While emergency personnel were looking for Riley Strain — a 22-year-old tourist who was ultimately found to have drowned in the Cumberland River — they came across another body. The body was that of an unidentified man in his 30s, “possibly Hispanic,” whose death, the Metro Nashville Police Department announced, did not show signs of foul play or trauma.
That’s two bodies retrieved from the Cumberland in March of this year. Also in March, a man fell down an embankment and could have become a third, but he was rescued by first responders. In June, the body of 48-year-old Toby Douglas was found in the Cumberland River. In July, a woman visiting Nashville narrowly escaped a similar fate and was found unharmed on the riverbank in the same area where Strain is believed to have fallen in. Also in July, MNPD announced it had solved a cold case related to a woman who was found in the river after being shot to death in 1998.
Looking at the state of Lower Broad's tourist culture the wake of Riley Strain's death
While a body being pulled out of the Cumberland River is still a relatively rare occurrence, it’s a subject that has made repeated headlines this year. Strain’s disappearance gained national attention (not to mention attention from true-crime content creators) like no other Nashville death in recent memory. But it’s unclear exactly how often something like this happens.
It’s hard to say exactly how many bodies have been found — drowning victims or otherwise — in the Cumberland River historically. Neither the MNPD, the Metro Public Health Department, the Metro Office of Emergency Management, the Nashville Fire Department nor the Davidson County Medical Examiner keeps a running list. The Tennessee Office of Vital Records did not respond to a request for more information. The MNPD comes closest, however, by issuing a press release any time a body is found.
District 19 Metro Councilmember Jacob Kupin says he had been working on a resolution related to Cumberland River safety during the search for Strain when fire crews performed the rescue of another man. That spurred him to take up the resolution when he did, he tells the Scene. The resolution, which passed a council vote in May, requires a report recommending actions to improve “safety, security and cleanliness” on the riverfront, due back to the council on the one-year anniversary of Strain’s disappearance: March 8, 2025.
The resolution requires all hands on deck, listing eight Metro departments and “any other department of the Metropolitan Government with property or authority along the Cumberland River Downtown Riverfront.” Meanwhile, Kupin says he’s working with the Metro Parks department to price fencing for the problem-area embankments near Gay Street downtown.
“I think anybody that is falling in the river and perishing is a tragic, tragic situation,” Kupin says. “I would imagine that with fencing, with more security, with housing resources, we would see a reduction in that.”
Timing is also ripe. Until recently, the riverfront was part of three different Metro Council districts: 5, 6 and 19. With 2021’s post-U.S. Census redistricting, now is the first time one councilmember has authority over the riverfront, Kupin says.
There’s now even more incentive to clean up the riverfront and prevent future accidents: With the Tennessee Titans’ forthcoming new stadium on the East Bank and the rebuild of Second Avenue following the 2020 Christmas Day bombing, construction is flanking both sides of the river, and the city hopes to attract more visitors to those areas.
More than three years since the Christmas Day bombing, the historic downtown district enters the home stretch of its rebuild
“We’re making a lot of efforts right now on Second Avenue and First and the riverfront to activate that part of downtown and to allow for tourists and locals to come into our downtown and enjoy our riverfront,” Kupin says.
Part of the push for “safety, security and cleanliness” will affect those experiencing homelessness who sleep near the river. The resolution requests a review of the unhoused population in the area and research into what it would take to move them into housing. It appears encampments at Fort Nashboro and along the riverfront may be the next to go in the city’s string of closing encampments.
“I think the housing piece is so important, because I tell people my goal is not to just move people from place to place to place,” Kupin says. “The goal is, if we’re going to have people not to stay on the hillside, we have to get them to resources.”
When Strain fell into the river, he couldn’t have been more than a football field’s length from the Tara Cole memorial bench in Riverfront Park. Cole was killed in 2006 — while sleeping on the bank, she was pushed into the river by two men.
