Teenager believed to have been murdered now thought to have died in River Severn after hearing cry for help

A university student who drowned in the River Severn in Worcester is believed to have died while trying to help someone who cried for help, an inquest has heard.

Thomas Jones’s body was found floating in the river on 28 September last year after going missing nine days earlier.

Two men were arrested on suspicion of murdering Jones but released without charge and the inquest in Stourport-on-Severn was told there was no suggestion of third-party involvement in his death.

The coroner, Geraint Williams, appeared to become upset as he looked at a photograph of the 18-year-old before reaching an open conclusion on Tuesday.

CCTV cameras in the area where Jones was last seen picked up a cry for help moments before he apparently slipped and fell down an embankment in Worcester at about 3.50am.

Pc Chris Buffery, of West Mercia police, said he could not be certain but it was likely the University of Worcester student had gone to help someone or had gone to the river to urinate.

The coroner said he was “exactly the sort of person who would have seen if he could have helped”.

Worcestershire coroner’s court heard Jones had an alcohol level in his system equivalent to a little over twice the drink-drive limit. A toxicology report also found a small trace of a substance in his body resembling cocaine, although a toxicologist said he was more than likely to have passively inhaled the drug.

Giving his verdict, the coroner told family members: “I have been doing this job for 30 years and it still gets to me. We do not have any sufficient evidence to say that this was an accident or indeed anything else.

“From what I said I think it is likely your boy heard someone calling for help and went to see if he could help. In your son’s case, with great regret, I reach an open conclusion.”

Addressing the alcohol and cocaine levels in Jones’s body, Williams said: “He somehow slipped and fell, and the amount of alcohol would have debilitated him to an extent. It is clear that the cocaine would not have played any part whatsoever. It seems likely to me that he was not someone who smoked cocaine.”

Speaking after the inquest, Jones’s father, Ian, said on behalf of himself and the student’s mother, Vicki: “The past few months have been unbearably difficult to come to terms with life without Tom.”