New details have emerged that paint a worrying image of what could have transpired in Liam Payne‘s final moments. The details reveal that a guest who also stayed at CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, claimed to have heard a commotion coming from his room in the minutes leading up to his death.
The former One Direction singer plunged to his death from a third-floor balcony on Oct. 16. Prior to the tragedy, the hotel manager had made a 911 call about a guest trashing the room. He also expressed concern over the guest doing something potentially life-threatening as he was “in a room with a balcony.”
As the investigation into Payne’s demise continues, which prosecutors rule for now as a “suspicious death,” a witness has come forward with details that add credence to the manager’s emergency call. One of the guests at CasaSur Palermo claimed to have heard “a lot of noise” that sounded like “heaving lifting” or “banging.”
I thought it was construction. I thought they were working on the room.”
The guest saw hotel staff allegedly “going in and out” of the artist’s room, where more noise came at around 4:30 p.m. The witness recalled shortly after the noise came back up, “I heard a really loud, violent scream.”
The hotel guest then “heard sirens” but thought nothing of it until he “came down the elevator” and saw the “whole street was full of cop cars.” The police were called to the scene after 5:00 p.m. and Payne was reported to have died shortly afterward due to multiple injuries.
Pablo Policicchio, communications director for the Buenos Aires Security Ministry, said police received a call about an “aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.” He claimed the singer “had jumped from the balcony of his room.” A hotel staff likewise suggested that Payne behaved strangely and violently and that “he killed himself.”
According to reports, Buenos Aires police found the 31-year-old’s hotel room “in total disorder” with “various items broken.” Photos allegedly taken from his room show a smashed TV screen and what appears to be extensive drug paraphernalia. Officers allegedly also found the prescription medicine clonazepam (brand name: Klonopin) and other over-the-counter drugs scattered around, as well as energy supplements.
Authorities also inspected the balcony “to determine access points” and that they collected his passport, fingerprints, and a notebook. The singer’s body was recovered from the hotel’s internal courtyard where officers collected a lighter, a cellphone, and a whiskey bottle.
Meanwhile, city ambulance service provider spokesman Alberto Crescenti said the “Strip That Down” hitmaker fell from a height of 40 meters and suffered “severe injuries which were incompatible with life.”
The alarm was raised at 5.04pm local time saying a person was lying in an internal patio at Casa Sur at 5.11 p.m. An ambulance arrived and the man was certified dead. Afterwards we found out he had been a famous singer. Unfortunately, the injuries he had suffered as a result of the fall proved to be fatal. There was no possibility of resuscitating him.
Initial results of the autopsy revealed Payne died from multiple injuries including brain injury and both internal and external hemorrhages. The exact nature of his fall is still under investigation. But the prosecutors’ office said evidence collected “indicates that the musician was alone when the fall occurred, and was going through some kind of episode due to substance abuse.”
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Published: Oct 18, 2024 03:36 am