Inside Liam Payne’s tragic death – CCTV footage, final texts and hotel probe

Liam Payne’s death is still being investigated by police and new details have emerged about his final hours.

The One Direction singer was just 31 when he died on October 16 after falling from the third-floor balcony of his hotel room at Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. it’s been revealed the X Factor star suffered “serious injuries that were incompatible with life”.

It was previously reported, via Argentinian police, that the father-of-one had “jumped from the balcony of his room”. However reports now suggest that Liam fainted on the balcony, which led to his fatal fall.

READ MORE: Liam Payne’s ‘erratic behaviour ramped up’ after girlfriend Kate Cassidy left Argentina

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Here is everything we know so far about Liam Payne’s shock death.

‘Fainting’ location and CCTV footage

While the tragic end of Liam’s life is known to have resulted from a fall from his hotel room balcony, authorities are delving into what led to the heartrending incident. Police haven’t suggested any foul play by a “third-party”.

New reports indicate that the singer might have taken an accidental fall after blacking out on the balcony, with the whole gut-wrenching moment caught on CCTV. Speaking to Socios del Espectaculo on Canal 13, broadcast journo Paula Varela claimed: “There is footage that is not being released to the media with the balcony scene where you see that Liam faints and tragically because of where he is, falls from that balcony. If he had been beside his bed he would have fallen on his bed.”

This distressing footage is said to be part of a wider collection of CCTV images currently under examination, and Varela, aged 45, suggests it shows Liam hadn’t intentionally leapt off the balcony.

Hotel probe

A night shift worker at Casa Sur Hotel, who had allegedly grown friendly with Liam, is reportedly being investigated after the singer’s death. Argentine broadcast journalist Paula Varela claimed the employee is being scrutinised by investigators trying to determine the source of substances believed to have played a role in his passing on October 16.

On the Argentine TV show Socios del Espectaculo, broadcast on Canal 13, she said: “There’s a lad who’s being investigated, he was working nights at the hotel. He struck up an excellent relationship with Liam. He disobeyed an order from the hotel management. What was the order he disobeyed? It was not to take anything into Liam’s room.”

She added “Because of the good relationship he had with Liam, he requested a car through one of these taxi apps we all use because Liam wanted something. He did him that favour, a massive error because he’s being investigated, and they’re seeing what was transferred in that vehicle.”

Nicole Scherzinger’s text messages

Liam was sending texts to Nicole Scherzinger on the day that he died. Back in 2010, Nicole Scherzinger was pivotal in creating the global sensation One Direction and stayed in contact with Liam Payne right up until his tragic passing.

Andrew Lloyd Webber, who worked closely with Nicole on the Broadway hit Sunset Blvd, has now shared that she and Liam were texting. Speaking to Billboard, he revealed: “I suppose something that hasn’t been said, and I suppose I could say, is that of course she mentored Liam, from One Direction.”

He went on to disclose: “On the Wednesday when he died, she was still texting him that day.” Despite the heartbreaking news, Nicole still performed as Norma Desmond in the Broadway show.

He gushed: “The fact that she even did the show at all is extraordinary. I mean, she is an amazing, amazing woman. She is without any question one of the finest performers I’ve ever worked with.”

Nicole has since paid tribute to Liam, posting a picture of them together with Kelly Rowland during their latest Netflix project. “Dear Liam, I will forever cherish and treasure the time we shared together, from fifteen years ago when One Direction was born, right up until just a few weeks ago,” she wrote.

“It was such a blessing to get to work with you recently. We shared the same love and passion for music and I will forever remember the meaningful and joyful conversations we had.”

‘Ex-girlfriend at the same hotel’

The hotel manager who called emergency services before Liam fell to his death has claimed the singer’s “ex-partner” was also staying there. Esteban Grassi told an Argentinian TV programme,: “He was seen alone but his ex-partner was around.”

When he was asked, “So she was staying at the hotel too?” on the El Trece show Telenoche, he replied “Yes” before adding: “A floor above, yes”. A small clip of the programme featuring part of the interview has been shown online and also mentioned in other Argentinian media outlets.

It was not clear who Mr Grassi was referring to in his claim. He is understood to have been among three hotel workers prosecutors revealed they had questioned. Liam, who is survived by his seven-year-old son Bear, had been holidaying in the South American country with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy.

The TikToker, 25, explained that their five-day trip was extended to a fortnight before she decided to fly home to Florida. “I was so ready to leave. Love South America, but I hate staying in one place for too long and we were supposed to be there for five days, turned into two weeks and I was just like, ‘I need to go home,'” she told her followers. It is then believed Liam checked into the deluxe Casa Sur Hotel suite alone, three days before he died, but according to new reports, his ex-girlfriend was allegedly also staying at the same hotel.

Mystery hotel women

In the hours before his death, Liam reportedly spent time with Aldana Serrano, 31, and Lucila Goitea, 27, at the Casa Sur Hotel. The group arrived at the hotel around 11.30am local time on Wednesday and headed to Liam’s suite at the hotel.

But they left five hours later at 4pm – just one hour before Liam fell from his balcony an landed in the inner courtyard of the hotel. During Liam’s final moments, he was said to be arguing with a mystery woman in the lobby of his hotel over money.

