By Mia Shea
Staff Writer
Singer and former One Direction star Liam Payne died on Oct. 16 at the age of 31 after falling from his third floor hotel room in Argentina.
According to ABC News, Payne was staying at the Casa Sur hotel in Palermo, Buenos Aires, where he plummeted to his death. CBS reported that Payne was in Buenos Aires to attend the concert of his former One Direction bandmate, Niall Horan.
Pablo Policicchio, the spokesperson for the Security Ministry of Buenos Aires municipality, released a statement to The Associated Press stating that Payne “had thrown himself from the balcony of his room.” Police were dispatched to the hotel to deal with an “aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”
Upon arriving at the hotel, police found Payne’s body in the hotel’s courtyard. Authorities concluded that it is likely that he jumped voluntarily, as the autopsy also found that there were no defensive injuries on his body, and they believe that he did not make any attempt to break his fall.
The Buenos Aires police shared with TMZ on Oct. 18 that they believe Payne may have been under the influence of a potent drug called “cristal,” which is known to cause extreme highs and lows as well as hallucinations.
Upon searching Payne’s hotel room, the police also shared that they found drug paraphernalia, with the place trashed and the TV broken.
An autopsy was done in which forensic experts shared with TODAY that they found a total of 25 injuries “compatible with those produced by a fall from height.” Payne’s brain and skull injuries in particular were “sufficiently suitable to cause death.”
Payne was born on Aug. 29, 1993, in Wolverhampton, West Midland, England. Payne’s career began when he auditioned as a solo artist on “The X Factor” in 2008, later finding more success on the same show in 2010 when he was grouped with Horan, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson, who eventually formed the wildly successful boyband One Direction.
The band released their debut studio album “Up All Night” with Syco Records and then eventually released four more albums, including hits like “What Makes You Beautiful,” “Night Changes,” “Perfect” and “Best Song Ever.”
After One Direction broke up in 2016, Payne released the top-ten single “Strip That Down” in 2017. His solo debut album “LP1” was released in 2019 by Capitol Records. That record contained hits like “Hips Don’t Lie,” “Familiar” and “For You (With Rita Ora).”
In August of 2021, Payne released the single “Sunshine,” which was featured in the film “Ron's Gone Wrong.” He did not release any more music until March of this year when he released a single titled “Teardrops.”
Payne’s current girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, was also on the trip to Argentina but returned home just two days prior to Payne’s death. In a TikTok video, Cassidy shared that she “was so ready to leave” after spending two weeks there. It was unclear why she decided to leave Argentina without Payne.
Payne’s death still remains under investigation by local authorities as they try to determine the true nature of his death and whether or not it was in fact accidental.
