Forensic expert says Riley Strain's pants would not have slipped off in the ... trends now
A forensic expert has claimed Riley Strain's pants would not have come off themselves but would have likely been removed by another person before he entered the river where he was found.
The half-naked body of the 22-year-old student was hauled from the Cumberland River in Tennessee on Friday, 14 days after he vanished in Nashville on a night out.
An initial police autopsy found no signs of foul play, but no signs that he drowned either after leaving Luke's Bridge Food and Drink at 9.30pm on March 22.
A second autopsy ordered by the family confirmed there was no water in his lungs, increasing fears that he was dead when he entered the water.
Now world-renowned forensic expert Dr. Bill Bass has weighed in claiming Strain's pants 'would not come off by themselves.'
Mom Michelle Strain Whiteid with her son Riley Strain before his disappearance on March 8
Riley, 22, was wearing this distinctive black and white shirt when he disappeared after being kicked out of a bar in downtown Nashville on a night out with friends
World-renowned forensic expert Dr. Bill Bass claimed Strain's pants 'would not come off by themselves'
'I would say somebody took them off,' Bass, who founded the University of Tennessee's famed Body Farm, told News Channel 5.
'If you do research on this, it would be very difficult because you've got to kill a person to do it, but it is difficult to get your pants off' he explained.
'It's difficult when you are alive to get your pants off.
'It is unusual. Normally if you fall in the river, it's very difficult to get your pants off,' he added.
The family also want answers on why he was missing his trousers, boots, and billfold when his body was finally spotted under a rock eight miles downstream at 7.28am on Friday.
'Unfortunately, the only thing that was found with him, as the Police stated in the report was the watch and the shirt' family friend Chris Dingman told NewsNation's Elizabeth Vargas Reports. 'Everything else was not with him when he was found' Dingam added.
The University of Missouri student was in the city with Delta Chi fraternity members for their annual spring formal when he was kicked out of the bar just after 9.30pm.
Nashville Police searched a homeless encampment on the water's edge after people living their reported having seen the missing student on the night of his disappearance
Strain, 22, was seen leaving Luke's 32 Bridge Food + Drink on Broadway on March 8, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department
Nashville police released this haunting image of Strain walking along the sidewalk after he left the bar, as he asked a cop how he was before telling him that he was 'doing good'
Michelle Strain Whiteid, left, and her husband, Chris Whiteid, speak to the media during a press conference to update the public about the disappearance of Riley Strain
