Last known person to speak with Riley Strain gives statement to cops as family hails it as 'huge' development in case of missing Missouri student and beg for release of surveillance camera footage showing his final movements

The last known person who spoke with Riley Strain the night he mysteriously disappeared has given a statement to police - with the young man's family hailing it as a 'huge' development in the case. 

The body of 22-year-old University of Missouri student, who went missing in downtown Nashville on March 8 after a night out with his fraternity brothers, was found nearly two weeks after he vanished.

Riley was found without his pants when he was discovered in the Cumberland River in Tennessee. His wallet and cowboy boots were also missing. Riley's family claims to have conflicting reports from the police, and don't believe that their son fell in the river.

The person who last spoke with Riley was not named, but family friend Chris Dingman, told NewsNation's Elizabeth Vargas Reports this week that the witness 'told the detective his account of the story of what happened to Riley.'

Dingman called it a 'huge' development in the case and said, 'that was something we were looking for.'

Chris Dingman (pictured) a friend of the Riley family, appeared on NewsNation's 'Elizabeth Vargas Reports,' this week and said the new development in the case was 'huge'

Riley Strain, a student at the University of Missouri, went missing on March 8 afte rhe was ejected from Luke's 32 Bridge Bar in downtown, Nashville 

Dingman said last weekend, we found out that the detention center has three cameras that they hope to view in hopes of finding more answers 

The video surveillance from a nearby detention center may hold the key to Riley's final moments.

Dingman said one of the videos from one of the cameras have been made public, but the others have not been available to the family. 

'The detention center is just north of the last ping on Riley's phone. It was the only video released to the public. 

Dingman said last weekend, we found out that the detention center has three cameras, that they hope to view in hopes of finding more answers.

'We would love to see the footage even though it is with the sheriff's department.,' he said.

'We now do have confirmation that there were cameras pointing back toward the bridge where Riley went missing at.'

Dingman also revealed another stunning development during his interview.

'The reason that footage is so incredibly important to the family, the person of interest, that the family had wanted to see, the homeless person, that we knew that spoke to Riley on top of the roadway we go to talk to the family,' he said.

'He reached out Saturday afternoon and actually gave a statement - him and another person Riley had stumbled on. They asked him if he was okay they saw him walk past the detention center. That was huge. Something we had been looking for.'

Video footage showed that Riley was stumbling in a different direction from the hotel, the night he disappeared.

An autopsy found no obvious signs of foul play, and his death was ruled an accident pending toxicology results. 

Mom Michelle Strain Whiteid with her son Riley Strain before his disappearance on March 8

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 

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

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'

He was found by a worker for a local building materials company that unloads barges at the river

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  

Strain’s family ordered a second autopsy as they look for additional information in their son's death. 

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.

Riley told his friends that he would meet them back at their hotel, but was nowhere to be seen when the group returned from their night out.

His friends tried contacting him, but received no response and they reported Riley as missing as they failed to locate him via his Snapchat location.

Surveillance footage collected by police from Downtown Smoke & Vape Shop on Church Street showed Strain near the intersection of 2nd Avenue and Church Street.

The seemingly intoxicated student was wearing a two-toned black and brown shirt and blue jeans and took a tumble, then quickly got back up and continued down the street.

Another camera caught near the intersection of Gay Street and 1st Avenue North just before 10pm taking large strides with his head down as he stumbled through the streets.

The student had reportedly FaceTimed his mom Michelle that evening, and she said nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Police previously shared footage on X showing Riley walking along the sidewalk past an officer, who appeared to be inspecting a car with a smashed window.

Homeless people living in an encampment on the nearby riverbank reported seeing a man matching Riley's description stumble into their camp.

'We heard a commotion. We looked back up. He almost fell over. The last bush right there caught him,' an unidentified man who lives in the camp told WZTV.

'He was very, very, very intoxicated. I never seen anybody stumble that hard before,' the man said. 

Concerns about the police investigation grew when two amateur sleuths on TikTok discovered Riley's bank card in debris outside the camp.

A social worker reported seeing a homeless man wearing a shirt identical to Riley's distinctive black and white one days after the disappearance.

His involvement appears to have been ruled out after Riley was found still wearing the shirt in which he disappeared.

But his family have raised concerns that investigators were not focusing on those people who may have been the last to see their son alive. 

Riley Strain's father, Ryan Gilbert also told News Nation's 'Elizabeth Vargas Reports' that they have not heard much from his son's fraternity brothers.

'We haven’t really heard much from them,' he said. 'There’s a lot of things we’d like to find out from them.

He added: 'If I was in their situation, I’d be beating down those parents’ doors to tell them everything I could and be helpful in any way that I could.'