Liam Payne’s death has been under investigation after the star fell from a third-floor balcony at his hotel in Argentina last month.
The former One Direction singer was 31 years old when he fell to his death at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on October 16. His heartbroken father, Geoff, flew to the capital city and remained there until Liam’s body was cleared to be flown back to the UK on Wednesday.
In one of only two official statements since Liam’s death, investigators linked the tragedy to a substance-induced ‘psychotic episode’ they said they believed he suffered, saying there didn’t appear to be any ‘third-party’ involvement in his balcony plunge. The initial toxicology report found traces of designer drug pink cocaine in his system.
On November 7, a press release from the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office said that the singer’s toxicological results were shared with his family and showed that he had traces of “alcohol, cocaine and prescription antidepressants” in his system. The release said: “This conclusion was reached after the complete toxicology tests on urine, blood and vitreous humor.”
Three charged in connection to his death
Argentinian prosecutors probing his death confirmed the arrests of three suspects (
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GC Images)
According to the statement, officials ruled out suicide as “in the state he was in, he did not know what he was doing and could not understand it.” Not only did they rule out suicide, but the lengthy investigation saw officials arrest three people and charge them with the “crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death, supply and facilitation of narcotics.”
Argentinian prosecutors probing his death confirmed the arrests of three suspects who are now under formal investigation. They said the crimes were punishable by a prison sentence of up to 15 years on conviction. They also confirmed one of the suspects included a hotel worker.
“The first of the accused is the person who accompanied the artist on a daily basis during his stay in the city of Buenos Aires, who 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 statement said.
“The second defendant is an employee of the hotel who is charged with two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the period he was at the hotel, and the third, also a supplier of narcotics, is charged with two other clearly proven supplies at two different times on 14 October. Both were charged with the offence of supplying narcotics, two acts each (art. 5 inc. e) of Law 23.737).
“The report details the investigation carried out by the prosecutor’s office to reconstruct the days during which Payne was staying at the hotel ‘Casa Sur’ at 6092 Costa Rica Street in the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, between 13 and 16 October last.”
Analysis of CCTV, Liam’s phone and hotel guests
Investigators searched through more than 800 hours of CCTV footage (
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AFP via Getty Images)
The Public Prosecutor’s Office received ‘several dozen statements’ from hotel staff, family, friends, and medical professionals to provide clarity in the circumstances surrounding his death. They searched through more than 800 hours of video footage from “various security cameras”.
The statement also said that staff from the prosecutor’s office and specialised analysts from the Superintendence of Special Investigations and the Technological Support Division of the City Police were “made available from the outset” by the Deputy Chief of the City Police, Jorge Guillermo Azzolina.
Investigators also examined the contents of Liam’s phone and analysed his calls, messages, chats on applications and social networks. It went on to say that the “registry of guests” and the hotel’s bar/restaurant orders were “also examined to find out who visited the musician and his drinking and eating habits”.
It continued: “Also, with the help of expert personnel from the Superintendence of the Fight against Cybercrime of the City Police, headed by Commissioner General Carlos Gabriel Rojas, several gigabytes of data were obtained and examined in a short period of time from the extraction of data from other mobile phones such as the one at the hotel reception and those of witnesses who volunteered to corroborate their statements.”
The investigation continues
Although investigators obtained visual, registry, medical, scientific, documentary, telephone, testimonial and much more evidence’, the investigation ‘must continue’ as they are still in the process of unlocking Liam’s personal broken notebook and other ‘seized devices’.
The statement continued: “According to the investigation led by Andrea Madrea and his team of prosecutors, which analysed testimonies, video footage, messaging, documents, invoices, social networks and communications, among other elements, at least four supplies of narcotics from third parties and other facilitations of addictive consumption were visibly, concretely and convincingly accredited by his direct environment, which were aimed at the former member of the group One Direction during his stay at the hotel, between 13 and 16 October last.”
Toxicology results
He had traces of a ‘poly-consumption of alcohol, cocaine and a prescribed anti-depressant’ in his system (
Image:
AFP via Getty Images)
The toxicology results, which were first shared with his family, revealed that in the ‘moments prior to his death’ and ‘during at least his last 72 hours’, he ‘only’ had traces of a ‘poly-consumption of alcohol, cocaine and a prescribed anti-depressant’ in his system. They reached the conclusion after ‘full toxicological tests on urine, blood and vitreous humour, which were carried out in a very short time.’
The official release explained: “The morticians of the Forensic Medical Corps (CMF) who carried out the autopsy were the director of the Judicial Morgue, Santiago Maffia Bizzozero, and the forensic doctor Roberto Víctor Cohen, who concluded that Payne’s death was caused by ‘polytraumatisms’ and ‘internal and external haemorrhage’, as a result of the fall the musician suffered from the balcony of the third floor room of the hotel in the Palermo neighbourhood where he was staying.
“In three additional reports of medico-legal considerations, requested by the prosecutor Madrea, Maffia Bizzozero and Cohen ratified, among other points, that all the injuries that Payne presented were compatible with those produced by a fall from a height and that self-injury of any kind and/or the physical intervention of third parties were ruled out. They also stressed that the victim did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself in the fall, so that, for the moment, it can be inferred that he may have fallen in a state of semi- or total unconsciousness.”
Prosecutor Andrea Madrea requested an ‘additional forensic psychiatric report’ and took the testimony from the ‘expert who prepared it’. Other ‘medical antecedents’ of Liam’s medical history have not been analysed yet but they concluded that his ‘lack of defence’ or ‘conservation reflex’ in the fall from the balcony meant he wasn’t fully conscious or ‘was in a state of noticeable decrease or abolition of consciousness’ when he fell.
“For the prosecution, this situation would also rule out the possibility of a conscious or voluntary act on the part of the victim, since, in the state he was in, he did not know what he was doing and could not understand it,” they said.
