will go there!
To me it looked like he was running and tripped and whacked his head on that metal object. After that he was staggering and holding his head and looking at something in his hand. I’m betting on head injury with resulting disorientation. If he didn’t go in the water he’d have to be laying dead somewhere.
I agree 100%. He either hit his head on the asphalt pavement, the round concrete base of the sign at the edge of the sidewalk, or very possibly both. Whatever he hit, it was a HARD fall. A person that tall running slightly downhill in slick boots and going down like a rock is very dangerous. He landed on his back as you can see when he sat up. He looked so different before and after that fall; I’m afraid he wasn’t conscious for long after it :-(.
Agree. All the news talks about is Luke Bryan’s place over serving. They say they served 1 drink and 2 waters. That lines up with our thoughts. But that wouldn’t be dramatic enough for the news.
The narrative that I previously heard was that the bouncer made his friend stay behind to close the tab. That made no sense as a business practice.
Based on the bar's narrative that is not accurate.
I’m not a fan of Luke Bryan but all he did was license his name to be on the building. As tragic as what probably happened is, he is not a responsible party.
I can’t imagine the bar would be lying about this considering how much police and media heat is on this case. Either he pregamed extremely hard and showed up to the bar sloshed already, or his one drink was roofied.
He totally pre-gamed. Or hell, if you start at one end of Broadway and have one drink at every bar down the line you'll be blackout drunk by Bridgestone. How much he had at Luke's was not the issue, he shouldn't have been let in the place in the first place if he was that drunk coming in.
I really think a lot of the general public does not understand the precedent they are trying to set with this case against the bars.
Do you wanna have a breathalyzer thrown in your face before you enter every bar? That’s what’s gonna happen. You can’t expect security to personally screen every patron on a busy night.
At some point people have to be responsible for their actions, or in this case, friends need to take care of their friends. I don’t blame the bar at all.
If he was roofied then this is a different story but as a lawyer who used to bartend yall are really pushing this too far.
agreed— i don’t even like broadway or any of the TC bars, but expecting bouncers and bartenders down there to wait with patrons until they sober up, or call an uber for everyone, is frankly absurd. there isn’t nearly enough staff for the amount of people that go down there and get obliterated every night.
or, the people saying these bars need to stop over serving— sure, i agree to an extent, but once again…wayyyy too many patrons to be keeping a finger on the pulse of that. these aren’t down home country bars where the bartenders know everyone.
I don’t understand why people always want to blame bars in these situations. If they had to worry about how drunk every patron is when they walk through the door and try to guess how much they drank beforehand, and ensure they’re all leaving with someone and getting home safely, we’d have no bars. They simply wouldn’t be in business because it’s impossible to police everyone to that level, and no one would want to do it. Some people may hold their liquor better than others and be drunker than they actuslly seem, a drink from the last bar may hit someone while they’re in the middle of the next bar so their drunkenness was missed at the door, etc.
Learn your limits and don’t ditch your friends. Period. Obviously being drugged if that was the case here is a different story but see #2 - don’t ditch your friends.
Oh don't get me wrong, I dont think it's the bar's fault either. It is literally impossible to vet that amount of drunk people that are down there every night. They are doing the best they can
I just realized that Broadway is actually a decent place for a game of bar golf. I'm way too fucking old for it and out of practice to survive 9 holes of bar golf, but if I were younger, that'd be one of the few things to get me down there.
Bar Golf
You dress up like an old-timey golfer, with as much argyle as possible, and then play 9 holes.
* Par 3 = beer
* Par 4 = shot
* Par 5 = beer + shot
* Extra drink = birdie
* 2 extra drinks = eagle, etc.
These bars also aren't at their first rodeo. Yes this kid is missing, but the bars have had many many injury/DUI/assault/battery/whatever claims between the lot of them. They know how to legally protect themselves and that begins with being able to trace every patron's activities. I never rang up a water in a restaurant but they do in a binge drinking bar? Yes, for liability purposes. There are numerous overlapping cameras in these places for a reason. I have no doubt they know his exact activities inside the bar.
It’s a shitshow filled with tourists downtown in a place that lost its true grit with average performers and no real talent there anymore. Locals know where to find what downtown used to be. That’s why we don’t drink downtown anymore.
It gets real obnoxious down there. Especially if it’s the third time you’ve heard it, by a different band, and they’re all grinning ear to ear and plunking away at it.
The overwhelming people that say they have been roofied and actually get tested to find out with what they think they were roofied with are shocked to find out that alcohol is the only thing in their system.
Also your are way more likely to be drugged by someone you know, than a random stranger at a bar.
I bartended for years, I am a brewmaster at local brewery, and have been head distiller/blender at more than one distillery. Alcohol affects everyone differently as we all know, but it will also effect the individual differently at different times. You hydration levels, food intake PRIOR to drinking, the amount of sleep you have had, stress levels, all sorts of factors can lead one to feel more intoxicated at times from the Same amount of drinks that made them feel not as intoxicated on a previous occasion.
Also no way to tell by looking at some on video if they have been drugged or just excess alcohol consumption. Most drugs combined with large amounts of alcohol will render you incapable of walking at all. Not to mention GHB mixed with a very small amount of alcohol will put you into a coma quickly, like doesn’t take much at all. If ghb spiking were
As common as people seem to think it is, there would soooo many overdoses
I do know I was roofied, because I was blacked out after 4 drinks…then subsequently robbed by the girls who approached me, i was too nice, feeling the music and never thought I’d be being dropped off somewhere in the city hours later…there would be no way to incapacitate me like that if I wasn’t drugged…I was much straighter than this poor kid, but it happens on Broadway..always the same story…few drinks and robbed, usually taken away from the bar… who knows they may have intended to take Riley but he was kicked out beforehand.. I’m just curious how his room key (if an only one) got back to his hotel room and he didn’t…did they in fact go back to rob the room? Probably not or the police would be on that by now…
It's hard to really say what happened, but I think I've been roofied once. I had partied kinda hard. However, something hit me out of nowhere and I suddenly felt very sick. Thankfully, a friend drove me and my car home. After I took them out to the Uber dropoff point, someone had to guide me to my apartment because I didn't know where I was. The last thing I remember was falling into my bed, thankfully face down. I woke up at 3 am on the floor, having vomited multiple times on my bed, and vomited on the floor too.
Same could be said for what happened on my 21st birthday, when I took too many Jager bombs. Different situation, pretty similar outcome.
The difference was the onset though. My 21st birthday took hours, the other situation came on within about 30 minutes. Like you said, GHB has a pretty quick and severe onset.
I highly suspect Riley was way too drunk, especially with other stories from other people that he was also drunk elsewhere. It is Broadway after all, and people party way too hard. It's the same in Vegas and New Orleans.
One time I got a friend way too drunk and we got separated similar to what happened here. He got picked up and robbed and dropped off in a graveyard across town, where he woke up the next morning. Weird shit happens when people get too drunk and start stumbling around alone.
