One Direction singer Liam Payne was 31 when he died in Buenos Aires, Argentina on October 16, 2024. He died after he fell from a third floor balcony, while under the influence of different substances. Three people have been arrested and charged in relation to his death.
We will start with some background into Liam’s life. There is obviously a lot of biography that we will not go into here as this is a crime podcast. We have tried to pick out the parts that are most relevant here.
Liam James Payne was born in Wolverhampton, England on 29 August, 1993. His parents are Karen and Geoff Payne. Liam was their youngest child – he has two older sisters, Nicola and Ruth.
Liam was born three weeks premature and was frequently unwell when he was younger. When he was 4, a doctor noticed that one of his kidneys was scarred and dysfunctional.
Liam was quoted in a book called ‘Dare to Dream: Life as One Direction” ; “I was always in hospital having tests done but they couldn’t find out what was wrong. They discovered that one of my kidneys wasn’t working properly and it had scarred. I had to have 32 injections in my arm in the morning and evening to try and make me better.”
Growing up, Liam enjoyed sports, especially cross-country running. He was ranked in the top three 1500m runners in his age group for three years.
Liam was bullied in his early years and he has said that he started doing boxing at the age of 12 because of that.
Around this age, he joined the Pink Productions Theatre Company and starred as Tony Manero in Saturday Night Fever.
After he completed his schooling, he went on to study music technology at City of Wolverhampton College.
Liam first auditioned for The X Factor in 2008, when he was 14. The judges were Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole, Dannii Minogue and Louis Walsh. He didn’t make the cut that time, and Simon told him to ‘come back in two years.’
Liam returned in 2010. He auditioned this time in front of Simon, Cheryl, Louis and Natalie Imbruglia.
During this year, he was paired with Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik during the boot camp stage of the competition. The boy band they formed was called ‘One Direction.’ They came third in that series.
In January 2011, One Direction were signed to Simon Cowell’s label, Syco Entertainment. Their first song was ‘What Makes You Beautiful.’
One Direction became the only group in the 58-year history of the Billboard 200 albums chart to have their first four albums debut at number one.
Zayn left the band in 2015 and Liam took over the majority of his vocals.
Liam wrote more than half the songs on One Direction’s third and fourth albums. Liam and Louis were said to be the band’s top earners.
One Direction went on indefinite hiatus in 2016.
Since their debut, One Direction sold 70 million records worldwide, including 7.6 million albums and 26 million singles in the US, becoming one of the best-selling boy bands of all time.
In 2015, Liam started dating Cheryl Cole (the X Factor judge). Cheryl is ten years older than Liam. The couple had one son together, Bear. He was born on 22 March, 2017. After they split up in 2018, Liam dated Naomi Campbell in 2018 and Maya Henry from 2019-2022. The couple were very on-again, off-again and were engaged twice before splitting for good.
From October 2022 until his death, Liam had been in a relationship with influencer Kate Cassidy.
Liam started working on solo material after the band broke up. He worked with artists such as Wiz Khalifa, Quavo and Ed Sheeran. In 2020, his net worth was estimated to be around £47 million or around $59m US.
Liam struggled with addiction for much of his life. He spoke about struggling with alcohol and drugs. This info is from a 2021 USA Today article:
The “One Direction” alum revealed that he “didn’t like myself very much” during his early boy band days, which he said were filled with “pills and booze” and “moments of suicidal ideation.”
“There is some stuff that I’ve definitely never spoken about,” the 27-year-old told “The Diary of a CEO” podcast host Steven Bartlett Sunday. “It was really, really, really severe. It was a problem.”
“The day the band ended, I was like, ‘Thank the Lord,'” Payne said. “I know a lot of people are going to be mad at me for saying that, but I needed to stop or it would kill me.”
“In the band… the best way to secure us, because of how big we’d got, was just to lock us in our rooms. What’s in the room? A mini-bar,” he said. “So at a certain point I thought, I’m just going to have a party-for-one and that seemed to carry on for many years of my life. Then you look back at how long you’ve been drinking and you’re like, ‘Jesus Christ, that’s a long time.'”
“We were always locked in a hotel room at night,” he recalled. “Then it would be car, hotel room, stage, sing, locked. So it looked like they pulled the dust cloth off and let us out for a minute and then back underneath it.”
He continued: “There were points where it was toxic and difficult. Don’t get me wrong, we had the best time ever, but… you don’t realize you have a choice at that point.”
He added, “I still feel like a child in so many ways. There is no link between money and happiness. It is a myth. Money is the ability to relax on certain things.”
In that article, he also spoke about his relationships.
“I am indeed (single),” he said. “I feel like more than anything at this point, I’m more disappointed in myself that I keep on hurting people. That annoys me. I’ve just not been very good at relationships.”
He added, “I’m just not very good at them so I just need to work on myself before I put myself on to somebody else.”
