Liam Payne’s final hours were reportedly filled with drugs, heavy drinking and increasingly erratic behavior before the former One Direction star fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires.
Newly reported investigative documents, photographs, witness statements and official records offer a disturbing look at the hours leading up to the 31-year-old singer’s death on Oct. 16, 2024.
Payne died after falling from the third-floor balcony of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Argentina.
According to reports based on thousands of pages from the investigation, Payne had originally traveled to Argentina to renew his U.S. visa and attend a concert by his former One Direction bandmate Niall Horan.
But after his girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, returned to the couple’s home in Florida, Payne’s behavior allegedly began to deteriorate.
Hotel workers reportedly became concerned not long after he checked in on Oct. 14.
Staff members allegedly warned each other to be cautious around the singer because of what they described as increasingly aggressive behavior. At one point, security was reportedly asked to accompany a waitress who delivered five bottles of whiskey to his room.
The situation allegedly became even more troubling on the morning of his death.
Payne reportedly contacted a sex worker named Aldana Serrano and asked her to obtain cocaine.
“We need 5 grams so I can make crack,” he allegedly wrote in a message cited in the investigative files.
Serrano and another woman later went to Payne’s hotel room, according to the reports.
Investigators reportedly found cocaine, drug paraphernalia and prescription medications inside the room.
Payne had also allegedly spent approximately $550 on alcohol that day despite reportedly being warned by a psychiatrist about the dangers of combining heavy drinking with his prescription medications.
The encounter with the two women allegedly turned heated when a dispute erupted over payment.
Payne reportedly offered to transfer the $5,000 they said he owed them. When that did not resolve the argument, he allegedly offered his gold Rolex watch instead.
After the women rejected the watch, Payne allegedly smashed it against a wall.
Security footage reportedly captured the singer repeatedly moving between his room and the hotel lobby as his condition and behavior became increasingly concerning.
His friend Roger Nores later arrived at the hotel.
Nores reportedly told investigators that Payne did not appear impaired when the two spoke.
But after Nores left, witnesses described a dramatic change.
Payne allegedly smashed his computer and became involved in an angry confrontation with another guest.
During the incident, he reportedly shouted that being part of a boy band was why he was “so f—ed up.”
His behavior reportedly became so alarming that hotel employees eventually had to intervene.
Witnesses said Payne appeared to convulse in the lobby before staff members carried him back upstairs to his room.
Then, shortly after 5 p.m., the situation turned fatal.
At approximately 5:07 p.m., hotel employees reportedly heard a loud noise.
Payne was subsequently found in the courtyard below the hotel after falling from his third-floor balcony.
Toxicology testing reportedly revealed high levels of cocaine in his system along with alcohol, prescription sedatives and antidepressants.
But one of the most haunting questions surrounding Payne’s death remains exactly how he ended up going over the balcony.
Investigators have reportedly examined the possibility that his fall was accidental rather than an intentional act.
One photograph taken hours before his death reportedly shows Payne swinging around a pole outside the hotel while waiting for drugs.
Investigators reportedly believe the image could demonstrate that Payne had enough upper-body strength to attempt to lower himself from one balcony to another.
Forensic analysis also reportedly found Payne’s palm prints on the glass surrounding his third-floor balcony.
According to the report, marks on the glass appeared consistent with his fingers slipping.
Investigators also learned that Payne had apparently thrown a leather bag onto the balcony directly below his room.
Those details have fueled a theory that the singer may have been trying to climb down from his third-floor balcony to the second-floor level when he lost his grip.
A source close to the investigation claimed Payne may have attempted to swing himself down before his impaired condition caused him to slip.
“The trouble is he was so impaired by drugs and alcohol his fingers slipped on the glass, and he fell,” the source reportedly said.
That scenario has not been definitively established as the cause of the fall.
Payne’s father, Geoff Payne, has also rejected the idea that his son deliberately intended to die.
“I have no doubt that Liam wanted to live,” he told investigators.
The newly reported details paint a devastating picture of a young star whose final hours allegedly spiraled from substance use and arguments to destruction inside the hotel and, ultimately, a fatal fall that continues to raise difficult questions.
Payne was just 31 years old.