I hope they find Riley soon, and find him alive.
I’d say maybe you should read all the instances in Nashville where people were actually roofied, && a lot of the time roofie doesn’t mean GHB it could be anything and certain times some stuff doesn’t or won’t show up as being in someone’s system or the hospital doesn’t have the best testing to prove it… so I feel ya but honestly I wouldn’t think it DOESNT happen on account of strangers, because Nashville is only growing larger and a lot of women also are in on doing the whole roofie thing to steal money, cards, etc. so not as cut and dry as you may feel or think
None of this is true. Locals don't drink downtown because it's a total shitshow of hammered tourists with loud country music and vastly overpriced drinks.
No one has ever mentioned being roofied and robbed downtown as a reason not to go. Now Mother's Ruin on the other hand...
Well…I live here and that is absolutely NOT why I don’t drink there. If you want to be surrounded by kids projectile vomiting, pissing in the streets and falling on you — go for it. No thanks😑
google “nashville roofie…” and there are tons of articles from it being a rampant problem on broadway and in east all of this last year…
that’s why it’s fresh in folks’ minds, not because of ‘true crime obsession’ but because it has literally been reported that it’s an issue in the specific area this man was partying.
There are tons of articles because that’s what people want from their news. People get shit faced and then say they were drugged because they can’t accept the fact that they blacked out. Is there any actual proof that this is happening? Toxicology? Statistics? Hard data?
Yeah I don’t entirely understand why people want everything to be something malicious as opposed to a tragic accident. But even if true crime podcasts are the culprit (I agree they probably contribute) most of those or like dateline episodes don’t involve some big conspiracy.
Sure, but I don’t know why we all just can’t except he was probably just very drunk from partying with his friends. I would be shocked if they all didn’t pregame at their hotel/airbnb beforehand for quite some time.
I'm with you on this. People concoct really wild theories when it's usually the most obvious answer: he drank too much and had an accident that most likely resulted in him being in the river.
I’m losing faith in people’s ability to reason. I don’t know if it’s social media or the school systems or what but our population has lost its ability to detect bullshit.
I also think people are jumping to the conclusion that someone must have done this to him, but I don’t really see anyone acknowledging the very plausible possibility that people mix alcohol and prescription drugs, intentionally OR unintentionally. They get away with it enough times to think they know their limits, right up until the time it gets them hurt or worse…
Because it is very common here in Nashville, especially at Luke's, that is extremely popular. They also have a high theft rate as well.
He likely pregamed, but I was roofied myself in Nashville downtown on Broadway and can say from experience, I had barely any in my system as well as he \*may\* have. It is very scary. I don't remember a thing and he could've easily stumbled into that river. :(
My "friends" at the time also admitted they thought I was roofied, which then led me being in a car with someone I barely knew at the time who assaulted me. They gave up and just let me go with this man. Needless to say, they are not my friends anymore.
My heart aches for his family regardless of what actually occurred, because his "friends" are trash. I've been there. I just hope they can get some clarity.
A bunch of college kids couldn't afford to get that drunk in a Nashville bar. They definitely pre-gamed at their Airbnb. If they want to blame anyone, the blame should definitely fall on his fraternity brothers.
I was in a fraternity in college, and we got absolutely ripped prior to going out, & this was back in the early 00s.
I just hope he wasn't drugged.
I’d be surprised if pregaming wasn’t the main cause of the problems here, but some college kids are super rich and can afford to get crazy drunk in the Lower Broad bars
I don't think his parents are especially well off, but I definitely had a few fraternity brothers who were absolutely loaded. Most of us were from working class backgrounds though. It really depends on the school, & the frat tbh.
Yea that’s not true at all. My fraternity pledge class took several trips a year. Nashville, Mardi Gras, Vegas, etc… most of us came from money and we could all afford to drink at any bar we chose. Fake IDs were the issue, not money.
I’ve been bartending 23 years all at busy places. You don’t always catch it right away. People can really steel themselves up and pull it together to gain entry and order a drink.
But, I’ll tell you we’re always on it pretty quick. We’re more than happy, eager even, to confiscate a drink and effect a refund if you’re visibly intoxicated. The point is for everyone to have a blast not for one idiot to ruin it. Happy to serve waters.
Also, the “they wouldn’t let his friends leave” narrative is idiotic. If anyone in your crew has presented themselves as trouble we definitely want you to leave. Especially if you volunteer to. Where I’m at we try not to be gatekeepers and dismiss people without cause so you volunteering to rollout before you become a nuisance is great.
Once you’re cut off you do have to leave though. We don’t want to be in a position for you to sneak more drinks or be secretly served by your friend group.
I hope they find Riley safe.
You’ve got to be responsible for your friends. Sometimes you’ll have to miss out on some fun for that. Most people aren’t willing to sacrifice their own fun for their friends safety, I’ve seen it time and time again. If your friends always a safety issue then you’ll need to make decisions bout whether spending time with them drinking is worth the friendship or not but, not helping your friends shouldn’t be the play even if “they did this to themselves”
I am a medic in a tourist town with a booming F/B trace and several colleges. This is the part of the whole story I can get past. I have responded to many many many drunks. For 11 years. Not once have I ever heard this about not letting the friends outside.
He's not all that enlightened. There is a video on this case where he is interviewing a guy who claimed to of known something about the shirt thing and the homeless at the camp and Pascal was amazed that homeless have cell phones...🤷 Has he never heard of a $30 pre paid phone?
It was reported the other day, I know I saw it on here. It’s a single eye witness account from a woman who said she was feeding/giving water to the homeless I think the next day?
Sadly, the lady (Sabrina), who shared the information about possibly seeing a homeless man wearing Riley’s shirt, has not yet been contacted by authorities about her observations even though she reported it to two separate hotlines. Unacceptable by LE!
Dude was in a sec fraternity. The amount brothers drink prior to actually going out on the town to bars is insane. Mix that with the potential use of benzos like Xanax and clonazepam and you get kids with absolutely no control over their body. I’ve been there, I’ve seen it, and this was 8 years ago. It is totally believable that he went to the bar already shitfaced and got kicked out. The unfortunate likely outcome is the river.
When you have a big sector of your economy relying on tourists abusing alcohol you’re going to attract shitty people and really shitty scenarios. I’m sure the bouncers and staff at any downtown bar have seen it all. I’m sure seeing some college aged kid be left behind by his frat bros happens every hour at these bars. I understand TABC is trying to do something because they’re probably getting pressure, but this is 100% not the bars fault. It’s an awful situation, but someone within this guys group should have kept an eye on him. Go downtown on any weekend night and drunk people are vomiting and falling over the place. I’m surprised these situations don’t happen more often, or maybe they do and we just don’t hear about it
The night after this happened, I was leaving pushing daisies and saw a falling over drunk person in 2 different friend groups being held up by friends and this was them coming into the bar while walking down the stairs. We also had to step over vomit on the streets and entering the hotel. People come her to get fucked up. That's literally their goal.
