Argentinian prosecutors have charged three people in connection to the death of One Direction alum Liam Payne at the age of 31, including charges of abandonment and supplying narcotics.
New information is emerging regarding the death of Liam Payne.
Less than one day after it was reported that police in Buenos Aires had detained three individuals in connection with the One Direction‘s death, Argentina’s public prosecutor has confirmed three people have been charged.
The prosecutor’s office—headed by prosecutor Andrés Esteban Madrea—noted in a Nov. 7 statement, translated from Spanish, “Illicit conduct was discovered from which three people were charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death, supply and facilitation of narcotics.”
Payne died Oct. 16 after falling off a third story balcony at his Buenos Aires hotel. A preliminary toxicology report showed that he had drugs in his system at the time of his death, The New York Times reported, per an official with knowledge of the results, including a substance called “pink cocaine,” a recreational drug typically made up of MDMA, ketamine and methamphetamine.
Among those charged was a person who authorities said had been with Payne “on a daily basis during his stay in the city of Buenos Aires,” adding that the unnamed individual was charged “with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death.”
The second person—whom authorities described as a hotel employee—and a third person were both “charged with the crime of supplying narcotics.” The prosecutors said the hotel employee provided cocaine to Payne, while the third person “is accused of two other clearly proven supplies during two different times on October 14,” which was two days before his death.
Sharing insight into how the investigation that led to the decision to arrest the individual in connection to Payne’s death, prosecutors shared they’d done “a detailed analysis of more than 800 hours of video footage” from around the hotel, and had also extracted the contents of Liam’s cell phone for analysis. They further examined bar and restaurant orders from the hotel “to determine who visited the musician and their food and drink consumption habits.”
“Based on the evidence gathered and after analyzing the various bodies of proceedings and numerous documentary annexes and the background of the case,” the statement continued, “prosecutor Madrea formally charged three people, requesting their questioning and arrest in a 180-page ruling presented last Friday to Judge [Laura Graciela] Bruniard.”
While individuals have been charged in connection with his death, the coroner has confirmed that the cause of death was the fall, noting that he suffered 25 injuries that were consistent with a fall from that height.
They also believe he may have been unconscious at the time, explaining that “due to the position in which the body was left, Payne did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself and that he could have fallen in a state of semi or total unconsciousness.”
For more information about Payne’s tragic death, keep reading.