In May 2023, Liam spoke to the media about his sobriety. He said he had been sober for over three months.
“I’m sober now, over 100 days. I feel amazing, I feel really, really good and the support from the fans has been really, really good, so I’m super happy.”
A few months later, in August 2023, Liam ended up postponing his tour due to a kidney infection.
“Hey guys, this really is the last news I wanted to be telling you but, basically, I’ve been a little bit unwell recently and I ended up in the hospital with a bad kidney infection.”
“We started rehearsals and I’ve just been advised that now’s really not the right time to be out on the road trying to recover from this,” he explained. “I have the best people around me at home trying to help me recover as we speak.”
Liam didn’t share further details on his hospitalization, but said in his caption the kidney infection was “serious” and “something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.”
“Please look out for ways to refund your tickets. Looking forward to seeing you guys soon. Hopefully we’ll put on a bigger and better show. Thank you, I’m sorry,” he said, concluding his video message to his fans.
We will now discuss the days leading up to Liam’s death in 2024.
On Monday September 30, 2024, Liam and Kate arrived in Argentina. Kate has a travel vlog on TikTok and she said “We literally packed an hour before our flight; it was pretty hectic.”
On October 2, Liam and Kate met up with Niall Horan who was performing at the Movistar Arena.
On October 5, Liam and Kate attended a Paul McCartney concert.
Liam posed for photos with fans on October 11, 2024.
On October 13, 2024, Kate left Argentina and went back to Florida.
“I was so ready to leave, honestly,” she says, adding that the trip was planned for five days but was extended to two weeks.
“I was just like, ‘I need to go home.'”
Liam needed to obtain a visa to reenter the USA and it is believed that this was delayed, which is why he stayed longer in Argentina.
This info about that is from Sky News:
According to the Harvard International Office, an “extraordinary visa” or “O-1 nonimmigrant visa” is a temporary work visa for individuals recognised for their exceptional ability – in Liam’s case, as a globally famous musician.
A friend of Liam’s said his application was delayed due to his admission of past substance abuse, which required him to undergo psychiatric and medical evaluations before approval.
“It is widely known that he had been to rehab in the US, so he had to tick the box, and because of this he had to have medical tests. He had to be checked out by a doctor and a psychiatrist,” the friend said.
“All this took time. So Liam was forced to stay in Buenos Aires longer than he had planned.”
October 16 was the day of Liam’s death. A fan who interacted with him that day said that he appeared fine.
“Liam looked in good shape, not drunk or aggressive like they’ve been saying on social media,” Diana Gauna told TN Central. “He approached us and spent quite a bit of time talking to us and telling us about his experiences in Buenos Aires, the places he’d been to and where he wanted to go.
“He said he loved the city and would like to buy a home here, that he loved the countryside around Buenos Aires. Liam also told us during the conversation that he’d been to the countryside with his girlfriend.
“[And] that on Sunday morning about 7am they’d gone out running together. He told us he was really enjoying Buenos Aires.”
The hotel where Liam was staying is the CasaSur Palermo Hotel.
CasaSur Palermo hotel is located in the modern neighborhood of Palermo Hollywood, surrounded by bars, art galleries and the best restaurants in the city of Buenos Aires.
The 61 rooms at CasaSur Palermo Hotel are elegantly decorated in a chic and contemporary style and feature minimalist furniture, wooden floors and delicate textures, maintaining the hotel’s design philosophy. They were designed to satisfy, at all times, each of our guests’ needs.
By the afternoon of the 13th, things had turned around and started to go very wrong.
A hotel manager called emergency services and he reported “an aggressive man who could be under the effects of drugs and alcohol”. The manager indicated in the call that “when he is conscious he is destroying the entire room and we need you to send someone”, noting that the man’s life was at risk due to the room having a balcony.
Doug Jones was a guest at the hotel at the same time. He told BBC:
“I thought they were working on the room. There was a lot of noise, like heavy lifting, like banging, a lot of loud, violent noises, I thought.
“And I saw hotel people going in and out of that room, so I thought they were doing work on the room.”
“So about 16:00, 16:30, I started hearing some more noise, I was still doing work, and I heard a really loud, violent scream around 16:45, 17:00.”
After police arrived at the Casa Sur Hotel, ‘a loud sound’ was heard and Liam’s body was found in a courtyard.
His death was confirmed at 5.11pm local time on October 16, 2024.
Alberto Crescenti, head of Buenos Aires emergency services, gave a statement the following day. “Our role was to head there quickly, give medical attention, and try to resuscitate him, but his injuries were incompatible with life. Based on what the team saw, there was apparently a cranial fracture and extremely serious injuries that led to his immediate death.”
He told the media that Liam fell around 43-46 feet (13-14 metres) and that he sustained “very serious injuries incompatible with life” leaving “no possibility of resuscitation”.
