Missing person cases like Riley Strain, Sebastian Rogers leave family, friends in limbo

The massive police search for University of Missouri student Riley Strain following his mysterious disappearance two weeks ago after he was kicked out of Luke's 32 Bridge restaurant and bar downtown evokes similar missing-person cases in the Nashville area.

For family and friends of missing persons, the pain is compounded by the unknown.

Sebastian Rogers, 15, disappeared from his Hendersonville home on Feb. 26. The autistic teen's whereabouts remain a mystery.

Strain's family publicly sought United Cajun Navy support on Tuesday to bolster the search effort. "He's my best friend, my everything," his mother Michelle Strain Whiteid said.

What family, friends and entire communities are going through as police search for Rogers and Strain is where Wilson County found itself nearly 12 years ago after 60-year-old David Riemens went missing in Watertown.

“Trying to track where somebody has been without a lot of eyewitnesses is tough,” said retired Wilson County Sheriff Terry Ashe, who was sheriff when Riemens initially went missing. “I’ve had a lot of (reported) missing persons and most turned out positive. The one in Watertown did not."

Riemens was an artist, stone mason and Hobbit house builder whose eclectic lifestyle included years residing in a treehouse. He is described as a social and well-known community member who could regularly be seen in Watertown visiting stores, the library and the old Lulu’s Cafe.

Riemens was reported missing on Aug. 8, 2012. The investigation into his disappearance dragged from days to weeks, months and years. In January 2018, a human skull found off Taylor Road near Watertown led to more human remains that were found nearby.

The bones were identified as belonging to Riemens.

But the discovery did not answer why Riemens disappeared and how he died. The case remains open as a death investigation.

The uncertainty around Riemens' death evokes similar hopes and fears that friends and family of Rogers and Strain now face.

“It rips my heart in two every time someone wants to talk about his case,” said Laura Nuessle, a friend of Riemens. “Unless you have had something like this in your life, you don’t understand that the pain never heals.”

Rogers was reported missing on Feb. 26. He was last seen near Stafford Court in Hendersonville wearing a black sweatshirt, black sweatpants and glasses, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Officials have confirmed that the teen has autism.

Strain was last seen on March 8 on Gay Street after being removed from a downtown Nashville bar owned by country music artist Luke Bryan. Strain’s bank card was found on an embankment between Gay Street and the Cumberland River on March 17, police said.

But as Rogers' disappearance stretches into a month and Strain's nears two weeks, answers are elusive. Wilson County sheriff's Detective Major B.J. Stafford remembers the anxiety of the unknown from the Riemens investigation.

“The question of what happened? Where are they at? Are they in danger? Are they OK?” said Stafford, who has been involved in the Riemens case from the beginning. “The anxiety from family and friends that I experienced first-hand. The circumstances are very different other than the missing-person element, and I have the utmost confidence (in the police departments investigating the Sebastian Rogers and Strain cases)."

Like the Rogers and Strain cases, clues about Riemens' disappearance only add to the uncertainty.

Riemens often bought art supplies in Watertown from Sun Graphics, owned by Donna and Pat Jackson.

“He seemed perfectly happy, getting ready to go on a trip to see his family in Michigan, driving his little white truck,” recalled Donna Jackson about the last time she saw Riemens, one or two days prior to his disappearance.

Riemens’ remains were discovered in an area close to where his abandoned vehicle was found at a Dollar General store in Watertown, police have said.

The Wilson County Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate leads in the case. Tips have diminished after more than a decade, though there are spikes in tips when a television episode about Riemens' case is rerun on “No Stone Unturned.”

“They will all keep you up at night saying: ‘What happened?’ Ashe said. "Especially if it’s a child. When they go missing for a long time you just wonder what you might have missed, what stone was left unturned?”

Reach Andy Humbles at ahumbles@tennessean.com or 615-726-5939 and on X, formerly known as Twitter @ AndyHumbles.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Missing person cases: Family, friends of missing people left in limbo