Vicar Bob Rainis of Epiphany Lutheran Church, a former NYPD homicide detective, looked at the swollen face and battered body of Billy Murphy just hours before he died in mid-August and became convinced Murphy was the victim of a savage attack.

But a month after his death, police are now treating Murphy’s death as an accident, the result of a fall.

“I think he went down, but the other wounds indicate it must be the result of a violent altercation,” Rainis said.

Murphy, a small man with a serious drinking problem and bad legs, was prone to falling and friends say he could be combative, especially when drunk. Like Rainis, most of Murphy’s friends and others who knew him believed Murphy was badly beaten, either before or after falling. Other local homeless people said they were being targeted by local youth who enjoyed tormenting them.

But Deputy Inspector John D’Adamo of the 52nd Precinct said the precinct’s detectives had gathered no evidence that pointed to Murphy being the victim of a beating prior to his death. He said detectives spoke with at least one witness who told them they had seen Murphy on the night before he went into a coma and that it looked like he had suffered a head wound. When the witness asked him what happened, Murphy replied, “I fell,” according to D’Adamo.

Rainis said he had heard a similar story, but that something must have happened to Murphy between that point and when somebody called 911 to say they had found Murphy unconscious.”There’s a 20- to 25-minute period where nobody can attest to what happened to him,” Rainis said.

The investigation was still ongoing, D’Adamo said, as the Medical Examiner’s Office was still in the process of completing its analysis. He added that his detectives were all ears if somebody wanted to come forward with new evidence or information. The Medical Examiner’s Office did not return phone calls by press time.

Muphy’s death was the latest in a string of what appear to be violent incidents involving the local homeless population. In February of 2009, Sangh Shingeia died after being found at the 205th Street D-Train with severe wounds that doctors suspected might have been result of an attack. But police ruled the death an accident, saying he fell down the stairs.

D’Adamo said he wasn’t aware of any trends that would suggest people were targeting the local homeless population.