Ward suggested Wiley had simply made a wrong turn.

“There’s a lot of construction going on,” Ward said. “He was probably intending to go on I-40 East, but it’s easy to go on I-40 West if you’re not very familiar with the area. I’ve done it myself.”

Ward said Wiley was probably disoriented due to “a long day, with lots of fatigue and stress,” and because of drinking wine after the conference, although she said it is not possible to accurately determine blood alcohol content post-mortem.

In addition, she said, Wiley had a previously unreported “officially undiagnosed medical seizure condition” that he “kept within the family” and self-medicated. Such a condition could have increased the risk of a fall.

Members of Wiley’s family declined to comment last night.

—Staff writer Dan Rosenheck can be reached at rosenhec@fas.harvard.edu.