"We all came out here to see what had happened to the truck, somebody said the law was coming, Robert jumped in the lake," said Daniel Miller, a friend of Tolson.
Miller said his friend had been drinking, and in a fight Monday afternoon. In retaliation the other party busted the windows out of Tolson's truck.
Miller said he wasn't prepared for what he heard next.
"We heard gun shots. We ain't seen Robert until yesterday when the kids came in the house," remembered Miller. He said children at the house found Tolson's body washed up on the lake's shore Wednesday.
Miller says he heard shots fired just before Tolson jumped into the pay lake.
He believes his friend was shot.
"He didn't deserve what happened to him. I don't care what they say, that boy could swim like a fish. And if he wasn't shot, somebody held him under that water," Miller said.
The grandmother of Tolson's 6-year-old boy, is also suspicious.
"We need to find out what happened to Robert, if he drowned or if somebody killed him. And they need to do something with them people, and I'll be the first one to say it. My grand baby has to live with this the rest of his life. It's not right, no it's not right," said Nannie Campbell.
She said a note was left in her home the day Tolson disappeared, addressed to her from Tolson. It said he had been shot in the arm, but that he was ok and would contact her later.
Friends of Tolson said he had been out to the pay lake many times before to go swimming.