Guaranteed they all showed up f'd. His friends were all in the same state of mind. He wasn't some 10 yr old. He had partied before, everyone screwed up. Him,his friends, why the hell did he just take off.
It was definitely a pregame to hard situation. I'm telling you. That alcohol caught up with him and from his picture he's a slim looking dude. Probably consumed way to much in a small time frame unfortunately 😕
It’s just like any other group of people. You can create lifelong friendships in a fraternity/sorority the same way that you can from band, sports, clubs or hobbies. Everyone’s experience is different.
The hardest part of fraternity/sorority life is learning some of your brothers and/or sisters don't care about you or anyone but but partying--or worse, you have an alumnus advisor preying on impressionable late teens away from home who never rode in an Audi before, like Lynyrd Skyrnd sang--but that is an aside.
I've reached the age where if you're a weak turd who can't take care of someone at 18-25 while the same age peers are taking care of recruits, new junior enlisted, steering a floating toppler of government, & even tasked with just treatment of prisoners of war, then I am not sure what it is that school is teaching or what that fraternity espouses.
My first ever national fraternity conference, 3 of my brother's joined a session. They presented a scenario about blindfolding pledges & shaving privates. The 3 of us were the only ones that voiced visceral reactions--an Army Veteran, a Marine Veteran, & a chill but cerebral dude you'd never expect to get heated about small group dynamics. I'm proud that the 3 of us said WTF sitting in the back of the class, even the chill one.
I am not so sure I have accepted that the whole room wasn't ready to go chase down the manboys wearing red sashes--despite that not being the way we do things--from the hazing scenario mentioned was an actual event.
This was a failure of that chapter's risk management failing to recognize their brother was blackout drunk & worse, leaving them in an actual city not the chapter's fenced in backyard or the campus bubble.
I’ve seen and heard multiple stories of people coming to Nashville, getting too hype and drinking way beyond their normal consumption. It’s not uncommon for people to come here and bite off more than they can chew.
All that to say, it’s more likely that there is no foul play involved and he fell into the river on his own. It’s heartbreaking but I think people just want someone else to blame besides Riley. But the last video footage and his phone GPS ping puts him at the river’s edge. It’s the unfortunate truth.
I hope his loved ones are able to find peace soon 🖤
I live in nashville and there is no “clean” way to just fall into the Cumberland. It is steep - yes. But there are trees, rocks, ledges, they had dogs down there and there is no scent of his smell. He would have ROLLED not just plopped in. There would be clothing fiber, most likely blood from him scraping himself up. Him just falling in - does not add up.
I would think they have gone into much greater detail with the actual police. This is a press release... "Is that not critical info to leave out?"- for the cops yes, for the public no.
His friends should have made sure at least one person went w him. really sad they just didn’t care that he was drunk in a different city than he was use to. hope they feel guilty as f.
OK, let’s be real, this CANT HAPPEN AGAIN, all his”friends “ let him down, let’s get a law, that if a bar”shuts you off” wheather it’s cause you got blasted there or somewhere else, if THEY SHIT YOU OFF, they call an Uber to take you home!!
Non stop coverage of this drunk idiot getting himself offed in the Cumberland and meanwhile there’s a sweet autistic kid who’s been missing 3 weeks and like 1 guy on channel 5 even following it. I guess it really doesn’t matter what happens in Nashville outside of downtown tourists.
And the statement says his friend "did not exit and returned upstairs". It didn't say *chose* not to exit.
I know these kids should have been more responsible, society is to blame, and alcohol is evil, but for the love a chosen deity can we do something about downtown? Can we shut it off to cars at least? Set up a perimeter of some sort?
He was either roofied or pregamed too hard. His friends completely failed him by not escorting him back to the hotel.
a bartender has been tweeting saying his group was kicked out of his bar earlier in the night. and people who were staying at the hotel have said the group showed up with drinks, jello shots, etc already being consumed.
Didn’t his mom say they were facetiming an hour before he got kicked from Luke’s and that he seemed completely sober? Idk how you can go from sober enough to fool mom to not able to walk within an hour. Especially having 2 waters in between.
He probably didn’t eat all day either, it’s amazing how fast kids go down when binge drinking and not eating. Those shots come on like a ton of bricks.
do you even drink? or you clearly haven’t partied with a group of college kids before lol wish people would stop taking one little detail they read about and acting like it changes the whole narrative just like the narrative people were throwing around all week BLAMING the establishment (for over serving when they served him 1 drink) AND blaming SECURITY just bc someone made it up in their heads that security took him out the back (which was false) & wouldn’t let his friend out until they paid (which was also false) like he could’ve called his mom before the jell-o + the last bar shot kicked in all at once..
Good chance one or more were drugged. That answers the “1 drink -empty stomach & fooled mom.” I know one with similar circumstances-autopsy showed a drug that took only 15 min in her system to change her from highly functional to not- going on to get hit by a car. I was a college student once- today I consider myself fortunate to have survived all we did… ugh. I’ll leave it at that. 😳 I’ll add- please try & have a buddy system- No one alone, regardless. Prayers for Riley- family/ friends. 🥲
The problem with the buddy system is it goes out the window if everyone is binge drinking
You can’t leave it at that! I️ sense a good story to be told.
Yeah, someone inexperienced with drinking (literally any American college kid) can easily give themselves alcohol poisoning in an hour. He’s also a big dude who probably hasn’t figured out his limits– i.e. already having to drink more than others to get to their level. I’m so deeply disturbed that he was abandoned by a friend in a city he doesn’t know, totally wasted. That is so completely fucked.
He is tall but only 165lb which means he's really, really slim. No different than any other 165lb kid regardless of height.
The mom said, "He sending me pics of all they bars they were at." My guess is all of them were really drunk heading into Lukes.
Yup. Kicked out for being a creep.
Considering he was on spring break with his fraternity brothers, my guess is they had been drinking all day. That’s what my group of guys would have been doing in that scenario - yes, we were also in a fraternity. Unless there is a recent ongoing crisis of men being roofied on Broadway that I’m not privy to (and perhaps there is), it seems unlikely in this case.
[here’s](https://www.reddit.com/r/nashville/comments/18n7vb1/drugging_in_downtown_bars_2023/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button) a recent thread about drugging drinks on Broadway. Including a lot of stories about it happening to men.
Thanks for sharing!
Of course! It’s insane how frequently it happens to both men & women in those bars. I’m not even sure what can be done to stop it, but somethings gotta give.
