Tragic Liam Payne revealed to a fan just over an hour before his death that he loved Buenos Aires so much he wanted to buy a house there.
Daiana Gauna met and chatted to her idol in the musician’s boutique city centre hotel lobby around 3pm last Wednesday (October 16) after waiting with friends to catch a glimpse of him.
The grief-stricken admirer of the former One Direction singer claimed last night she believed he had been pushed off a third-floor balcony at the Casamar Palermo Hotel as she broke down in tears while she recalled their last conversation, despite prosecutors revealing last week Liam appeared to have been alone at the time.
She told Argentinian TV show TN Central: “Liam looked in good shape, not drunk or aggressive like they’ve been saying on social media.
“He approached us and spent quite a bit of time talking to us and telling us about his experiences in Buenos Aires, the places he’d been to and where he wanted to go.
“He said he loved the city and would like to buy a home here, that he loved the countryside around Buenos Aires.
“We were outside the hotel when we first saw Liam and he invited us into the lobby. I was with three others. We were talking for 10 to 15 minutes. He said he had just woken up and was going to eat something and then go out.
“When he came down to the hotel reception the sister of a girlfriend of mine had just left school and was still on her way and we asked Liam if we could see him again later because she was bringing a present for him and he said: ‘Of course’.
“That was about 3.30pm.”
She added: “Liam also told us during the conversation that he’d been to the countryside with his girlfriend, that on Sunday morning about 7am they’d gone out running together.
“He told us he was really enjoying Buenos Aires.”
The body of Liam Payne cannot be released until further toxicology reports have been completed, an Argentina prosecutor said on Tuesday (October 22).
Payne’s father Geoff has travelled to Buenos Aires to arrange the repatriation of his body after the 31-year-old died falling from the third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur Hotel last week.
A representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office informed Geoff Payne that the results of the toxicology and histopathological report, complementary to the post-mortem, would be necessary to decide on the release of his son’s body.
The final toxicology results are not expected to be made public for some weeks, but the initial report suggested evidence of exposure to cocaine, an official told the Associated Press, but stressed the initial results do not offer an accurate reading of how much was circulating in his blood when he died.
For the investigation, expert reports are being carried out on mobile phones, computers and security cameras, which the Prosecutor’s Office said, “require a longer analysis time”.
A press release from the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office also said that reconstruction of the events, which has involved taking numerous statements from hotel workers and medical professionals, is “still ongoing”.
A post-mortem examination report said Payne died of multiple traumas and “internal and external haemorrhage”.
Police officers and the emergency services found the music star dead at the scene on October 16 and his body was transferred to the judicial morgue. The prosecutor’s office indicated the musician was alone when the fall occurred and said he appeared to be “going through some kind of outbreak due to substance abuse”.
Reports say staff at the hotel made two calls to emergency services, with audio revealing a staff member had asked for assistance for a guest who was “intoxicated by drugs and alcohol”.
Police in the Argentine capital previously said the music star’s hotel room had been “in complete disarray” with “various items broken”.
They added that a whiskey bottle, lighter and mobile phone had been retrieved from the internal hotel courtyard where Payne’s body was found.
Tributes have flooded in for Payne since the news of his death, including from his former partner Cheryl, his One Direction bandmates, his girlfriend Kate Cassidy, and music mogul Simon Cowell.
Payne’s fellow bandmates – Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, Zayn Malik and Harry Styles – paid tribute to him as well and a joint statement from the band said they were “completely devastated” and will miss the singer “terribly”, adding the “memories we shared with him will be treasured forever”.
Thousands of fans of the singer gathered to remember him at memorial events in the UK and many other parts of the world over the weekend.
Payne found fame alongside his One Direction bandmembers when The X Factor creator Cowell put them together to form the boy band on the ITV talent show in 2010.
Payne first auditioned for The X Factor in 2008 when he was 14, singing Frank Sinatra‘s Fly Me To The Moon, with judge Cowell telling him to return to the talent show two years later.
The singer’s family said they were “heartbroken” following his death, adding: “Liam will forever live in our hearts and we’ll remember him for his kind, funny and brave soul.”