What happened to Alexandria Chmiel, the 33-year-old New Jersey woman who went missing in downtown Nashville just like Riley Strain?

With alarming similarities to Riley Strain’s March 2024 disappearance in downtown Nashville, 33-year-old Alexandria Chmiel was reported missing in Nashville near downtown and the Cumberland River.

This time, though, the story has a happy ending — Chmiel was found alive. Despite this uplifting turn of events, the question remains: was she drugged?

Two weeks after Strain vanished, his body was recovered from the Cumberland and his death was ruled accidental, with three times the legal alcohol limit and THC in his system. During the search, however, many speculated that Strain might have been drugged given that he got lost and drowned. Meanwhile, anecdotal accounts have shared online that date rape drug issues are common in Nashville.

Like Strain, who was captured on surveillance footage seemingly severely intoxicated before he disappeared, Chmiel was seen on camera in the same part of Nashville where Strain was. Also like Strain, Chmiel was out drinking that night, in late July 2024, when she was separated from her friends at around 2am. Her friends reported Chmiel missing less than two hours later.

Where was Chmiel found?

The next day, Alexandria “Allie” Chmiel climbed up the banks of the Cumberland River near where the police had staged their search. Reportedly, her clothes were ripped and dirtied and she had cuts on her body. Nashville news outlet WSMV says she told the police she didn’t know how she ended up near the river.

Police found Chmiel’s shoes and drops of blood earlier that morning. She had been captured on surveillance footage carrying her shoes where Strain was last seen. At some point the night before, Chmiel reportedly called her mother, seemingly in distress, and her phone pinged in the area where Chmiel was found.

“She did not sustain any serious injury and was taken to the hospital for evaluation,” a Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) spokesman told People. But MNPD had no further information about her status. There were no signs of foul play, according to the MNPD.

Was Alexandria Chmiel drugged?

Further details may be revealed as Chmiel recovers from her ordeal, but according to Nashville police, there is no evidence to suggest that she was drugged or over-served at a downtown bar. At this point, why Chmiel vanished and ended up where she was found remains a mystery. Referring to her friend, Kristin Dynarski told WSMV, “I’m going to start crying because it’s not like her to have legit anything like this to happen. She’s really smart. And she has a good head on her shoulders and everything.”

After Strain’s death, Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell told the press the city would work to make Nashville’s Cumberland riverfront safer. “I would say we share the goal with the Convention and Visitors Corporation of constantly investing in the safety of the city, particularly the entertainment district because we want not just residents to be safe in their neighborhoods, whether or not they ever go to a honky tonk, but we also want visitors of the city to be safe,” O’Connell said.