Liam Payne’s body is returning home to the UK and will touch down in the country tomorrow. The singer’s father Geoff has left Buenos Aires with the body, Argentinian media and the BBC reports. The funeral of the late dad-of-one is expected to take place later this week, nearly a month after the tragic death of the One Direction star.
Details of Liam’s funeral are expected to be officially announced shortly, but a friend told Mail Online yesterday he would have a “very big send off, quite probably at a cathedral somewhere close to his heart.” Liam tragically passed away at the age of 31 on October 16 after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
(Image: Getty Images for Atlantis The Royal)
The private ceremony, which will celebrate the life of the X Factor star, follows numerous fan vigils held worldwide over the past few weeks. The singer’s body had been held in Argentina while local authorities completed further toxicology and laboratory tests. Liam’s body was released to his family on Wednesday, public prosecutor Andrés Madrea said, while his father Geoff Payne had been in the country.
A post-mortem report last month revealed Liam’s death was due to “multiple traumas” and “internal and external haemorrhage”, while Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No 16 is treating the case as an “inconclusive death”.
Last week, it was reported that Liam’s body had been moved from a Buenos Aires morgue to the historic British Cemetery in the northern part of the Argentinian capital, following permission granted to Geoff by prosecutors.
(Image: Getty Images)
Argentinian news outlet La Nacion reported that he was personally informed in a recent meeting with prosecution chief Andres Madrea that he could return to the UK with Liam’s body two weeks after arriving in the South American country.
It stated: “All the documents are ready for the former One Direction singer to return to his homeland so a funeral can take place there next week. When Geoff Payne reached Argentina on October 18 he was told the repatriation process could take between four and five days, but because of the circumstances surrounding his son’s death things took longer than expected.”
Another news outlet, Infobae, reported that Geoff, who made a second visit yesterday to the makeshift memorial set up by fans outside the hotel where his son died, arrived at the airport to take his son home shortly after.
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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
