Riley Strain's family appears a bit frustrated with how the investigation into the 22-year-old's death is going. Family friend Chris Dingman questioned why police never questioned a potential eyewitness.
Speaking with News Nation, Dingman said police never questioned one of the last people to see the missing 22-year-old alive. The person in question had a brief interaction with another anonymous homeless man about Strain. The homeless man noticed Strain appeared to be stumbling. The person then told him that Strain was drunk.
Dingman explained that he apparently saw the person at the scene where Strain's body was found. He and also a group of others followed the anonymous man. He told the outlet, "We have not been notified. Actually one of the people of interest, a little bit after an hour Riley was found, I was back at that scene and just happened to see that person. We had a group of volunteers that followed the gentleman — we called the police and let them know we had found him. We hadn't been notified they had been talked to yet. And was told by the police that was no longer a person of interest."
Dingman continued, "They had someone else they were interested in. We know from the homeless people that live there that was the person that was supposedly on the road when Riley fell into the bushes or whatever happened and he yelled back down this was just someone who had been drinking. It was okay."
Riley Strain's Family Friend Expresses Frustration
In his own interview, the homeless man also recounted something similar. He said he "heard a commotion." "We looked back up. He almost fell over the edge right there. The last bush right there caught him," the man told Fox17. "He was very, very intoxicated ... I've never seen anybody stumble that hard before."
The man continued, "I yelled up. They said, 'He's just drunk. He's okay."
While the anonymous person appears not to be a suspect or person of interest to police, Dingman couldn't help but feel a little bit frustrated.
"Once again a little more confusion. I hope the ball hasn't been dropped on this. There's numerous people in the videos at the detention center that coincide with the police officer's body cam and a time stamp where they show up on footage still walking North," Dingman said. "I think there's somebody out there who knows what actually happened that night."
