The world was left stunned last month following the sudden death of One Direction star Liam Payne.
The singer died on October 16 at the age of 31 after plunging from the third floor of an Argentinian hotel Casa Sur Palermo. Liam was said to have been acting erratically and had to be escorted back to his hotel room shortly before the fatal fall.
It was reported that the father-of-one was acting “erratically” in the hours before his death. At the time, hotel workers reported “an aggressive man who may have been under the effects of drugs and alcohol”. Liam was also seen “acting erratically in the hotel lobby and smashed his laptop” before he “had to be carried back to his room”.
Sadly, shortly after the call, workers said they heard a loud sound in the courtyard and Liam’s body was discovered shortly after 5pm local time. Audio related to the case from the Buenos Aires security ministry and obtained by Mail Online heard a call from a worker that was requesting help with an intoxicated guest. The worker said: “When he is conscious he is destroying the entire room and we need you to send someone.”
Emergency medical services director Alberto Crescenti spoke to local news outlet Clarin shortly after Liam’s death. He said: “We verified his identity using the passport he had,” before adding: “The team saw that he apparently had a fracture at the base of the skull.”
Buenos Aires police swiftly confirmed in a statement: “Liam James Payne, composer and guitarist, former member of the band One Direction, died today after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Palermo.” Liam had earlier explained on social media why he was in the country in the days before his death. He said: “We’re going to Argentina. One, because we have to, and two, because we want to, and three, because Niall Horan’s playing down there and I think we might just go and say ‘Hello’.
“It’s been a while since me and Niall have spoken. We’ve got a lot to talk about and I would like to square up a couple things with the boy. No bad vibes or nothing like that, but just, we need to talk.”
He had been in South America with his girlfriend, Kate Cassidy. Just hours before the fatality, the singer posted photos on social media. In them, Liam was seen sharing his food and told of his plans to play polo. He also filmed his girlfriend Kate as they ate breakfast together.
Liam said in the clip: “This is the breakfast table, just enjoying breakfast and coffee even though it’s 1pm.” He revealed they had been staying at their friend’s home as Kate joked in the background they are “losers” for laying in.
Following a toxicology report, which revealed the presence of a class-A drug in Liam’s system, a number of other dramatic claims about the star’s last hours were made, including that the much-loved dad-of-one was preyed on by drug dealers.
Just hours before he fell from his Buenos Aires Hotel balcony, Liam contacted two women through an Argentine website, which has raised questions about the personal struggles he was facing in the days leading up to his death. Gemidos is well-known in Argentina, a portal where hundreds of women across the country offer companionship with photos and detailed descriptions.
Upon arrival, both women were required to submit their identification at the front desk. Though they had never met each other before, Lucile and Aldana were escorted up to Liam’s 310 room. When the former One Direction star opened the door, he appeared calm, greeting them with a smile.
Inside the room, the atmosphere was reportedly relaxed. The singer offered the women alcohol – champagne for them and a bottle of scotch for himself. According to their testimonies to police, no drugs were consumed. The room was scattered with half-drunk glasses, evidence of the brief companionship the three shared.
In their statements, both women denied any involvement in Liam’s death, stating that they had spent a short amount of time with him, drank alcohol, and left when an issue of payment arose. Neither woman admitted to having had sex with him, skirting around the subject during questioning. Despite their evasiveness, Prosecutor Roma believes their accounts and does not consider them suspects.
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In the weeks after his death, three people are currently under investigation as local police forces attempt to get to the bottom of how Liam was in possession of illegal substances. However, it’s since been claimed that Liam had asked a hotel employee to secure “seven grams” of “cocaine” prior to his death.
It’s claimed that Class A drugs were smuggled to Liam’s hotel room, disguised in a Dove soap box. Hotel staff have since stated that only employees have access to the location where the soap supplies are held. One of those charged, is said to be Liam’s friend Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores, who was with Liam on a daily basis. According to a statement from the the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office, one of those charged is the individual who “accompanied the artist on a daily basis during his stay in the city of Buenos Aires”.
That person is “charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death – contemplated in article 106 of the Penal Code and which provides for a prison sentence of 5 to 15 years -, as perpetrator, in ideal concurrence with the supply and facilitation of narcotics (art. 5 inc. e) of Law 23.737 on Narcotics).”
The second person is a hotel employee, with them being charged with “two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the period he was at the hotel”. And the third person, who is also a supplier of narcotics, is “charged with two other clearly proven supplies at two different times on 14 October.”
A statement from the office of prosecutor Andres Esteban Madrea stated: “Liam Payne was not fully conscious or was experiencing a state of noticeable decrease or loss of consciousness at the time of the fall.” A hotel employee is also accused of supplying Liam with cocaine twice while he stayed at the hotel, the statement said. And third person is accused of supplying drugs to the singer twice during his stay on October 14.
The prosecutor’s office added it had heard a string of testimonies and analysed hundreds of hours of CCTV footage in connection with the investigation. And they said a “forensic extraction” had been carried out on Liam’s mobile phone, which involved trawls of his calls, messages and social media accounts.
Now, new details of the moments leading up to Liam’s death have emerged. According to reports, the singer was trying to escape his hotel room before his tragic death and was wearing a bag.
It has been claimed by witnesses and a filed police report that the hotel allegedly knew Liam was threatening to use the balcony as a means to flee but left him by himself. According to TMZ, sources have said Liam had a repeated aversion to being confined in hotel rooms, a reaction that traces back to his years in One Direction.
In a resurfaced interview from 2021, Liam described his fear of being locked in a hotel room. The singer said touring with his bandmates when he was just a teenager “really f****d him up.” He also said the worst part was getting “locked up” in hotel rooms for security reasons after performing.
Speaking on The Diary of a CEO podcast in 2021, three years before he passed away, Liam said: “My dad said it from day one – lonely hotel rooms, man – getting locked in that room is not fun when you’ve been exposed.” He also told podcast host Steven Barltett that he had a few “rock bottom moments” during his career, which he admitted he was “very good at hiding.”
The late singer said: “I was worried how far my rock bottom was going to be. Where is rock bottom for me? You would have never seen it. I’m very good at hiding it. No one would have ever seen it.” He added: “Rock bottom… I mean, I don’t even know if I’ve hit it yet… I can make that choice now and quick my last moment as my rock bottom or I can make a new one.”
