Former One Direction singer, Liam Payne may have been unconscious when he fell to his death from a hotel balcony after suffering a drug-induced episode.
Liam Payne may have been ‘semi-conscious or completely unconscious’ when he fatally fell from a third-floor hotel balcony, Argentina’s prosecutor’s office has said.
The 31-year-old British singer plunged 45ft from the third floor into the courtyard of the Casa Sur Hotel in Argentina’s capital on Wednesday, October 16, before medics confirmed his death.
Detectives confirmed that a series of substances were seized from the hotel room ‘indicating the previous situation of alcohol and drug consumption’.
It contradicts police reports that the 31-year-old had ‘jumped’ from the third-floor hotel balcony.
Prior to Payne’s death, hotel staff franticly called 911 regarding ‘an aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol’ who was ‘smashing up his room’.
Hotel guests claimed to hear ‘violent noises’, and assumed there was construction work was ongoing in the room, according to the BBC.
Photos have also emerged from inside his luxury suite, appearing to show a trashed television, surfaces covered with tin foil and white powder as well as scorch marks on the wooden surface.
A preliminary report into the popstar’s death said ‘everything indicates’ Payne was alone when he died.
According to local news outlets, Payne was taken to the Judicial Morgue where medical staff conducted an autopsy last night.
After conducting a preliminary report, they suspect that Payne died from external and internal bleeding after sustaining several injuries.
Authorities have requested further tests including toxicological, biochemical, and histopathological examinations.
The prosecutor’s office said forensic reports showed no injuries were observed that suggest third-party involvement and that the autopsy is compatible with a fall from height.
However, officials are still launching a probe into the ‘possible involvement of third parties’ in the events before his passing.
It comes as police investigating the sudden death of One Direction star Liam Payne are searching for two ‘key witnesses’ who could be among the last people to see him alive.
The 31-year-old singer died instantly after suffering multiple injuries that led to ‘internal and external haemorrhaging’, when he fell from a third-floor balcony at a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday.
Argentine investigators are now hunting for two women who spent time with Payne at the Casa Sur hotel the night before his shock death.
Both women are said to have left the hotel yesterday after waiting for the star in the lobby, Argentine outlet Infobae reports.
There is no indication that the women could be involved in his death, but police hope they can help piece together Payne’s final moments before he plunged to his death at around 5pm local time.
Payne’s girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, had returned to Florida four days prior to his death, telling her followers ‘I just needed to go home’ after their planned ‘five-day trip’ was extended to two weeks.
As more details emerge from the hours before Payne’s death, one hotel guest staying in the same hotel as Payne recalled hearing ‘violent noises’.
Doug Jones told the BBC: ‘I thought they were working on the room. There was a lot of noise, like heavy lifting, like banging, a lot of loud, violent noises, I thought.
‘And I saw hotel people going in and out of that room, so I thought they were doing work on the room.
‘So about 4pm, 430pm, I started hearing some more noise, I was still doing work, and I heard a really loud, violent scream around 4.45pm, 5pm.’ He then realised something was wrong when he saw ‘the whole road was full of cops’.
Police were called to the hotel at around 5pm following reports of ‘an aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol’, but when they arrived they heard a loud sound in the inner courtyard. Payne died instantly from multiple injuries, including a fractured skull.
Detectives have reportedly seized a bottle of whiskey, a lighter, a phone and a notebook from the singer’s suite, local media reports.
It comes after Argentine media, including major broadsheets, published troubling images believed to be taken from Payne’s suite which shows white powder, burnt foil and a smashed-up TV screen.
Payne was found dead by police who say they found the popstar’s medicines including clonazepam, a drug which is used to control epilepsy, involuntary muscle spasms, and panic disorders.
There was a frantic call to 911 from hotel staff about ‘an aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol’ who was ‘smashing up his room’ minutes before he died.
These photos inside the luxury suite, published by the Argentinian magazine Clarin, appeared to confirm the troubling report about Payne’s mental state.
On a table, the surface was covered with tin foil, white powder, a lighter and scorch marks on the wooden surface.
More candle and aluminium foil remains were found in the bathtub of Payne’s suite, the bottom of which was stained and had some burns.
In a tape of the 911 call from the hotel manager to the police, he could be heard saying: ‘I’m calling from the Casa Sur hotel in Palermo, we have a guest who is over the top with drugs and is breaking up the entire room.
‘We need someone to come.’
The call then cuts off and on a second call, the manager adds ‘When he is conscious he is breaking up the room.
‘We need you to send someone, please’
The emergency operator then asks the manager: ‘Under the influence of alcohol and narcotics?’
The manager’s response made his fears all too plain: ‘We need someone to be sent to us urgently because I don’t know if the guest’s life is at risk.
‘The room has a balcony and we are afraid that they might do something’
Seconds later, it appeared it was too late to prevent the tragedy as the manager said with emotion in his voice: ‘Send only SAME, only SAME. [the city’s emergency paramedic service].
Payne rose to stardom at age 16 after forming the boy band One Direction on The X Factor in 2010 alongside Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan, and Harry Styles.
Madukwe B. Nwabuisi is an accomplished journalist renown for his fearless reporting style and extensive expertise in the field. He is an investigative journalist, who has established himself as a kamikaze reporter.