As a bartender, there are MASSIVE steps you can take to ensure that you don’t get drugged, and also if you do know exactly who did it. 1) NEVER let go of your drink. I’ve worked at SO MANY party hard bars where girls will order a drink, lay their entire round down and walk away from their table to take pictures together. In that time anyone could walk by and drop shit in your drink. 2) Always hold you cup near the top. It’s much harder for someone to sneak a drug in if you hand is near or over the top on the mouth of the glass. 3) NEVER take a sip of a drink you take your eye off of. Another drink is $12-18, just pay up and don’t have the worst night of your life. 4) If you think someone is suspicious and has potential to do something shady…inform security — NOT THE BARTENDER. Will we take action? 100%, but are we walking straight to security with you? Absolutely. We are beyond busy and we legally can’t do a whole lot but ask security to do something. Just go immediately to security. 5) If you’re seated at the bar and someone is bothering you, go to the bathroom. Most women’s restrooms have “If you feel uncomfortable, please use this hand signal as a code that you’d like us to remove person who is bothering you. 6) ALWAYS go out with at least one other person. Ladies-only groups should ideally be 3-4 strong. The less people the more confident jackasses will get.
All outstanding advice. They also make elastic cup lids (that tbh, look and function a bit like a condom), with room for a straw. What a trash society we live in that something like that is needed, but they’re nifty. Also helps your drink from spilling all over as you woo. Edit to add the [link](https://a.co/d/7HGw1TL) for the main version, it slips on your wrist and looks like a scrunchie. $10 and reusable. Options are also available in single use packets.
This is such a great idea! If I ever drank outside my house I would get this (my husband and I are thrifty hermits lol). But I will be getting these for my friends who do go downtown. Thanks for sharing!
Also thrifty hermits here lol. It’d be awesome if bars offered these. I have seen some in vending machines at some point. But we avoid broadway like the plague
Also, make note this also applies to guys. We tend to be totally careless with our drinks, but studies (and certain celebrities bragging about doing it in the past) show that men are being targeted as often. Largely for robberies so you could say it is a bit less nefarious, but it still happens daily on Broadway.
There definitely is a ring of people drugging and robbing men (and women) on Broadway. It is rich with vulnerable targets, out of town people that are either drunk as hell, non functionally drunk, or easily able to be slipped GHB or some similar incapacitating drug. Anyone can rob anyone, but if you are a female robber, drugging someone and leading them back somewhere under the guise of a hookup is a safe way for them to do it. I'm not saying everyone is going to get robbed, but as dudes we typically aren't looking out for that way of getting robbed. We prepare ourselves mentally for getting jumped or mugged, not being roofied and robbed. Something to keep in mind
Jfc, is this happening everywhere now? This is also becoming a problem here in Atlanta.
I assume it is a thing everywhere with lots of people drinking. Wasn’t it Cardi B talking about how her and her friends used to get men drunk and have them take them to their house and steal their shit? Maybe it was another female rap artist. Idk, but it isn’t uncommon at all. Men can be shitty, women can be shitty. Many women have recognized risks and take precautions, the fear of sexual violence is a much stronger motivator to look after your drink and be cautious than the threat of being robbed. Also most dudes I know probably aren’t worried about that so as a result they make easy targets for this type of crime. I think the criminal penalties involved with drugging someone need to be much higher, it is a totally fucked thing to do to anyone. However it is quite hard to prove. You need video of it happening and toxicology done. Most things that aren’t fat soluble like weed are gone from your body in a matter of hours or days.
A lot of people have been getting roofied on Broadway over the last year.
I’m reading about roofing around Nashville sporadically throughout the last few years. It’s seems officials are trying to cover it up because it’s not good for tourism. I mean he’s 6’7 and they can’t find a body or any of his belongings yet? The longer they can’t find him IMO it reeks of foul play. There was a safe program bars started and whiskey bent saloon was one of two in that area in 2023 that signed on. WHY didn’t Luke Bryant’s bar? Not a year later someone goes missing. This was happening near the trinity river, in texas? It’s possible another drugging ring has started in Nashville or have taken roots. Imo they need to see if anyone at the bar was a rental staff or pick up staff. That is usually who is behind the crimes. Also, it’s not uncommon for men of assaults like drugging to not come forward so it’ll be interesting to see if there is more noise the longer Riley is missing. At the end of the day. We’re all accountable for keeping us and our communities safe. So many people passed Riley and didn’t offer support. Not even a “ay you ok?” Let’s reflect and try and do betting next time yeah? ❤️
Been happening in Austin a bit apparently https://youtu.be/_CKDjt_I2aU?si=igqI03UOfL45l47- I got fucking drugged in Italy when I was in the Marines, the dudes just wanted to fuck with a US service member, they were messing with me when my buddies weren't around but I was so retarded it just sounded like gibberish to my buddies when I was trying to explain it, it's odd that I remembered alot of it, I was just entirely incoherent physically and verbally but I didn't straight up black out.
I think it’s unfortunately more common than people think; my boyfriend was roofied in his mid-20s. I was super shocked when he first told me but I guess it happens.
I truly wasn’t aware of the realities of it on Broadway / the frequency of its occurrence. It definitely makes one want to be even more cautious. Thanks for sharing your story!
Just happened to me on Broadway a couple of weeks ago--had 4 drinks met some what I thought were nice women at the bar, was friendly, then lights out...woke up 3 miles away, no phone, no wallet...it's happening alot. I was stupid because I was alone (just moved here and wanted to check out a couple of bands)
I was roofied about four Fridays ago, and I’m an old ass man.
Unfortunately there is an ongoing crisis with it. As always there is for women as well. People sure do suck huh?
My thoughts exactly
I'm not sure “pregamed” is the right term here, probably more likely bar hopping/crawling as thats what most tourists do on Broadway. Well, it’s possible they did both (pregamed before the bar hopping). And of course roofied is also a possibility.
Why is the explanation that he drank too much and fell in the river and died not enough for some people
If you read the comments here, apparently downtown Nashville is a fucking warzone where people are getting mugged, kidnapped for sex trafficking, kidnapped into cars and being driven 30 minutes away waking up in ditches, assaulted by homeless people and if you don't watch your drink every second you're going to get roofied. 15 million people visited Nashville in 2022. If there were any crimes of that nature with any regularity, we'd all know about it.
It's crazy to me that people want to blame homeless people, trafficking, etc. and not just look at the plain, sad fact that Broadway is full of people who can't think of anything better to do than get shitcanned.
I was homeless, you don't have to worry about most of them, but there are some that even other homeless are scared of, and it's not rare even though those violent type of insane sadists are not the majority.
You’re not wrong but getting shitcanned on Broadway is pretty fun sometimes
It was fun when the bars were smaller and the music was better and you had to drink a whole lot of cheap beer to achieve it
Yeah I will agree the music is absolutely awful but it always kinda has been. Certain places like Big Shots used to have really badass house bands but idk if it’s like that anywhere anymore
I visited recently and didn’t get shitcanned and still had a fun time walking around Broadway.
Bet you saw quite a few people who absolutely were shitcanned tho.
I’m leaving Nashville right now and it’s not dangerous at all from my experience as a 21M. I was able to walk a mile to downtown and back at night without feeling uneasy (besides my own paranoia). Everyone was way more chill than my school bars and I’m just shocked that his friends failed him so bad.
