Liam Payne passed away on Wednesday, Oct. 16 following a tragic fall from his hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
While very little is known about the exact circumstances of the death of the 31-year-old former One Direction star, speculation surrounding the cause of the singer’s accident has been running rampant online.
At the time of his death, Payne was in Argentina to visit friend and former bandmate, Niall Horan, who was performing a show in Buenos Aires. Payne and his partner, actress Kate Cassidy, flew out to Argentina to attend the show. Payne posted on his Snapchat, “It’s been a while since me and Niall have spoken, we’ve got a lot to talk about.”
Following their arrival in Argentina, Payne and Cassidy made an appearance at Horan’s show. Payne interacted with fans and posted videos of himself having a good time.
After the singer’s death, the BBC interviewed Noelia Verón, a fan of Payne’s, who had attended the concert and interacted with the star. She said Payne seemed fine at the concert, “dancing, waving and cheering… [he] seemed to be enjoying himself.” Verón went on to clear up speculation that the singer was under the influence, stating that after the fact, “people said he was either drunk or on drugs. But that wasn’t the case at all. He talked to us, hugged us and even made jokes.”
But things took a turn for the worse after the concert.
While Payne and his partner were only supposed to be in the country for five days, according to a TikTok Cassidy made on the Monday before his death, their stay was extended. During this time, the pair were staying at a friend’s home. Following Cassidy’s return to Florida, it seems Payne checked in to the CasaSur hotel in the upmarket neighbourhood of Palermo.
On Oct. 16 around 5 p.m. local time, hotel staff at the CasaSur made a call to the police about a guest “who [was] overwhelmed by drugs and alcohol” and “destroying his room.” In a second call to emergency services, the hotel manager said, “[Payne] has a room with a balcony and we’re a little afraid that he might do something life-threatening.”
Just seven minutes after the initial call was made, Payne fell 45 feet to his death off the balcony attached to his third-floor room. Emergency services pronounced the singer dead at the scene, with “no possibility of resuscitation.”
Police found Payne’s room in “total disorder,” with a bottle of whiskey, a lighter and various medications — including the anxiety drug Clonazepam — scattered around. Argentinian media sources went on to publish pictures that were allegedly of the singer’s hotel room, showing a broken TV screen, various bottles, cans and candles, as well as aluminum foil and a half-consumed glass of champagne.
According to anonymous Argentinian sources, Payne’s autopsy supposedly reported finding a cocktail of drugs called “pink cocaine” in the singer’s system. This mixture is made up of methamphetamine, ketamine and MDMA. Furthermore, crack cocaine and benzodiazepine were also purported to be found.
Still, it is worth noting that the final toxicology results have yet to be released and will not be known to the public for some time, so these claims cannot be confirmed. At this time, the only thing that has been revealed was that the official autopsy concluded Payne’s death was caused by the traumatic injuries he sustained from his three-story fall. Prosecutors have also ruled out the possibility that another person was involved.
In July of last year, Payne posted a YouTube video talking about his sobriety journey, stating that he was nearly six months sober after a nearly 100-day stay in a rehab facility in Louisiana. Payne was still very vocal about his sobriety even into the early summer of 2024.
Online speculation has run rampant about what transpired between Payne’s vocal sobriety and his death, which some believe came as the result of the substances in his hotel room and supposedly in his system.
Yet, there is no official word on what exactly caused Payne’s fall. Still, friends, fans and the singer’s former bandmates have expressed support for Payne’s family in the wake of his tragic passing.