The woman was normally locked in her room...obviously for alzheimers or the like. Someone forgot to lock the door and lo and behold..she committed rain barrel suicide.
Clue: She was very wealthy.
Grandpa had one. I'd say it's really pretty hard to fall into a rainbarrel.
It's not hard to fall in. It's hard for an adult to fall in in such a way that he can't get out.
Most of y'all have probably seen the warnings on the side of plastic barrels, to keep small children away from them. Small children are top-heavy -- the mass of their heads relative to their bodies is much larger than that of adults. So when they tip forward, they have a difficult time tipping back.
If an adult falls headfirst into a 55-gallon barrel 1/3 full, that's about 18 gallons. 18 gallons of water weights a lot. Many adults lack the upper body strength to lift the barrel, or to push themselves up from it. But most adults have enough height and mass to throw their bodies to one side or another and dump the barrel out.
And, as my mechanic says, there's your problem. An odd combination of factors.A rain barrel indoors is odd enough, but one tied off to keep it from tipping over, that's just odd.