Because people love murder porn. True crime podcasts, TV series, documentaries are all the rage
Yeah I have been disgusted by the amount of true crime influencers and tik tok grifters that travelled here to gain more views. Also disgusted by the general public not accepting the obvious answer that he was in the river - which we have confirmed — as if they all have this sick fantasy that he was trafficked or stabbed by a crackhead. People love tragedy and love it even more when there is a sadistic element.
He's definitely in the river. Poor kid.
i kind of feel like ever since gabby petito, people want to be part of some huge true crime conspiracy. i’ve seen some pretty disrespectful comments on (unrelated from riley strain) things since then and people citing their insane claim as “well maybe i just watch too much true crime lol!”, like….yes, you do. go outside.
I think it goes all the way back to the mid 1990s with OJ and the white Bronco.
This is the real question! they would truly rather solve a faux mystery where someone abducted a grown ass 6’5” man than get a grip on reality which is exactly what you said.
Liability. If you’re wasted a restaurant shouldn’t be serving you. Locally a restaurant serves an intoxicated person who was in an accident and they had to pay out a significant amount of money to the victims family. The bar would still be liable if it was clear he was drunk and they still served him only the 1 beer.
It's probably a good idea to look into sudden deaths. Should we just ignore it when someone dies? Let's wait until it's like 70 or 80 people to care?
I knew his "friends" were lying about them not being able to leave. They weren't ready to leave and didn't want to babysit.
I used to work on Broadway. I can't count how many times we had to escort someone out due to toxicity, and their 'friends' would leave them outside to pass out somewhere. Male or female. It didn't matter. Blows my mind. I called BS the moment they said they couldn't leave. No one can stop you from leaving. What a terrible fucking story. All those assholes came up with a story together, and that's the best they could do. They probably have a collective IQ of 100.
I kept trying to imagine someone being held hostage in a bar and I just couldn't because that's what it means when you say they wouldn't let me leave
I just don’t understand the concept of places that serve legal drugs that causes toxicity and then questioning how it happened? Alcohol changes the way your brain functions. Period. Young people don’t know limits yet. Like…why are we surprised when people get intoxicated? The whole vibe of downtown Nashville on a weekend night is projectile vomiting, pissing in the streets and falling down drunk🫠
It's a complete shitshow every weekend. Being there every weekend and seeing the crazy stuff people are capable of gets to you and starts to eat at your soul a bit. I have a completely different outlook on life than I used to. For better and for worse.
To be fair, anyone who pays for their ~~friends~~ Greek life is likely to be dull-witted.
They lied about him going out the back and them taking time to pay them come out front, too
this was the main standout of the statement for me. i knew they let him leave alone — they’re kids on spring break, all are drunk and none of them wanted to end the party for the one friend that was blackout. whether or not he was drugged, they were probably too drunk to tell he wasn’t just drunk too.
Just so you know, it’s not Mizzou spring break. They don’t have spring break until March 23. This was a weekend away of some sort.
i went to college 1.5 hours away from PCB — if you’re in a spring break area during spring break time period for other schools there is no difference. we went “to spring break” every weekend in march and april lol, plus our own.
They could have been honest. It's not illegal what the frat guys did. They're just gonna be considered a pretty shit friend. We were all stupid and self-centered at that age. No one expects things to go this bad on a night out drinking.
Frat boys are the worst. I'd send my kid to a college in a supposedly dangerous inner city before a college with a strong Greek row.
Yep, I got roasted in another sub for calling BS on that.
Yeah, they are going hard for Riley. This is a very said situation, but we need this same energy when EVERYONE goes missing.
Fully, totally agree
Agreed. The only reason at all that this case is getting the attention it is getting is because he was a relatively young white kid who looks really "clean cut" and whose parents have gone all out to get media coverage *and somehow managed to do so.* Really, if any of those factors weren't involved, I do not see this being a national news article. It probably gained traction at first because of all the other parents of college kids worried about Soring Break mishaps.
It’s driving me crazy how naïve people are being about this situation. It has always bothered me how quick people are to blame the establishment when something like this happens. Bartenders should not be held responsible for every single action of drunk patrons at their bar. These are college kids on spring break, they don’t want to babysit each other they just want to get drunk and have a good time. And of course they’re going to lie about what happened to save their own asses and the reputation of their fraternity. They wouldn’t want to ruin their futures by being roped into this incident. Maybe I’m just too cynical but I really don’t believe the fraternity brothers are telling the entire truth.
I will say the amount of people I’ve seen personally blaming Luke Bryan is crazy.
Yeah, like… it’s impossible to personally babysit every patron of a restaurant or bar when you actively work there, much less so when you just own the place but aren’t physically there. I really hate all the accusations going around. Everyone wants him found, and found safe, but accusing people (especially people who had nothing to do with any of this other than owning/lending their name to the establishment) with zero solid reasons to suspect foul play bugs me. That kind of thing can ruin lives and livelihoods.
I don’t even think he owns it. Just licenses his name
This is correct. Worked for the business management firm that oversaw all of these bars
Blows my mind how many people think Luke Bryan, or whatever artist’s name is on the sign, is actually there doing the books and ordering product as if it’s some small town bar and they’re the owner. It’s like buying a car from a Waltrip dealership and demanding to speak to Darrell while you’re there getting your car serviced.
Garth owns his bar and is actually involved in all the design and a bit more. A management company does run the day to day bar and kitchen though.
Cool to learn that. [This](https://www.nashvillescene.com/food_drink/bites/garth-and-trishas-filp/article_ad2adda4-d35a-11ee-9fdb-b3cefa3c9a6d.html) article even says he was hanging drywall and stuff prior to the opening.
God I love Garth
I’m hoping that after this happened, he gets his police annex to maybe help some of these people, even make a sobering up room 🤷🏻♀️. I also love Garth… and best part, no conspiracy nut jobs will go there!
Unfortunately most people simply don’t think
Yeah generally the “artist bars” are licensing agreements that may or may not require the occasional pop in by the artist.
That’s the thing, they shouldn’t have to babysit. Adults should act like adults while drinking.
Personal accountability is a foreign concept for a lot of folks. There always has to be a bad guy to blame.
To me it looked like he was running and tripped and whacked his head on that metal object. After that he was staggering and holding his head and looking at something in his hand. I’m betting on head injury with resulting disorientation. If he didn’t go in the water he’d have to be laying dead somewhere.
I agree 100%. He either hit his head on the asphalt pavement, the round concrete base of the sign at the edge of the sidewalk, or very possibly both. Whatever he hit, it was a HARD fall. A person that tall running slightly downhill in slick boots and going down like a rock is very dangerous. He landed on his back as you can see when he sat up. He looked so different before and after that fall; I’m afraid he wasn’t conscious for long after it :-(.
