Liam Payne “fainted” before he plunged to his death from his third-floor Buenos Aires hotel balcony, an Argentinian broadcast journalist has claimed.
Paula Varela has told how the horror fall which killed the former One Direction singer was captured on CCTV, but alleges that authorities were keeping the revelation that he “fainted” a secret. Liam died earlier this month sending shockwaves across the globe.
Varela, a 45-year-old journalist, also claimed on a popular Argentinian show that a night worker at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel who had struck up a close relationship with Liam was the focus of an ongoing police probe which was trying to establish who supplied him with the drugs suspected of contributing to his death on October 16.
Paula said on Socios del Espectaculo, a show broadcast on Buenos Aires-based TV station Canal 13: “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.
“It’s not that he jumped deliberately. This footage is in the official case files.” She also 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. 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.
“It’s one of the things the investigators are looking at at the moment and obviously this hotel worker has been suspended. He’s a cherished member of staff, a good worker, but he disobeyed an order that could have proved fatal.”
Prosecutors believed the star was “in a state of semi or total unconsciousness” during what they called a substance induced ‘psychotic episode when he feel. The 31-year-old suffered fatal injuries, which had caused “internal and external haemorrhaging.” His 25 ‘life-threatening’ injuries are believed to have included a skull fracture.
Detectives say they do not suspect any “third-party” involvement but have made it clear the hunt is still on for his dealer amid speculation someone from his hotel was supplying him with drugs.
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.
Last Thursday cops in the Argentine capital swooped on the hotel Liam died at and were seen going through documents and examining computers in the lobby. The singer’s dad Geoff flew to Buenos Aires after learning of the tragedy to try to speed up the repatriation of the singer’s body.
He was told during a meeting with prosecutor Andres Madrea last Tuesday that will not happen before toxicology and tissue tests are complete.
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