Prosecutors confirmed they had questioned five people, including two women who had been with Liam in the hours before his death for a “reconstruction of his last hours”, she added: “He was with two women in his room where there was access to drugs. I’m not going to say their surnames.

“[Woman A] gave a statement last night and [Woman B] has just finished hers.” The women are said to have left the hotel before Liam plunged to his death and have been categorised as “key witnesses” in local media reports, rather than suspects in his death. Now, sources reportedly say Serrano and Goitea are “devastated”. A pal told the Sunday Mirror: “They have been cooperative from the moment they found out Liam died. They have told police they did nothing wrong and left well before he fell. The two girls have vowed to continue help investigators and have said they will speak to police at any time.”

‘Out of place’ antics

A woman known only as Rebecca, claimed the singer was “desperate” to be noticed after allegedly chatting with him. She claimed he was yelling “I’m Liam”, to a bunch of guests lined up for the elevator.

She said Liam came back to the foyer with his laptop. Guessing he’d seen an email that “upset” him, Rebecca said: “Suddenly he took the computer, shouted ‘f**k this s**t mate! ‘ and started bashing the computer on the ground.”

His alleged “out of place” behaviour left the patrons of the hotel concerned, and Rebecca allegedly asked if he was alright. She said: “But he just kind of grunted. Then he said ‘I used to be in a boyband. That’s why I’m so f**ked up’.”

Stunned by his alleged confession, she watched him hop back into the lift, before a “British guy” made amends to the crowd on “his behalf”, explaining Liam “gets so high” at times. She added that he stumbled when he came back to the foyer, with the staff assisting him into the elevator.

Just hours before his death, he told his close friend, Jodie Richards – his former performing arts teacher – that he was having a “chilled-out morning” and showed “no cause for concern”. She spoke to the “one-of-a-kind” star on Wednesday and initially thought news reports of his death were “fake”.

The 41-year-old had been texting Liam hours earlier and said she then desperately tried to call and message him. She said: “He was looking forward to his day, he said he was having a chill, nothing seemed out of the ordinary”, Jodie explained.

“He’s always somewhere more glamorous than we are so LA, Argentina, I have to look at the time difference to see where he is, he usually texts me and it’s the middle of our night. He seemed fine, he looked happy, he looked healthy – no reason for any kind of concern and then obviously I heard it on the news.”

Speaking to Sky News, she added: “I thought it was fake news, I tried to phone him. Obviously he wasn’t answering. I tried to text him, it wasn’t going to a ‘read’ message – normally it does quite quickly, then as I turned the telly on it was getting more and more apparent it wasn’t fake.”

Frantic 911 call

It’s thought that the 31-year-old was under the influence, according to local news outlets. Hotel staff made a frantic call to emergency services, pleading for ‘urgent’ help, with the receptionist saying on the line: “We have a guest who’s off his head on drugs and is destroying everything in his room. We need someone to come.”

After the call cut off, the worried receptionist added: “I don’t know if the guest’s life is in danger. The room has a balcony and we are afraid he might do something.”

The receptionist urgently requested: “Just send an ambulance. Only an ambulance.” Local witnesses have suggested that Liam suffered a “psychotic episode” just before his tragic passing. An office worker near the Casa Sur hotel reported that the hotel’s masseuse described Liam as behaving wildly.

One Direction enthusiast Josefina told America TV: “I was working in an office next to the hotel when we started hearing lots of sirens and lots of noise. A colleague went down to see what was happening and was able to speak to the hotel masseuse who said there was a man being aggressive who was breaking things and was having what appeared to be a psychotic episode and looked like he was out of it on drugs.”

‘Violent’ noises

Guests at the hotel claimed hearing “loud” and “violent” noises coming from Liam’s room in the hour leading up to his tragic passing. Chatting to the BBC, hotel resident Doug Jones dished: “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.”

Then Doug caught a glimpse of hotel staffers entering the suite believed to have been occupied by Liam. He said: “I saw hotel people going in and out of that room, so I thought they were doing work on the room.”

He said the loud noises returned: “So about 4pm, 4.30pm, I started hearing some more noise, I was still doing work,” he relayed. “I heard a really loud, violent scream around 4.45pm, 5pm.”

Police made it onsite just shy of 5pm, but heard a loud noise from the courtyard as they got there, precisely at 5.04pm. Not long after, the tourist saw the “road full of cops,” as the tragedy began to unravel. A look through Liam’s hotel room by the police revealed “what appeared to be narcotics, alcohol, destroyed objects and furniture”.

‘Pink cocaine’

Prosecutors said in a statement after Liam’s death they believed he was in “in a state of semi or total unconsciousness” during a substance-induced ‘psychotic episode’ when he fell. Argentinian news portal Infobae reported last week forensic experts had discovered traces of cocaine in Liam’s body but tests on a white powder pictured in leaked photos showing the inside of his hotel suite after his death had so far proved “inconclusive.”

Other unconfirmed reports originating in the US claimed a cocktail of drugs including designer narcotic ‘pink cocaine’ containing MDMA, ketamine, methamphetamine had been found in his system during a partial autopsy, along with crack cocaine and benzodiazepine.

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk