TRAGIC Liam Payne told a fan just over an hour before his death 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 after waiting with friends to catch a glimpse of him.
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.
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“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.
“He was on his own at the time.
“We were still there when we began to see strange movements in the hotel and a police patrol car and fire engine turned up.
“A couple who were staying at the hotel came down and we asked them what was going on and they said a guest had jumped to his death.
“I never thought it was Liam because I had seen him just over an hour earlier and he seemed okay.”
Breaking down in tears as she recalled the horror moment she discovered it was Liam, Daiana said: “Finding out someone is dead that you’ve just seen was really shocking.
“He was my idol. Liam spoke a lot about mental health and in his songs told us we are never alone.
“This is all very hard. As fans we are in a lot of pain. We want justice to be done and we don’t want things that are false published on social media.”