NewsNation

Volunteers: No progress Wednesday in hunt for Riley Strain

(NewsNation) —  There was lots of effort, but no progress to report from two volunteer groups that have been searching for missing student Riley Strain. Both were back on the Cumberland River on Wednesday.

“This river is very, very convoluted,” said United Cajun Navy National Director of Operations David Flagg. “There’s literally probably hundreds of places that a body, a drowned person, could be hung up.”


Also back on the job was Brandy Baenen, a TikTok producer who found Strain’s bank card along the riverbank Sunday.

“We went back to the spot where we found the card,” Baenen told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.” “We just cannot find anything else there.”

Inspired by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Cajun Navy is a group of volunteers who conduct rescues, searches and relief, especially after catastrophic weather events. Members traveled from the New Orleans area to Nashville to help search for Strain.

The group plans to augment its efforts Wednesday with drones and cadaver dogs.

Baenen says she lives near Nashville, and was inspired to join the hunt over the weekend.

“And I haven’t been able to stop. Anything I can do, I’m not going to stop doing until they (the family) have all the answers that they need.”