The late singer Liam Payne told a young woman “I’m so f***ed up” and smashed his laptop moments before he plunged to his death from a third-floor balcony in his hotel in Argentina on Wednesday, it has been claimed.
The former One Direction star spoke with a woman who stayed in the same hotel as him in Buenos Aires shortly before he fell from his balcony. Liam reportedly displayed signs of “disturbing and weird” behaviour in the moments before his death and the star appeared to destroy his laptop after he read a triggering email in public view, reports the Mirror.
The woman – who is using the pseudonym Rebecca – was one of the last people to speak with Liam before his heartbreaking death and took several snaps of the singer in the hotel lobby. American tourist Rebecca said that Liam’s “bizarre” final moments have left her shaken.
Liam died of multiple traumas and “internal and external haemorrhage”, as a result of a fall from the balcony of a hotel’s third-floor, a post-mortem examination report has revealed. A press release from Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No 16 said it would be investigating the incident as an “inconclusive death” after the conclusions of the report.
Rebecca, a 28-year-old from Washington DC, had a surprise 30-minute encounter with the star in the foyer of the hotel on Wednesday afternoon, just before his death. He had been due to check out that morning but hadn’t yet done so, according to Rebecca.
She adds that Liam told her at one point during their interaction: “I used to be in a boy band – that’s why I’m so f**ked up.” She added that hotel staff were “a little on edge” as Liam had been due to check out, but was still in the building acting bizarrely.
“I came into the hotel, and he was waiting by the elevator, and it was so clear he wanted someone to recognise him, there was something a bit desperate about him,” Rebecca told the Daily Mail. The IT consultant also recalled how she and her friends recognised him but were unfazed.
Rebecca said: “When the lift came he suddenly said to us without any prompting: ‘Yes, I’m Liam!’ really drawing it out, and then said ‘All right come on you lot, get in the elevator with me, I love a cuddle’.” Rebecca told the publication how she decided against it but one of the other girls in the group started chatting with him.
She claimed: “Then he grabs a girl who I think was with him and starts fake choking her, only lightly, but the others thought it was really disturbing.” Rebecca made her way back to the lobby ten minutes later before Liam also returned, however, this time he had a laptop in hand and began reading emails in public view.
Rebecca recalls seeing the singer opening an email that “obviously upset him”. She added: “Suddenly he took the computer, shouted ‘f**k this s**t, mate!’ and started bashing the computer on the ground.”
According to Rebecca, staff and guests inside the high-end hotel were visibly shocked, and she went over to check if the distressed star was ok but he just “grunted”. Rebecca claims Liam then said he was “f***ed up” from being in a boyband.
The prosecutor’s office said five witnesses were questioned to reconstruct what happened on October 16 at the CasaSur Hotel in the Palermo area of Buenos Aires. Reports say staff at the hotel made two calls to emergency services, with audio revealing a staff member had asked for assistance for a guest who was “intoxicated by drugs and alcohol”.
Police officers and the emergency services found Liam dead at the scene and his body was transferred to the judicial morgue. The prosecutor’s office indicated the musician was alone when the fall occurred and said he appeared to be “going through some kind of outbreak due to substance abuse”.
Forensic experts said no injuries were observed that would suggest the intervention of third parties, although “the investigation is also aimed at determining the possible intervention of third parties in the events prior to his death”.
Police in the Argentine capital previously said the music star’s hotel room had been “in complete disarray” with “various items broken”. They added that a whiskey bottle, lighter and mobile phone had been retrieved from the internal hotel courtyard where Liam’s body was found.
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