New details have surfaced about Liam Payne‘s final moments in his hotel room before his tragic fall.
The One Direction star tragically passed away on October 16 at the age of 31 after he fatally fell from the third floor of the Casa Sur Palermo hotel in Buenos Aires, as an autopsy revealed that he suffered internal and external bleeding as a result of the fall. Ever since police have been piecing together how his sudden death came to be.
On Tuesday, it was revealed that local law enforcement is investigating five individuals after two additional employees of the hotel where Liam was staying were officially implicated.
Those under investigation have been identified as Roger Nores, Braian Paiz, hotel employee Ezequiel Pereyra, hotel security guard Esteban Reynaldo Grassi, and manager Gilda Martín, reports the Mirror.
Earlier this week, Judge Laura Bruinard ordered a review of CCTV footage capturing Liam’s fall, eight weeks after his death. Authorities will now examine the video, which had previously not been disclosed.
This follows a witness’s claim that Liam was trying to escape his hotel suite and had threatened staff, saying he would use the balcony to flee.
Here are the latest developments in the star’s tragic hotel ordeal just moments before his death.
Dark requests
A senior employee has claimed that Liam Payne frequently called the reception at the hotel where he fell to his death, asking for alcohol “all the time” and inquiring about where he could buy cocaine. A bellboy who delivered a courtesy platter of fruit shortly after Liam checked into the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires also reported that the artist insulted him after asking if he could get cocaine and receiving a “no” in response.
Esteban Grassi, the head receptionist who made a 999 call for urgent medical assistance before Liam’s balcony fall, and is now under formal investigation, made the claims.
The respected Argentinian news portal Todo Noticias published WhatsApp messages from Grassi, one of the three men seen carrying Liam back to his third-floor room from the hotel lobby shortly before his death, which he had submitted to court investigators.
One of the text exchanges, from a contact saved in Esteban’s phone as Santiago Benitez Bellboy AM, read: “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 refer to another hotel worker, identified locally as one of the five men under investigation, head of security Gilda Martin, the bellboy’s message 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.”
According to Todo Noticias, Mr Grassi also informed investigators about Liam’s stay at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, saying: “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 that he acted as a translator for two female escorts Liam spent time with before his death, as they didn’t speak English and the singer didn’t speak Spanish.
Confirming earlier reports that the former One Direction singer requested 300 dollars and alcohol when they went up to his room, Mr. Grassi stated: “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, reportedly from Liam’s phone, which had an American mobile number with the 561 southern Florida area code. They claimed the sex worker had shown Mr Grassi the conversation to prove that Liam owed them the money.
The mobile phone user, identified as Liam by the news portal, sent a link to the woman’s Instagram as the first message and asked in English, “Wanna play,” before adding, after a video call that wasn’t answered: “I have all day, I’d gift you 5,000 US dollars.”
The recipient of the messages replied with a WhatsApp location and asked, “Are you coming?” to which the sender responded, “You come to my hotel, we party, just me and u.” After sending a voice message, the person Todo Noticias identified as Liam wrote, “Do you want to bring her?” apparently referring to the second female escort, and added, “Casa Sur, I’m just gunna clean my room.”
The WhatsApp exchange revealed that the woman had requested “5,000 US dollars both,” to which the man identified as Liam replied, “Hmmm. That’s a lot huh, let’s discuss,” before writing “Ok” and mentioning a bank transfer after the other person responded, “It’s the whole day the two of us together.”
Smashed up room
In singers final moments alive, he went back down to the reception after allegedly smashing up his room. Mr Grassi told the 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.”
He claimed Liam fainted several times “because he was very drunk” in the minutes leading up to the third floor fall, 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.”
He said he learned about Liam’s fall after making his 999 call, claiming: “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 revealed that the singer’s toxicology results had been shared with his family, showing traces of “alcohol, cocaine, and prescription antidepressants” in his system. The statement read: “This conclusion was reached after the complete toxicology tests on urine, blood and vitreous humor.”
According to the report, the singers, whose tragic death has been attributed 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 concluded that Liam had not been fully conscious or was “in a state of noticeable decrease or abolition of consciousness” at the time of his fall. The investigators determined: “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
The day he passed away, Liam was captured on CCTV visibly intoxicated and causing disturbance at reception before the hotel staff got involved. Witness reported that the dad-of-one resisted, informing staff he did not want to stay inside his room, and mentioning he would use the balcony to escape if confined to his room.
Hotel staff reportedly used a master key to place Liam in his room and then removed a mirror outside his door, apparently out of concern he might damage it. Just minutes later, a hotel employee called 911, mentioning that the singer was in a room with a balcony and expressing fear that he might try 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 in his room, the singer attempted to escape involving the balcony, according to earlier reports. A bagged was found strapped to his shoulder after his fall, which was not present when he was carried from the lobby by hotel staff.
A second-floor hotel guest discovered a second bag, 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, suggesting the singer was likely in a state of “semi or total unconsciousness” at the time of his fall. Officials have also connected the tragedy to a substance-induced “psychotic episode.”
Hotel room fears
According to the US website TMZ, sources close to Liam have described his strong aversion to being confined in hotel rooms, a dislike rooted in his years with One Direction. Three years before his death, Liam spoke about his struggles with fame, revealing that touring with his bandmates as a teenager “really f****d him up.”
The singer had said the worst part of touring with the band was getting “locked up” in hotel rooms for security reasons. In 2021 he spoke to Steven Bartlett on The Diary of a CEO, saying: “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 aversion to such situations reportedly led to at least one other balcony escape attempt in September, when his security allegedly confined him to a room at a Florida rental property due to concerns about potential drug use. It is said that he tried to escape through the balcony, using a garden hose to climb down to the ground.
Join the Daily Record’s WhatsApp community hereand get the latest news sent straight to your messages.
Meanwhile, a report indicated that Liam’s father, Geoff, was adamant that the singer should not be left alone. TMZ claims that court documents reveal: “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.”
Get the latest celebrity gossip and telly news sent straight to your inbox. Sign up to our daily Showbiz newsletter here.