"He had sent me a text and said he was drinking a rum and coke and it didn't taste good," she told NewsNation during an interview April 16. "And I said, 'Well, you probably shouldn't drink it then.' And he goes, 'It tastes like barbecue' and I go, 'Well, that sounds awful' and he said, 'It sounds good, but it's not.'"
For Michelle, the texts could give insight into Riley's final hours, explaining, "Maybe there was something in it that shouldn't have been."
These messages are just the latest update in the case of Riley's March 8 disappearance during a night out with friends in downtown Nashville.
After reports surfaced that a witness had come forward as the last person to speak with the University of Missouri student that night, a spokesperson for the Nashville Police Department told E! News April 12 that the unnamed person recanted their statement after alleging that they had not seen him, but someone else.
"The case remains open and unclassified, pending the report from the medical examiner's office," the spokesperson continued, "which is awaiting toxicology reports. Until now, there is no tangible reason to believe there was any foul play involved."
The Nashville Police Department's clarification on the status of a possible witness comes after Chris Dingman—a friend who has served as a spokesperson for Riley's family amid the tragic ordeal—shared the news that an unidentified witness had come forward to give a statement to detectives.
"That was huge," he told NewsNation April 10. "That was something we were looking for. He told the detective his account of the story of what happened to Riley."
Keep reading for more details about the Riley Strain investigation.
Riley Strain's Final Hours
Riley Is Escorted Out of Luke Bryan's Bar
The Investigation Begins
The First Trace of Riley Strain
The Search Hits the Water
Riley Strain's Body Is Found
Two Autopsies
Saying Goodbye to Riley Strain
For the latest breaking news updates, click here to download the E! News App
President Biden long tried to avoid presidential releases touting stock highs. Then came a series of new market landmarks and the opportunity to bait Trump in an election year.
A new self-driving truck — manufactured by Volvo and loaded with autonomous vehicle tech developed by Aurora Innovation — could be on public highways as early as this summer. The Volvo VNL Autonomous truck, which was revealed Monday evening at the ACT Expo in Las Vegas, is the product of a partnership between Aurora and Volvo Autonomous Solutions. Aurora plans to start hauling freight using these Volvo self-driving trucks in the next several months.
OpenAI is removing one of the voices used by ChatGPT. Users found that it sounded similar to Scarlett Johansson, the company announced on Monday, and Johansson herself released a statement saying she hired legal council to inquire about the Sky voice and get exact details about how it was developed. "We believe that AI voices should not deliberately mimic a celebrity's distinctive voice—Sky’s voice is not an imitation of Scarlett Johansson but belongs to a different professional actress using her own natural speaking voice," the company wrote in a blog post.
Actor Scarlett Johansson has accused OpenAI of copying her voice for one of the voice assisstants in ChatGPT despite denying the company permission to do so.
While many climate investors focus their efforts on breakthrough, deep-tech solutions, Patrick Sheehan at ETF Partners has other ideas. “I’ve actually got nothing against carbon capture and storage, apart from the fact it’s probably going to be commercialized too late,” he told TechCrunch. Instead, Sheehan and his colleagues are diving into more software-centric companies that promise to still move the needle.
A gaggle of PC makers rolled out their first Copilot+ PCs on Monday, but they all run on Qualcomm silicon. Intel said today its first chips to support Copilot+ AI features, will arrive in the fall.
For those who haven't heard, the first crewed launch of Boeing's Starliner capsule has been pushed back yet again to no earlier than May 25. From NASA: "The additional time allows teams to further assess a small helium leak in the Boeing Starliner spacecraft’s service module traced to a flange on a single reaction control system thruster." Scheduling note: TechCrunch Space will be off on May 27 in observance of Memorial Day.
Dan Wetzel, Ross Dellenger and SI's Pat Forde react to Dabo Swinney's recent remarks about not using the transfer portal, why noon kickoffs are the worst, why small conferences are pushing back on the House settlement, and Dan's issues with a New York Times article on landscaping
When putting a video portal in a public park in the middle of New York City, some inappropriate behavior will likely occur. The Portal, the vision of Lithuanian artist and entrepreneur Benediktas Gylys, was designed to bring people together and let them share common experiences. After it opened earlier this month, the vast majority of people who went to the portal on both sides of the Atlantic waved to each other, brought their kids and pets and did friendly human things.
ASUS isn’t sitting out the rush of AI-enhanced Copilot+ PCs. The company’s Vivobook S 15 has Windows AI features like memory assistant Recall, the image generator Cocreator, and several ASUS-exclusive AI apps.
The top vehicle safety regulator in the U.S. has launched a formal probe into an April crash involving the all-electric VinFast VF8 SUV that claimed the lives of a family of four, TechCrunch has learned. A spokesperson for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) told TechCrunch on Monday that its Special Crash Investigations division will "document the crash circumstances and the ensuing fire." The victims, who have been identified by the Alameda County Sheriff's Department as Tarun and Rincy George, and their two children, did not own the vehicle.
At its Build 2024 conference, Microsoft unveiled Rewind, a new feature that aims to make local Windows PC searches as quick and effective as web searches. Similar to third-party apps like Rewind, Microsoft’s Recall uses AI to retrieve virtually anything you’ve seen on your PC.