A picture of former One Direction singer Liam Payne sits surrounded by flowers and candles as fans gather outside the hotel where he was found dead after falling from a balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Photo: AP
Police in Argentina are reportedly focusing their investigation into Liam Payne’s death on not only the specific drugs in his system, but other small objects found in his hotel room.
According to TMZ, law enforcement sources in Bueno Aires are looking into the possibility that a hotel employee procured the drugs for the 31-year-old singer and used a box of soap for a secret hand-off.
Sources within the prosecutors’ office previously said there appeared to be “evidence that a hotel employee sourced the drugs for Payne” before his tragic death on Oct. 16, but did not provide additional details.
A Dove soap box seen in photos from the room was seemingly out of place, but may be a key to determining what precisely led up to Payne’s fatal fall from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel. The box was among white powder and paraphernalia, including burnt tin foil and a lighter, on the same table in the singer’s room.
A government official confirmed Thursday that the hotel was raided by a special investigations unit Wednesday night.
Computer hard drives and footage from hotel security cameras were seized from the premises on orders from the public prosecutors’ office, The Associated Press reported.
According to a toxicology report cited by ABC News, the former One Direction member had cocaine, benzodiazepine, crack and “pink cocaine,” a cocktail of multiple recreational drugs, in his bloodstream at the time of death.
Officials also suggested Payne had taken “cristal,” a street drug that reportedly causes psychotic attacks and hallucinations, before he “jumped from the balcony.”
The circumstances surrounding the fatal incident remain under investigation.
Preliminary autopsy results declared multiple traumatic injuries resulting in internal and external bleeding as the cause of Payne’s death from the nearly 45-foot fall. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