Alberto refused to say at the time if Liam’s death was suicide, accident or something else.
Liam’s autopsy results were made public not long after his death.
The report said that Liam died of “polytrauma and internal and external bleeding.”
The prosecutor’s office called the death “doubtful/undetermined,” meaning there was no conclusive information about the cause of death.
Following his death, “a series of substances were seized from the musician’s room, which would prove a previous situation of alcohol and drugs consumption,” the release said.
https://twitter.com/maicenitachan/status/1846667679039656203
Liam died as a result of “multiple traumatic injuries” and “internal and external bleeding” he sustained after falling from the balcony.
Forensic experts found a total of 25 injuries “compatible with those produced by a fall from height” and not self-harm. The singer’s brain and skull (cranioencephalic) injuries in particular were “sufficiently suitable to cause death.”
The internal and external hemorrhages in his skull, chest, abdomen and limbs “contributed to the mechanism of death,” according to the release.
The public prosecutor said there were defensive wound’s on Liam’s hands according to the Associated Press, meaning “he did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself and that he could have fallen into a state of semi- or total unconsciousness.”
Per the prosecutor’s office, “everything indicates that the musician was alone when the fall occurred, and that he was going through some kind of breakdown as a result of substance abuse.”
After forensic experts analyzed his hands, they did not find any defensive injuries, which led them to believe that “all the injuries on the body were vital and produced at the same time, and that no injuries were observed that could suggest the intervention of third parties.”
In terms of toxicology, there have been many varying reports. According to reports from outlets including The Guardian, Liam had multiple substances in his system. Those substances included “pink cocaine” – a recreational drug that typically is a mix of several drugs including methamphetamine, ketamine, MDMA and others – as well as cocaine, benzodiazepine and crack.
The Argentina’s public prosecutor’s office disputed these reports at the time and said that the toxicology report was not yet complete and denied that any details had been disclosed.
On the night of 23 October, Buenos Aires police raided the CasaSur Hotel, seeking documents and other information. A government official revealed police had seized items such as computers. Authorities requested the hotel hand over camera footage.
On 7 November, prosecutors said that toxicology showed that Liam had “traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescribed antidepressant” prior to his death.
“This conclusion was reached after complete toxicological analysis on urine, blood, and vitreous humor samples, carried out in a very short time,” read the prosecutor’s statement, adding that his family had already been informed of the findings.
The pink cocaine and other drugs previously mentioned by the media were not included in the November 7 statement.
The prosecutor said that after reviewing video, documents and technology, they determined that Liam was supplied with narcotics four times while he was at the hotel between Oct. 13 and 16. The cocaine, alcohol, and antidepressants in his system were consumed by him within 72 hours of his death.
Authorities also announced on November 7 that three people had been charged in relation to Liam’s death – a friend of his, a hotel worker, and an alleged drug dealer — had been charged with supplying the singer with the drugs twice before his death.
According to prosecutors, the first of people accused is “accompanied the artist on a daily basis during his stay in the city of Buenos Aires, who is charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death,” the statement read. They also stand accused in relation to the supply and facilitation of narcotics. He could face 5 to 15 years in prison.
The second person charged was a hotel employee, charged with two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam during his stay at the hotel. A third person is also accused of twice supplying drugs to the singer at different times.
“The investigation must continue, since, among other procedures, the unlocking of the victim’s personal netbook – which is broken – and other devices seized in the investigation are still in progress,” the prosecutor’s statement added.
Some outlets are reporting that Liam’s $60k Rolex has gone missing since his death. “We know, from images that were analysed, that Payne was wearing a Rolex on the day of his death,” detectives told the publication La Nacion. It has been said that Liam was wearing the watch for at least two to three hours before his death. They couldn’t find the watch in the CasaSur hotel. The watch was searched for at private homes of people accused of crimes relating to Liam’s death, where it was not found.
Liam’s funeral was held on November 20, 2024. It was held at St Mary’s Church in Buckinghamshire, England.
Liam’s body was carried in a horse-drawn carriage.
On top of the carriage, there was a red floral tribute that said “son” and a blue tribute that said “daddy” on behalf of Bear.
In late November 2024, some CCTV showing Liam’s final moments was made public.
The wrenching CCTV footage recorded inside the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires shows three men carrying a seemingly unconscious Payne by his arms and legs out of the main lobby of the building.
The footage was timestamped at 4.54pm on October 16 — exactly 13 minutes before Payne plummeted to his death.
SOURCE LIST
https://www.marca.com/en/lifestyle/music/2024/10/23/6719153be2704ec29d8b459f.html
https://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/liam-payne-100-days-sober-feel-amazing-alcohol-free-b1081664.html
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna101863
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/showbiz-news/liam-paynes-cause-death-confirmed-30165387
https://www.today.com/health/news/liam-payne-autopsy-report-cause-of-death-rcna175959
