A hotel employee is facing possible indictment related to the sudden death of Liam Payne, after the One Direction alum fatally fell from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Wednesday.
Police in Argentina believe the 31-year-old pop star ingested a substance known as “cristal” prior to his death, according to TMZ. Sources said the drug can cause psychotic attacks, hallucinations and aggressive behavior.
“There appears to be evidence that a hotel employee sourced the drugs for Payne,” a source within Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office told People. “An indictment for drug distribution could follow shortly.”
The circumstances surrounding Payne’s death are still under investigation, though the prosecutor’s office has said they suspect the singer was “experiencing some kind of episode due to substance abuse.”
In a public statement translated from Spanish, prosecutor Marcelo Roma said he was specifically looking into who supplied Payne the drugs they believe he had taken.
According to CNN, six people who had seen Payne in the hours leading up to his death spoke with local authorities on Thursday. Those include Payne’s manager, three hotel employees and two women reported to be escorts by Argentine news outlet La Nación.
The women reportedly told police they were with the British singer in his hotel room but didn’t see him consume any drugs. They said they arrived at the hotel around 11:30 a.m. but left by 4 p.m., roughly an hour before Payne’s death. The prosecutor’s office also said “everything indicates the musician was alone” at the time of his fatal fall.
His girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, had reportedly been traveling with him in Argentina for roughly two weeks, but returned to the United States on Monday.
Payne plunged to his death shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel, just minutes after a receptionist called 911 asking for help, saying a guest was “trashing” his room and was believed to be “high on drugs.”
Authorities said they believe the singer “jumped from the balcony” of his third-floor room, suffering multiple traumatic injuries that led to his immediate death, according to a preliminary autopsy report.
Buenos Aires police later released photos said to be from inside Payne’s hotel room, showing items including aluminum foil, a lighter and traces of an unidentified white powder. That substance has yet to be confirmed as the drug authorities believe was in Payne’s system at the time of his death.
Payne had previously spoken out about his struggles with drug and alcohol abuse, telling fans in a July 2023 YouTube video that he was nearly six months sober after spending 100 days in a rehab facility.
British tabloids reported the singer again checked into a rehab center this July, but left the 30-day program after just a few days.
