The circumstances of Liam Payne’s death become clearer

Aafter the astonishment, the questions. Argentine police have opened an investigation to understand what led Liam Payne to fall from the third floor of his hotel late in the afternoon of October 16.

According to initial reports, the 31-year-old singer was in an erratic state before his fatal fall. The receptionist at the Casa Sur hotel in Palermo called the police shortly before 5 p.m. to control “an aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs and alcohol”.ALSO READ Singer Liam Payne, ex-member of One Direction, dies after fatal fall

According to Telemundo, which obtained the recording of the emergency call, the hotel employee can be heard asking for “someone urgently” to handle a guest who had “abused drugs and alcohol.” He added: “I don’t know if he’s at risk, but the guest has a room with a balcony and we’re a little worried he’s doing something dangerous to himself. »

Open investigation

For his part, a client had, a few hours earlier, heard sounds of knocks and screams coming from the artist’s room. “I thought they were doing some work, there were so many slammed doors and loud noises throughout the day. Afterwards, I heard the sirens and I thought maybe there was a fire somewhere. Then I heard a scream,” Doug Jones told the BBC.

On arriving at the scene, officers discovered Liam Payne’s body lying on a terrace at the rear of the hotel. Five people were questioned, three hotel employees and two women who were in the singer’s room earlier in the day – they had left before he fell from the balcony. “The objective is to determine the possible involvement of a third person in the events prior to the victim’s death,” the prosecutor’s office said.

ALSO READ Death of Liam Payne: from Liam Gallagher to Paris Hilton, tributes from the starsThe autopsy revealed a total of 25 injuries, internal and external multiple trauma causing hemorrhages. Injuries “to the brain, skull, torso, abdomen and limbs contributed to his death.” They are “compatible with the types of injuries from a fall from this height”, or approximately 14 meters.

If the cause of death is “undetermined” until the investigation is closed, the young man seems to have fallen at a time when he was alone in his room. “All the injuries noted on the body were vital and occurred at the same time,” said the local prosecutor’s office, which ruled out the intervention of a third person in this tragedy.

Toxicological analyzes in progress

The position in which the body was found indicates that the young man had “no defensive reflex to protect himself”, which suggests that he could have been “in a semi-conscious or totally unconscious state” at the time. moment of the fall. The Buenos Aires Security Ministry said Liam Payne “jumped from his bedroom balcony,” which has not been confirmed.

It now remains to be determined the state in which the singer and composer was just before his death. Toxicological analyzes are underway, while the police have seized the contents of the singer’s room. “Several substances were seized” as well as the artist’s laptop and phone, the prosecutor’s office added in its press release. Their analysis “should determine whether there has been prior drug and alcohol use.”

Local media also published photos of a messy room which they claimed was Liam Payne’s hotel room. Several broken items are seen, including a television, alcohol bottles, aluminum foil, candles and half-full champagne glasses. The singer had already spoken about his addiction problems. In July 2023, he announced that he had followed a 100-day cure to find his way back to sobriety.

The analyzes should take several days before being known. Liam Payne’s family must also travel to Argentina to officially identify the young man’s body so that it can be returned to them.