Liam Payne’s last movements before he fell to his death from the third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur Palermo hotel are being traced by police – with now five names being investigated
More details have emerged of Liam Payne’s final moments in his doomed hotel room before he plunged to his death.
The former One Direction singer, 31, died on October 16 after falling from the third floor of the Casa Sur Palermo hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Liam suffered “catastrophic injuries incompatible with life”, and ever since police have been piecing together how his sudden death came to be.
On Tuesday, it emerged that that local law enforcements had been probing five people after two more workers at the hotel Liam was staying at have officially been put under investigation. Those being investigated have been named as Roger Nores, Braian Paiz, hotel employee Ezequiel Pereyra, hotel security guard Esteban Reynaldo Grassi and manager Gilda Martín.
Earlier this week, judge Laura Bruinard ordered that footage of Liam’s fall, which was captured on CCTV should be reviewed – eight weeks after his death. Authorities will examine the video which had previously not been shared.
It comes after a witness alleged that Liam was attempting to flee his hotel suite and had threatened to staff he would use the balcony to escape. Here the Mirror looks at the latest updates in the star’s tragic hotel spiral just moments before his death…
Liam Payne called receptionists at the hotel where he fell to his death to request alcohol “all the time” and ask where he could buy cocaine, a senior employee has claimed. A bellboy who took him a courtesy platter of fruit shortly after he checked into the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires also told bosses the artist had insulted him after asking him whether he could get him cocaine and receiving a ‘no’ for an answer.
Esteban Grassi, the chief receptionist who made a 999 call requesting urgent medical assistance for Liam before his drink and drug-fuelled balcony plunge and is now under formal investigation, made the claims. Respected Argentinian news portal Todo Noticias published WhatsApp messages from Grassi, one of the three men pictured carrying Liam back up to his third-floor room from the hotel lobby shortly before he died, had handed into court investigators.
One of the text exchanges, from a person registered in Esteban’s phone as Santiago Benitez Bellboy AM, said: “Hello Esteban how are you? Sorry for bothering you but I wanted to let you know about a little situation I had with the person in room 310. When I went to hand him a guest amenity and welcome him to the hotel and Argentina, he invited me into his room (which was a complete mess) and asked me if I could get him cocaine.
“I told him, ‘I’m sorry sir, but neither I or any other staff can help you with that type of service’ to which he replied that I was useless and told me to get out of his sight. I felt a bit threatened because he didn’t behave very politely.” Appearing to reference another hotel worker identified locally as one of the five men under investigation, head of security Gilda Martin, the message from the bellboy continued: “I’m going to tell Gilda this too so you’re both aware and there’s no misunderstandings in case this man mentions my name again at some point in his stay, because he asked me what my name was. I’m just telling you and Gilda this.”
Mr Grassi also told investigators of Liam’s stay at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in the Argentinian capital, according to Todo Noticias: “I understand he was more active at night, that he ran reception repeatedly to ask for alcohol all the time and ask where he could get drugs, specifically cocaine.”
Bombshell texts
Mr Grassi went on to claim he acted as a translator for two female escorts Liam spent time with before he died – because they didn’t speak English and the singer didn’t speak Spanish. Seemingly confirming earlier reports that the former One Direction singer asked for 300 dollars and alcohol when they went up to his room, Mr Grassi said: “Liam asked me to act as translator. That’s when they tell me he had to pay them but they didn’t specify why.
“They told me he owed them 5,000 dollars but it seemed strange to me because he had asked me previously for 300 dollars and although I’m not an expert about these things, the amount of money they were asking for seemed a bit excessive to me.”
Todo Noticias published screenshots of alleged WhatsApp messages exchanged with one of the women said to have come from Liam’s phone, which was an American mobile phone number with the 561 southern Florida area code. They claimed the sex worker had shown Mr Grassi the conversation to prove he owed them the money.
The mobile phone user, identified as Liam by the news portal, sent a link to the woman’s Instagram in an initial message and asked in English ‘Wanna play’ before adding after making a video call that wasn’t picked up: “I have all day, I’d gift you 5,000 US dollars.”
