“We really want to keep Riley’s name out there. I know there’s a lot of cold cases and I do not want this one to turn into that,” Brandy Baenen says.
It has been ten days since college student Riley Strain went missing after leaving a bar in Nashville on a fraternity trip. Officials have obtained a piece of evidence in the search for the missing student.
The disappearance of the six-foot-seven University of Missouri senior has gained national attention. Strain, 22, was last seen stumbling along a street in Nashville after being kicked out of a bar.
The 22-year-old’s bank card was located on the side of the Cumberland River near where he was last seen. The card was found by two citizen sleuths.
Brandy Baenen and her friend Anna had been following new developments in Strain’s case for her TikTok page, but she says she never expected to find a clue.
“We instantly called for help,” Baenen tells Inside Edition. “Anna was just honestly looked down in kind of a crevice and there were a few leaves on it, and it was bright. It was bright blue, so she picked it up, turned it over, because the name was on the back. And that was the moment when she was like, ‘I found his card.’”
Baenen says she was motivated by Strain’s mother to follow the case of the missing student.
“We do thank them because they actually are the ones that dug through the trash on their hands and knees … and came up with this clue,” Strain’s father tells Inside Edition.
Nashville police confirm the bank card belongs to Riley.
Authorities also released body camera footage of an officer’s brief interaction with Strain the night he disappeared. They say Strain “did not appear distressed.”
“We really want to keep Riley’s name out there. I know there’s a lot of cold cases and I do not want this one to turn into that,” Baenen says.
Police assembled a team of officers Monday to search along the riverbank where the card was found.