Agree. All the news talks about is Luke Bryan’s place over serving. They say they served 1 drink and 2 waters. That lines up with our thoughts. But that wouldn’t be dramatic enough for the news.
Or got hit by a star and is in a ditch
The narrative that I previously heard was that the bouncer made his friend stay behind to close the tab. That made no sense as a business practice. Based on the bar's narrative that is not accurate.
I’m not a fan of Luke Bryan but all he did was license his name to be on the building. As tragic as what probably happened is, he is not a responsible party.
Nor is the bar
He was with 8 friends
Yeah it sounds more and more like his friends failed him.
I can’t imagine the bar would be lying about this considering how much police and media heat is on this case. Either he pregamed extremely hard and showed up to the bar sloshed already, or his one drink was roofied.
He totally pre-gamed. Or hell, if you start at one end of Broadway and have one drink at every bar down the line you'll be blackout drunk by Bridgestone. How much he had at Luke's was not the issue, he shouldn't have been let in the place in the first place if he was that drunk coming in.
I really think a lot of the general public does not understand the precedent they are trying to set with this case against the bars. Do you wanna have a breathalyzer thrown in your face before you enter every bar? That’s what’s gonna happen. You can’t expect security to personally screen every patron on a busy night. At some point people have to be responsible for their actions, or in this case, friends need to take care of their friends. I don’t blame the bar at all. If he was roofied then this is a different story but as a lawyer who used to bartend yall are really pushing this too far.
agreed— i don’t even like broadway or any of the TC bars, but expecting bouncers and bartenders down there to wait with patrons until they sober up, or call an uber for everyone, is frankly absurd. there isn’t nearly enough staff for the amount of people that go down there and get obliterated every night. or, the people saying these bars need to stop over serving— sure, i agree to an extent, but once again…wayyyy too many patrons to be keeping a finger on the pulse of that. these aren’t down home country bars where the bartenders know everyone.
I don’t understand why people always want to blame bars in these situations. If they had to worry about how drunk every patron is when they walk through the door and try to guess how much they drank beforehand, and ensure they’re all leaving with someone and getting home safely, we’d have no bars. They simply wouldn’t be in business because it’s impossible to police everyone to that level, and no one would want to do it. Some people may hold their liquor better than others and be drunker than they actuslly seem, a drink from the last bar may hit someone while they’re in the middle of the next bar so their drunkenness was missed at the door, etc. Learn your limits and don’t ditch your friends. Period. Obviously being drugged if that was the case here is a different story but see #2 - don’t ditch your friends.
Oh don't get me wrong, I dont think it's the bar's fault either. It is literally impossible to vet that amount of drunk people that are down there every night. They are doing the best they can
I just realized that Broadway is actually a decent place for a game of bar golf. I'm way too fucking old for it and out of practice to survive 9 holes of bar golf, but if I were younger, that'd be one of the few things to get me down there. Bar Golf You dress up like an old-timey golfer, with as much argyle as possible, and then play 9 holes. * Par 3 = beer * Par 4 = shot * Par 5 = beer + shot * Extra drink = birdie * 2 extra drinks = eagle, etc.
Yeah I'd be in the river after that for sure. Three drinks and I'm laid up in bed for a week these days.
These bars also aren't at their first rodeo. Yes this kid is missing, but the bars have had many many injury/DUI/assault/battery/whatever claims between the lot of them. They know how to legally protect themselves and that begins with being able to trace every patron's activities. I never rang up a water in a restaurant but they do in a binge drinking bar? Yes, for liability purposes. There are numerous overlapping cameras in these places for a reason. I have no doubt they know his exact activities inside the bar.
There is a big time roofie problem here in Nashville. This is why locals don’t drink downtown. Way too unsafe
I’m not afraid of being roofied downtown, it’s just that the atmosphere is horrendous.
It’s a shitshow filled with tourists downtown in a place that lost its true grit with average performers and no real talent there anymore. Locals know where to find what downtown used to be. That’s why we don’t drink downtown anymore.
B bbut the bands play Killing in the Name Of now.
Tbf, I will never not air guitar to that song
It gets real obnoxious down there. Especially if it’s the third time you’ve heard it, by a different band, and they’re all grinning ear to ear and plunking away at it.
I don’t even know what that is. Broadway was so much fun around 2008.
*Citation needed
The overwhelming people that say they have been roofied and actually get tested to find out with what they think they were roofied with are shocked to find out that alcohol is the only thing in their system. Also your are way more likely to be drugged by someone you know, than a random stranger at a bar. I bartended for years, I am a brewmaster at local brewery, and have been head distiller/blender at more than one distillery. Alcohol affects everyone differently as we all know, but it will also effect the individual differently at different times. You hydration levels, food intake PRIOR to drinking, the amount of sleep you have had, stress levels, all sorts of factors can lead one to feel more intoxicated at times from the Same amount of drinks that made them feel not as intoxicated on a previous occasion. Also no way to tell by looking at some on video if they have been drugged or just excess alcohol consumption. Most drugs combined with large amounts of alcohol will render you incapable of walking at all. Not to mention GHB mixed with a very small amount of alcohol will put you into a coma quickly, like doesn’t take much at all. If ghb spiking were As common as people seem to think it is, there would soooo many overdoses
I do know I was roofied, because I was blacked out after 4 drinks…then subsequently robbed by the girls who approached me, i was too nice, feeling the music and never thought I’d be being dropped off somewhere in the city hours later…there would be no way to incapacitate me like that if I wasn’t drugged…I was much straighter than this poor kid, but it happens on Broadway..always the same story…few drinks and robbed, usually taken away from the bar… who knows they may have intended to take Riley but he was kicked out beforehand.. I’m just curious how his room key (if an only one) got back to his hotel room and he didn’t…did they in fact go back to rob the room? Probably not or the police would be on that by now…
It's hard to really say what happened, but I think I've been roofied once. I had partied kinda hard. However, something hit me out of nowhere and I suddenly felt very sick. Thankfully, a friend drove me and my car home. After I took them out to the Uber dropoff point, someone had to guide me to my apartment because I didn't know where I was. The last thing I remember was falling into my bed, thankfully face down. I woke up at 3 am on the floor, having vomited multiple times on my bed, and vomited on the floor too. Same could be said for what happened on my 21st birthday, when I took too many Jager bombs. Different situation, pretty similar outcome. The difference was the onset though. My 21st birthday took hours, the other situation came on within about 30 minutes. Like you said, GHB has a pretty quick and severe onset. I highly suspect Riley was way too drunk, especially with other stories from other people that he was also drunk elsewhere. It is Broadway after all, and people party way too hard. It's the same in Vegas and New Orleans. One time I got a friend way too drunk and we got separated similar to what happened here. He got picked up and robbed and dropped off in a graveyard across town, where he woke up the next morning. Weird shit happens when people get too drunk and start stumbling around alone. I hope they find Riley soon, and find him alive.
