The investigation surrounding Liam Payne’s death continues to unfold.
On Wednesday, Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office announced in a press release that three suspects — “one who accompanied the artist daily during his stay in the city of Buenos Aires,” a hotel employee and an alleged drug dealer — have been arrested and charged in connection to the late One Direction singer’s death in Buenos Aires.
According to the release, “several dozen testimonies were received at the headquarters of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, including from hotel staff, family members and friends, medical professionals, biochemists and psychiatrists.”
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Additionally, more than 800 hours of video footage from various hotel security cameras and others on public roads were reviewed, as well as the content of Payne’s cellphone, including calls, messages and chats on messaging applications and social networks.
According to the release, the prosecution “analyzed testimonies, video recordings, messages, documents, invoices, social networks and communications, among other elements.” At least four supplies of narcotics from third parties were “conclusively proven” to have been addressed to Payne during his stay at the Casa Sur hotel between Oct. 13-16.
The first person accused, someone who “accompanied the artist on a daily basis during his stay in the city of Buenos Aires,” was charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death, the release stated.
“The second defendant is a hotel employee who must answer for two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the period he was at the hotel, and the third, also a drug supplier, is accused of two other clearly proven supplies during two different times on October 14.”
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Both were charged with the crime of supplying narcotics.
Payne died on Oct. 16 as a “result of the fall he suffered from the balcony of the third floor room of the hotel in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Palermo where he was staying,” according to the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No. 16, temporarily headed by Marcelo Roma.
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Authorities confirmed Payne died after 5 p.m. at the Casa Sur hotel in the Palermo district, located on Costa Rica Street. An employee called the emergency line to ask for help for a guest who was “under the influence of drugs and alcohol who had destroyed some objects in the room.”
The Buenos Aires police said they found Payne’s hotel room “in complete disarray” with “various items broken.” Packs of clonazepam (commonly sold under the brand name Klonopin and which works as a central nervous system depressant), energy supplements and other over-the-counter drugs were found strewn among his belongings, according to The Associated Press. Forensics teams also reported that a whiskey bottle, lighter and cellphone were retrieved from the internal courtyard where Payne’s body was found.
According to Wednesday’s release, “the results of the toxicological studies — already communicated to his family — revealed that, in the moments prior to his death and in the period of at least his last 72 hours, Payne only presented traces of polydrug use of alcohol, cocaine and a prescribed antidepressant in his body. This conclusion was reached after complete toxicological analyses on urine, blood and vitreous humor, carried out in a very short time.”
Additionally, the release states, “the lack of defense or self-preservation reflex in the fall, together with other relevant data due to his consumption, allow us to conclude that Liam Payne was not fully conscious or was going through a state of noticeable decrease or abolition of consciousness at the time of the fall.”
The autopsy was reportedly completed and concluded and “the delivery of the body to the father of the deceased, Geoff Payne” was carried out last weekend.
Payne had one child, a 7-year-old son, Bear, with ex-girlfriend Cheryl Cole.
Per the release, the investigation is ongoing, stating: “Beyond the evidentiary forcefulness that was achieved so far (visual, registry, medical, scientific, documentary, telephone, testimonial, etc.), 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 ongoing.”
Fox News Digital’s Tracy Wright and The Associated Press contributed to this post.
Original article source: Liam Payne: 3 people arrested, charged in Argentina in connection to former One Direction singer’s death
