Police said the case seemed to have the hallmarks of murder: Teresa Howell, a $300-an-hour escort who worked under the name “Summer Breeze,” was found with a severe head injury in July inside her Georgetown rowhouse.

But even as investigators searched her computer for clues about clients and escort activities, and pored over items in her apartment, they began leaning toward another explanation for the death: Howell, 42, probably fractured her skull in a fall, they said. Years of alcohol abuse might have contributed to the fall and weakened her condition, police said.

Although the D.C. medical examiner’s office has not issued an official ruling, authorities recently told Howell’s mother that the death will be declared an accident, she said.

Friends and family members said that Howell came to Washington about three years ago after working as a stripper and an escort in Florida. She joined a scene here where escorts advertise on the Internet and in newspaper classified ads, offering what they describe as companionship by the hour.

In most instances, the unspoken offer is sex, police said. In telephone interviews, Washington area escorts said this is known as a good place to work, with plenty of businessmen, tourists and conventioneers. Escorts here said their clients frequently call for services during the daytime, on their lunch hour.

“We’re not in it for drugs,” said a 40-year-old friend of Howell’s who is in the escort business and who differentiates herself from the women who work on the streets. She spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying she did not want to draw police attention. “I mean, I’m in it to keep my Nordstrom’s card,” she said.

Teresa Howell grew up in south Florida, said her mother, Heidi Howell. She attended Catholic school and studied marketing and finance at two universities. Heidi Howell said that the two remained close, but that her daughter never talked about her work as an escort.

“What she did for a living, she tried to keep that a secret from us,” said Heidi Howell, who lives in Palm Beach County, Fla.

When she first came to Washington, Howell generated much interest. On Internet rating sites devoted to escorts, clients rank the women as some people do movies or cars. Howell often scored a 7 or 8 out of 10. The money apparently was good — Howell rented her two-story rowhouse in the 1200 block of 29th Street NW, near the M Street commercial strip, for $3,000 a month, and she had collections of fur coats and jewelry.

Friends here remembered Howell as funny and friendly, saying she collected canned food for the poor before each Thanksgiving and invited other escorts and clients to her residence on holidays if they had no families to visit.

But during her time in Washington, friends and her mother said that Howell became very thin and increasingly was beset by liver problems, which friends attributed to years of drinking. One friend said that drinking is sometimes a part of escort work because clients insist on it, as part of the ritual of a “date,” or at parties where escorts and clients mingle. Others said the nature of the work drives some escorts to use alcohol as an escape.

By late last year, Howell’s health problems were reflected in her Internet ratings: She was getting some 2’s, 3’s and 4’s, computer records showed. One client complained: “I would describe her as scrawny and withered, mostly skin and bones.”

While she was in Georgetown, Howell apparently never caught the attention of police, and neighbors said they were unaware of her activities — until this summer. On the afternoon of July 8, she was discovered by her boyfriend, unconscious but still alive. Police and Heidi Howell said evidence of blood or vomit was found upstairs as well as downstairs, where Howell was found lying nude on the couch. She died the next day.

Police interviewed the boyfriend but ruled him out as a suspect. Although no final cause of death has been issued, Heidi Howell said a deputy medical examiner called her recently to say that her daughter “probably fell down the stairs” and that she had been drinking.

Just after Howell’s death, when it was believed she had been beaten, other escorts said they had become more cautious about their clients. But as word has filtered out that Howell’s death appears to have been an accident, perhaps related to alcohol, escorts said they have taken it as another kind of warning about their high-paying, secretive trade.

“In this business, there are a lot of girls that turn to drugs or alcohol because they can’t deal with what they’re doing,” said another of Howell’s friends, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “It will literally eat you up alive.”