I agree.
For me, that stone wall in that location being as low and wide as it is, leads to several scenarios in my mind such as:
- He sat on the wall or laid down on it to rest, perhaps passed out immediately and rolled off the edge toward the water
- he thought he’d just quickly climb over it to wash his shirt, not realizing in his state of mind that the water was not right there, but rather, a steep drop down (remember the water level was several feet higher that evening)
- he felt sick and leaned over the wall and lost his footing
Maybe the commotion they heard, if true, was him falling into some bushes on the hillside at first, and while it’s been pondered that he would have gotten snagged on trees or bushes, and couldn’t have landed in the water, I’ve seen enough videos that show there are some bare areas in that location with not much to stop someone. Or the commotion was him getting caught up in the underbrush and in his attempt to right himself, because of the extreme slope, he wound up falling down further into the water.
It would have been dark on the hill, so anyone sleeping there wouldn’t have been able to really see what was transpiring, I imagine?