[Hot Tabasco]

Those life jackets are only designed to keep one’s head above water. C A could very well have occured, making her unconscious at which point she would not have been able to hold her head back and keep the water from entering her mouth......

[Ha Ha Thats Very Logical]

That's what I was wondering--if it was possible that she had some of the signs of drowning, which led to the initial finding, but further investigation put the cause elsewhere. But apparently even drowning isn't that cut and dried--according to this site, "many forensic experts may not be able determine if a victim was dead or alive when he entered the water...The fluid that fills lungs postmortem often cannot be distinguished from fluid in the lungs caused by a submerged corpse."

And Wikipedia says, "In most persons, the laryngospasm relaxes some time after unconsciousness and water can enter the lungs causing a "wet drowning". However, about 7–10% of people maintain this seal until cardiac arrest. This was called "dry drowning", as no water enters the lungs. In forensic pathology, water in the lungs indicates that the person was still alive at the point of submersion. Absence of water in the lungs may be either a dry drowning or indicates a death before submersion."

Given all that uncertainty, I don't think the writer of the original article has enough information to draw the conclusions she does.

[PA Engineer]

C A could very well have occured, making her unconscious at which point she would not have been able to hold her head back and keep the water from entering her mouth......

and also stop her from breathing. Think about it.