3 People Charged in Liam Payne's Death Including Hotel Worker: Prosecutor

Three people have been arrested and charged in Argentina in connection with Liam Payne’s Oct. 16 death, authorities announced.

The suspects are charged with abandonment of a person followed by death as well as supply and facilitation of narcotics, Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office said in a Thursday, Nov. 7 press release. The suspects have not been named by authorities.

The One Direction star died after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires.

According to the release, “Payne was not fully conscious or was experiencing a state of noticeable decrease or loss of consciousness at the time of the fall.”

After Payne fell from the balcony and died, “illicit conduct was discovered from which three people were charged with the crimes,” the release said.

Authorities conducted nine raids this week, the release says.

One of the suspects “is the person who accompanied the artist on a daily basis during his stay in the city of Buenos Aires.” A second suspect is a hotel employee accused of supplying Payne with cocaine, and a third is an alleged “drug supplier.”

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According to the release, prosecutors have attempted to “reconstruct the days in which Payne was staying at the ‘Casa Sur’ hotel on Costa Rica Street” in Buenos Aires between Oct. 13 and 16.

Prosecutors said in the release that “self-harm of any kind and/or physical intervention by third parties were ruled out” as contributing factors in his death. 

The Nov. 7 release from authorities in Argentina states that in the moments before his death and in the period of at least his last 72 hours, Payne had “polydrug use of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his body.”

This is a developing story.