Liam Payne’s Death Ruled Accidental, Not Suicide, as Argentine Officials Charge Three Individuals
Liam Payne’s death has been ruled as an accident as Argentine officials charge three people with abandonment and drug-related crimes.
Trigger Warning: This article contains mentions of drug addiction and an individual's death.
Liam Payne’s family and fans recently mourned the singer's untimely passing in October. Argentine authorities took three individuals into custody three weeks after the incident and ruled out the potential of suicide. Payne was staying at a hotel in Buenos Aires when he fell from the third-floor balcony.
An official September 30th autopsy concluded on October 16, and subsequent reports confirmed that the former One Direction member suffered multiple head and body injuries on impact. These injuries could not have resulted from self-harm or a fistfight, the report stated.
Quite a few drugs were also present in his system, including a drug cocktail called 'pink cocaine', according to toxicology reports. According to La Nación, employees of the Casa Sur hotel told police earlier that a drunken man was causing disturbances, referring to the Strip That Down singer.
Three people, who have not been named yet, have been charged with causing Payne’s death by neglect, supplying substances, and enabling use. The authorities have prevented the trio from leaving the country, charging them with "abandonment of a person followed by death, supply and facilitating the use of narcotics." However, none of them have been arrested as of now.
Of the three people charged, one of them is said to be a close associate of Liam, while another person who worked at the hotel reportedly supplied him the substances found in his system at the time of death, and a drug dealer is among the three.
As per the BBC, the authorities are still investigating Payne's broken laptop and other devices. The prosecutor's office examined more than 800 hours of security camera footage of the hotel and on public roads alongside collecting dozens of testimonies. The Teardrops singer's body was flown back to the UK to his family on Wednesday.
In 2010, Liam Payne was placed in a group with four other boys: Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson, and Zayn Malik, which went on to form One Direction, which went on to take the world by storm. Between 2010 and 2016, One Direction released five albums and sold over 70 million copies worldwide. In 2019, Liam joined the ranks of his fellow One Direction members who pursued a solo career even after the split of the band by releasing the solo debut album LP1.
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