The person receiving the messages sent back a Whatsapp location and wrote ‘Are you coming?’ but received the reply: “You come to my hotel, we party, just me and u.’ After sending a voice message, the man Todo Noticias identified as Liam wrote, ‘Do you want to bring her? in an apparent reference to the second female escort, and added: “Casa Sur, I’m just gunna clean my room.”
The Whatsapp exchange showed the woman had asked for “5,000 US dollars both” and the man identified as Liam replied: ‘Hmmm. That’s a lot huh, let’s discuss’ but then wrote ‘Ok’ and referred to a bank transfer after the other person replied: ‘It’s the whole day the two of us together.’
Smashed up room
In a blow-by-blow account of Liam’s last minutes alive after the singer went back down to reception after allegedly smashing up his room, Mr Grassi said in a statement to investigators, which Todo Noticias published: “He was staring blankly, in a totally drunken state. It was clear he wasn’t okay. When we opened the door we went in behind him and he just walked around.
“That’s when I saw everything was broken, vases, lamps, his clothes strewn everything around the room, the towels stained with wine, broken bottles. I didn’t see blood or any type of drug.” Claiming Liam fainted several times “because he was very drunk” in the minutes leading up to his third-floor balcony plunge, he added: “We heard he was once again smashing up everything inside, as if he was throwing or kicking things.
“We stayed outside trying to hear if things were calming down or how the situation was evolving and how we could intervene.” Saying he learnt about Liam’s fatal plunge after making his 999 call, he recalled: “One of the sales lads appeared and told me, ‘He threw himself off the balcony’. I asked him if he was alive and he said he didn’t know, that he’d fallen onto the restaurant terrace and heard the noise, but no-one had seen how he’d fallen.”
Unconscious fall
On November 7, a statement 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.”
According to the report, the father-of-one, whose tragic death has been linked to a substance-induced “psychotic episode”, “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.”
It was therefore determined that Liam hadn’t been fully conscious or was otherwise “in a state of noticeable decrease or abolition of consciousness” at the time of his fall. The investigators concluded: “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.”
Worrying 911 call
On the day he died, Liam was captured on surveillance camera visibly intoxicated and causing a disturbance in the lobby before hotel staff intervened. Witnesses reported that the singer resisted, informing staff he did not want to stay in the room and telling them that he would use the balcony to escape if confined.
Hotel employees reportedly used a master key to place Liam in his room, subsequently removing a mirror outside his door, apparently out of concern he might damage it. Just minutes later, a hotel employee called 911, noting the singer was in a room with a balcony and expressing fear that he might attempt to escape.
They said: “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. Just send an ambulance, only an ambulance.”
Bags and letter
After the hotel staff left Liam alone, the star attempted an escape route involving the balcony, according to earlier reports. His body was found with a bag strapped over his shoulder – the bag was not present when he was carried from the lobby and taken to his room.
A second-floor hotel guest discovered a second bag, a leather one containing pills, a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and a note labelled ‘for Liam’ on their balcony. Investigators believe the bag, identified as the singer’s and not the one found next to his body, was lowered to the second-floor as part of his attempted escape.
Police have ruled out suicide, believing the singer was likely in a state of “semi or total unconsciousness” at the time of his fall. Officials have also linked the tragedy to a substance-induced ‘psychotic episode’.
Hotel room fears
Sources familiar with Liam have described a repeated aversion he held to being confined in hotel rooms, according to the US website TMZ. His dislike traces back to his years in One Direction. Three years before his death, Liam opened up about his struggles with fame and said touring with his bandmates as a teen “really f****d him up”.
He said the worst part was getting “locked up” in hotel rooms for security reasons after performing. Speaking on The Diary of a CEO podcast in 2021, Liam said: “My dad said it from day one – lonely hotel rooms, man – getting locked in that room is not fun when you’ve been exposed.”
The singer’s dislike of such situations reportedly led to at least one other balcony escape attempt in September, when his security allegedly confined him to a room in a Florida rental property due to concerns over potential drug use. He is alleged to have attempted to escape through a balcony, using a garden hose to shimmy to the ground.
Meanwhile a report suggested Liam’s father, Geoff, 66, was insistent that the singer not be left alone. TMZ claims the court documents show: “Liam’s father said it was critical that Liam always stayed busy and was never alone. Liam’s dad said he became alarmed in September after his son fired a bodyguard who was trying to stop him from doing drugs.” (Mirror)