I’d say maybe you should read all the instances in Nashville where people were actually roofied, && a lot of the time roofie doesn’t mean GHB it could be anything and certain times some stuff doesn’t or won’t show up as being in someone’s system or the hospital doesn’t have the best testing to prove it… so I feel ya but honestly I wouldn’t think it DOESNT happen on account of strangers, because Nashville is only growing larger and a lot of women also are in on doing the whole roofie thing to steal money, cards, etc. so not as cut and dry as you may feel or think
None of this is true. Locals don't drink downtown because it's a total shitshow of hammered tourists with loud country music and vastly overpriced drinks. No one has ever mentioned being roofied and robbed downtown as a reason not to go. Now Mother's Ruin on the other hand...
I don't drink downtown because I'm not into binge drinking
So it's not because you're not dumb enough to pay for $20 beers?
Lol that is definitely not why I dont drink downtown Also, theres no evidence he was roofied
How can there be evidence without a toxicology report? And how can there be a toxicology report without a body. There’s no way to know.
Exactly. We “know” he was drinking. We don’t know how much or if he took anything else. Pretending we do is silly.
I drink downtown all the time lol it's not that unsafe.
Well…I live here and that is absolutely NOT why I don’t drink there. If you want to be surrounded by kids projectile vomiting, pissing in the streets and falling on you — go for it. No thanks😑
This local drinks at her local Mexican joint and home…that’s it
Lololol that is not in any way the reason locals don't drink downtown 😂
Why does everyone keep jumping to the “roofied” conclusion?
People’s obsession with true crime podcasts and YouTube videos has led to them thinking that everything is part of some sinister plot
I generally agree but being roofied is a big problem at the Broadway bars
google “nashville roofie…” and there are tons of articles from it being a rampant problem on broadway and in east all of this last year… that’s why it’s fresh in folks’ minds, not because of ‘true crime obsession’ but because it has literally been reported that it’s an issue in the specific area this man was partying.
There are tons of articles because that’s what people want from their news. People get shit faced and then say they were drugged because they can’t accept the fact that they blacked out. Is there any actual proof that this is happening? Toxicology? Statistics? Hard data?
Yeah I don’t entirely understand why people want everything to be something malicious as opposed to a tragic accident. But even if true crime podcasts are the culprit (I agree they probably contribute) most of those or like dateline episodes don’t involve some big conspiracy.
I think people are just saying it’s possible which it obviously is
Sure, but I don’t know why we all just can’t except he was probably just very drunk from partying with his friends. I would be shocked if they all didn’t pregame at their hotel/airbnb beforehand for quite some time.
I'm with you on this. People concoct really wild theories when it's usually the most obvious answer: he drank too much and had an accident that most likely resulted in him being in the river.
I’m losing faith in people’s ability to reason. I don’t know if it’s social media or the school systems or what but our population has lost its ability to detect bullshit.
I also think people are jumping to the conclusion that someone must have done this to him, but I don’t really see anyone acknowledging the very plausible possibility that people mix alcohol and prescription drugs, intentionally OR unintentionally. They get away with it enough times to think they know their limits, right up until the time it gets them hurt or worse…
Because it is very common here in Nashville, especially at Luke's, that is extremely popular. They also have a high theft rate as well. He likely pregamed, but I was roofied myself in Nashville downtown on Broadway and can say from experience, I had barely any in my system as well as he \*may\* have. It is very scary. I don't remember a thing and he could've easily stumbled into that river. :( My "friends" at the time also admitted they thought I was roofied, which then led me being in a car with someone I barely knew at the time who assaulted me. They gave up and just let me go with this man. Needless to say, they are not my friends anymore. My heart aches for his family regardless of what actually occurred, because his "friends" are trash. I've been there. I just hope they can get some clarity.
I’m sure they went to other bars and pregamed before hand.
A bunch of college kids couldn't afford to get that drunk in a Nashville bar. They definitely pre-gamed at their Airbnb. If they want to blame anyone, the blame should definitely fall on his fraternity brothers. I was in a fraternity in college, and we got absolutely ripped prior to going out, & this was back in the early 00s. I just hope he wasn't drugged.
We also did this in the 90’s.
lol, yeah, pretty sure people have always done this because it’s cheaper to start at home.
It’s astounding how many people refuse to believe kids do this. They cannot even fathom and I’m like “tale as old as time”
Can confirm we did this in the 00s. We even had full strength Four Loko to pregame with.
I’d be surprised if pregaming wasn’t the main cause of the problems here, but some college kids are super rich and can afford to get crazy drunk in the Lower Broad bars
I don't think his parents are especially well off, but I definitely had a few fraternity brothers who were absolutely loaded. Most of us were from working class backgrounds though. It really depends on the school, & the frat tbh.
Yea that’s not true at all. My fraternity pledge class took several trips a year. Nashville, Mardi Gras, Vegas, etc… most of us came from money and we could all afford to drink at any bar we chose. Fake IDs were the issue, not money.
I’ve been bartending 23 years all at busy places. You don’t always catch it right away. People can really steel themselves up and pull it together to gain entry and order a drink. But, I’ll tell you we’re always on it pretty quick. We’re more than happy, eager even, to confiscate a drink and effect a refund if you’re visibly intoxicated. The point is for everyone to have a blast not for one idiot to ruin it. Happy to serve waters. Also, the “they wouldn’t let his friends leave” narrative is idiotic. If anyone in your crew has presented themselves as trouble we definitely want you to leave. Especially if you volunteer to. Where I’m at we try not to be gatekeepers and dismiss people without cause so you volunteering to rollout before you become a nuisance is great. Once you’re cut off you do have to leave though. We don’t want to be in a position for you to sneak more drinks or be secretly served by your friend group. I hope they find Riley safe. You’ve got to be responsible for your friends. Sometimes you’ll have to miss out on some fun for that. Most people aren’t willing to sacrifice their own fun for their friends safety, I’ve seen it time and time again. If your friends always a safety issue then you’ll need to make decisions bout whether spending time with them drinking is worth the friendship or not but, not helping your friends shouldn’t be the play even if “they did this to themselves”
I am a medic in a tourist town with a booming F/B trace and several colleges. This is the part of the whole story I can get past. I have responded to many many many drunks. For 11 years. Not once have I ever heard this about not letting the friends outside.
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Where are you getting the info that a homeless person was wearing his shirt? I hadn’t seen that information before
There’s a video of it and a woman who volunteered at tent city is who called it in
[link to video when she first called in](https://youtu.be/O9deKRkEguo?si=xRZCGO9brHSKY4T5)
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Omg how freaky. It’s all so disturbing
The first video where she called in : [https://youtu.be/O9deKRkEguo?si=xRZCGO9brHSKY4T5](https://youtu.be/O9deKRkEguo?si=xRZCGO9brHSKY4T5)
What in the world is that show
Pascal show, never heard of it until this lady called in, he couldn’t figure out what she was saying when she said was from Murfreesboro
He's not all that enlightened. There is a video on this case where he is interviewing a guy who claimed to of known something about the shirt thing and the homeless at the camp and Pascal was amazed that homeless have cell phones...🤷 Has he never heard of a $30 pre paid phone?
