The reddit thread was very good. I was not aware that Joey was out celebrating his cousin's husband, who himself just came out as gay! That introduces a few different possibilities for motive. Perhaps Joey was involved with the husband, causing the cousin to feel the need to retaliate. Perhaps she spiked his drink, but that doesn't explain how he got into the river, so I am discounting this theory. However, I did notice the article mention that Joey's cousin left the bar because she was not feeling well anymore. There are no more details, but I would be curious to know if she drank from Joey's drink at all. It would make sense, if Joey was given a spiked drink, there is a possibility she drank a small amount of it, leading to her illness. The comments on the article also bring up the possibility that Joey's ex-roomate and former best friend, Justin Mertz could be a good suspect. He was the bar tender that night, he admitted that the two had a bit of a falling out recently, and Joey parked at his place, since he still had a parking permit from when they both lived together. In this scenario, perhaps Joey, who was gay, told Justin, his childhood friend and roommate, he had feelings for him, thus leading to the fallout. The night Joey died, perhaps Justin over served him, knowing Joey was parked at his place. They could have met up later that night, and Justin could have offered Joey a place to stay since he was drunk. It is anyone's guess what could have happened after that.
I remember many years ago, two friends went on the Jenny Jones show, one was straight, while the other was gay. The gay guy told the straight guy he had a crush on him on national TV! This upset the straight guy so much, he murdered his gay friend a few days later. Perhaps something similar happened here, i.e., Joey told Justin his feelings, or Justin did something sexual with Joey and later regretted it and wanted to silence Joey.
The key to me is the fact that Joey's body was found without his wallet, phone or keys. If Joey simply fell into the water after a night of drinking too much, you would expect his pants to have at least one of the items still in his pocket. The fact they all are missing, cries out for an explanation. This leads to believe there was foul play here.
Either the former roommate had a really good alibi, or was not seriously considered by investigators. However, I think he deserves a close look. If not him, then I will fall back on my original idea that Joey met up with someone nefarious that night, and he was killed, or died while in the company of said person. The person purposely took the wallet phone and keys, to hide any evidence, before throwing the body into the river. I think the phone would be of real concern to the killer because it was most likely behind a password wall, and if they met on Grindr, or another adult meeting app, their chats would still be there, so that would definitely have to go!
Really sad case, I feel like there is no urge to solve it and that is unfair to the families.