Newly released police files have revealed unseen photos of singer Liam Payne during his final hours before his tragic death in October 2024. The 31-year-old appeared hollow-eyed and drawn in CCTV footage captured an hour before he fell from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Details of Final Hours Emerge
Payne was staying at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel, having moved from the Park Hyatt after allegedly damaging his room. The new images, seen by The Mirror, show him stumbling through hotel corridors. Reports indicate he had been ordering drugs and alcohol to his room, including multiple bottles of Johnnie Walker Black label whisky.
Almost two years after the incident, a trove of documents, photographs, and statements have been shared. The evidence, reported by the Daily Mail, includes a sworn statement from Payne's father, Geoff, who told prosecutors that Liam 'went away' when struggling with his demons, adding: "He was not in control with what he did. He was not Liam."
Hotel Staff Warnings and Escort Encounters
Messages from a 'Reception' WhatsApp chat at the hotel warned staff about Payne's behaviour. Hotel manager Gilda Martin wrote on October 14: "This person is going to be very intense throughout his stay. It’s important that we tell him 'no', always kindly and with excuses. This is to stop him from continuing to be aggressive. Or at least not so much." Reception replied: "Will do whatever we can as long as he doesn’t get violent."
Payne also contacted two escorts during his stay, who arrived at the hotel at around 11:30am. They claimed he offered his Rolex when he couldn't pay them, then smashed it when they refused. One woman said: "We told him we only wanted money so he took it and smashed it. He told us he didn’t care about the money. And then he broke the TV, he punched it. He made us understand that he could smash everything because he knew he could pay for it."
New Theory on Death
Investigators believe Payne had been heating powdered cocaine into a liquid 'crack' form. CCTV showed him pacing while the escorts left at 3:30pm, and his friend Rogelio "Roger" Nores arrived at 4pm. Nores said Payne seemed unimpaired, and he left again. Payne died around forty minutes later.
A grainy photo from the police files shows Payne swinging around a pole outside the hotel at 3:21am, the morning before his death. A source close to the investigation said police consider this "highly significant" as it shows his upper body strength, leading them to suspect he may have been trying to escape his room via the balcony and slipped, rather than acting suicidally.