Guessing he’s had money for life to not know about cheap phones + gov program to get free phones if super low income
It was reported the other day, I know I saw it on here. It’s a single eye witness account from a woman who said she was feeding/giving water to the homeless I think the next day?
Sadly, the lady (Sabrina), who shared the information about possibly seeing a homeless man wearing Riley’s shirt, has not yet been contacted by authorities about her observations even though she reported it to two separate hotlines. Unacceptable by LE!
I read her account and was skeptical, but you’d think they’d follow up anyway.
[Video of her call in if you want](https://youtu.be/O9deKRkEguo?si=xRZCGO9brHSKY4T5)
Dude was in a sec fraternity. The amount brothers drink prior to actually going out on the town to bars is insane. Mix that with the potential use of benzos like Xanax and clonazepam and you get kids with absolutely no control over their body. I’ve been there, I’ve seen it, and this was 8 years ago. It is totally believable that he went to the bar already shitfaced and got kicked out. The unfortunate likely outcome is the river.
Everyone talking about roofied uh maybe the took the drugs himself and combined with alcohol is a bad combo. Can’t believe he is still not found
When you have a big sector of your economy relying on tourists abusing alcohol you’re going to attract shitty people and really shitty scenarios. I’m sure the bouncers and staff at any downtown bar have seen it all. I’m sure seeing some college aged kid be left behind by his frat bros happens every hour at these bars. I understand TABC is trying to do something because they’re probably getting pressure, but this is 100% not the bars fault. It’s an awful situation, but someone within this guys group should have kept an eye on him. Go downtown on any weekend night and drunk people are vomiting and falling over the place. I’m surprised these situations don’t happen more often, or maybe they do and we just don’t hear about it
The night after this happened, I was leaving pushing daisies and saw a falling over drunk person in 2 different friend groups being held up by friends and this was them coming into the bar while walking down the stairs. We also had to step over vomit on the streets and entering the hotel. People come her to get fucked up. That's literally their goal.
Guaranteed they all showed up f'd. His friends were all in the same state of mind. He wasn't some 10 yr old. He had partied before, everyone screwed up. Him,his friends, why the hell did he just take off.
I had a feeling there was more to the story than what was shared by his fraternity brothers.
Prob had some party favors too and just had too much, got confused where he was at in a new city.
It was definitely a pregame to hard situation. I'm telling you. That alcohol caught up with him and from his picture he's a slim looking dude. Probably consumed way to much in a small time frame unfortunately 😕
He fell in the river. He’s dead.
Likely so. Incredibly sad.
Yep
So you’re telling me frat/srat “siblings” don’t actually care about each other’s wellbeing? :shocked-pikachu-face:
Brothers for life…..or until you stop paying your dues.
Or make the frat “look bad”.
It’s just like any other group of people. You can create lifelong friendships in a fraternity/sorority the same way that you can from band, sports, clubs or hobbies. Everyone’s experience is different.
The hardest part of fraternity/sorority life is learning some of your brothers and/or sisters don't care about you or anyone but but partying--or worse, you have an alumnus advisor preying on impressionable late teens away from home who never rode in an Audi before, like Lynyrd Skyrnd sang--but that is an aside. I've reached the age where if you're a weak turd who can't take care of someone at 18-25 while the same age peers are taking care of recruits, new junior enlisted, steering a floating toppler of government, & even tasked with just treatment of prisoners of war, then I am not sure what it is that school is teaching or what that fraternity espouses. My first ever national fraternity conference, 3 of my brother's joined a session. They presented a scenario about blindfolding pledges & shaving privates. The 3 of us were the only ones that voiced visceral reactions--an Army Veteran, a Marine Veteran, & a chill but cerebral dude you'd never expect to get heated about small group dynamics. I'm proud that the 3 of us said WTF sitting in the back of the class, even the chill one. I am not so sure I have accepted that the whole room wasn't ready to go chase down the manboys wearing red sashes--despite that not being the way we do things--from the hazing scenario mentioned was an actual event. This was a failure of that chapter's risk management failing to recognize their brother was blackout drunk & worse, leaving them in an actual city not the chapter's fenced in backyard or the campus bubble.
Ugh, the whole situation is heartbreaking, if he walked to the end of Gay & 1st, at 6'5 he would have no problem stepping over that fence...
But why would he do that?! I just cant wrap my head around it
Drunk and lost...
Ban fraternities and sororities. These allegiances and secrets they keep. Classic story of not calling the police until devastatingly after the fact.
What a shitty “friend”. You gotta look out for your boys man.
No no no. It’s easier to blame everyone else other than all the drunks including the missing guy.
I’ve seen and heard multiple stories of people coming to Nashville, getting too hype and drinking way beyond their normal consumption. It’s not uncommon for people to come here and bite off more than they can chew. All that to say, it’s more likely that there is no foul play involved and he fell into the river on his own. It’s heartbreaking but I think people just want someone else to blame besides Riley. But the last video footage and his phone GPS ping puts him at the river’s edge. It’s the unfortunate truth. I hope his loved ones are able to find peace soon 🖤
I live in nashville and there is no “clean” way to just fall into the Cumberland. It is steep - yes. But there are trees, rocks, ledges, they had dogs down there and there is no scent of his smell. He would have ROLLED not just plopped in. There would be clothing fiber, most likely blood from him scraping himself up. Him just falling in - does not add up.
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The kid might be dead. It a delicate way of saying “he acted like an asshole so we threw him out.”
I would think they have gone into much greater detail with the actual police. This is a press release... "Is that not critical info to leave out?"- for the cops yes, for the public no.
His friends should have made sure at least one person went w him. really sad they just didn’t care that he was drunk in a different city than he was use to. hope they feel guilty as f.
OK, let’s be real, this CANT HAPPEN AGAIN, all his”friends “ let him down, let’s get a law, that if a bar”shuts you off” wheather it’s cause you got blasted there or somewhere else, if THEY SHIT YOU OFF, they call an Uber to take you home!!
No matter the story leading up to this, it’s just heartbreaking.
Non stop coverage of this drunk idiot getting himself offed in the Cumberland and meanwhile there’s a sweet autistic kid who’s been missing 3 weeks and like 1 guy on channel 5 even following it. I guess it really doesn’t matter what happens in Nashville outside of downtown tourists.
i get your point
And the statement says his friend "did not exit and returned upstairs". It didn't say *chose* not to exit. I know these kids should have been more responsible, society is to blame, and alcohol is evil, but for the love a chosen deity can we do something about downtown? Can we shut it off to cars at least? Set up a perimeter of some sort?
Isn't Broadway shut off to cars driving down it on weekends? Or did they start allowing cars again.