‘One theory is he may have been hallucinating as a result of the illicit substance he was using’
ABC reports that the 31-year-old One Direction singer “had multiple substances in his system” when he fell from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Payne’s autopsy also revealed traces of cocaine, crack and benzodiazepine, which is a depressant, were present in his body at the time of his death.
Additionally, ABC reported that “an improvised aluminum pipe to ingest drugs was also found in his hotel room.”
In the leadup to Payne’s death, 911 audio detailed a frantic scene in the hotel as staff sought medical help dealing with the troubled star.
“We have a guest who is (allegedly) high and drunk; and when he is conscious, he is destroying his room and we need you to send someone, please. We need you to send someone urgently because I don’t know if his life is in danger,” the manager named “Esteban” said.
“They must be in a room that has a balcony. And well, we’re a little bit worried he’ll do something, that he’ll put his life at risk,” he said.
By the time medics arrived, Payne was already dead, with his body found in the inside courtyard of the hotel, where he was pronounced dead.
What led to Payne’s jumping to his death remains a mystery, but according to TMZ, “one theory is he may have been hallucinating as a result of the illicit substance he was using.”
Some guests who were staying at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel described the singer’s “disturbing” behaviour in his final hours.
A woman named Rebecca told told the Daily Mail “there was something a bit desperate about him” when she encountered Payne in the hotel lobby.
“I came into the hotel, and he was waiting by the elevator, and it was so clear he wanted someone to recognize him,” Rebecca, who did not share her last name, told the outlet.
While she was still in the lobby, Payne had returned with his laptop, which she said was on “its accessibility setting.”
“Each time he moved the mouse, hovering over something, the machine spoke out loud to say where the cursor was,” she recalled. “I assumed he was doing that for the attention, too. Then he opened his emails and saw one which obviously upset him. Suddenly he took the computer, shouted, ‘F*** this s***, mate!’ and started bashing the computer on the ground.”
She said she approached Payne and asked if he needed assistance. “I went over, asked, ‘Are you OK?’ But he just kind of grunted. Then he said, ‘I used to be in a boy band. That’s why I’m so f***ed up,’” she said. “There was a lot more swearing, and he took the laptop and went to get back in the lift.”
Rebecca said “hotel staff were freaking out and watching him really nervously.”
“Out of all of the One Direction boys, Liam was on the wrong path musically,” the insider claimed.
Payne released the EP First Time in 2018, and his 18-song studio album, LP1, the following year. But he was open about how hard it was for him to grow up under the glare of intense media coverage after One Direction exploded in popularity and became one of the biggest bands in the world.
Speaking to Stephen Bartlett on The Diary Of The CEO podcast in 2021, Payne was open about his struggle with substance abuse and the pressures of fame.
“I was worried how far my rock bottom was going to be. Where’s rock bottom for me?” he said. “It feels to me, like when we were in the band. The best way to secure us was to lock us in our rooms, and what is in the room? A mini-bar. So I had a party-for-one that seemed to carry on for many years of my life, and then you look back at how long you’ve been drinking? And Jesus Christ that’s a long time, even for someone as young as I am.”