Liam Payne’s close friend, a man who’s been charged in connection with his death, says the One Direction alum seemed “fine” and even “playful” the hour before his fatal fall — an account disputed by authorities and witnesses.
The 31-year-old pop star plunged to his death on Oct. 16 from the third-floor balcony of his room at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires.
Authorities have attributed his death to the effects of the drugs he’d taken earlier that day. A toxicology report later found benzodiazepine, crack, cocaine and a drug cocktail known as “pink cocaine” — often consisting of methamphetamine, ketamine and MDMA — all in Payne’s system at the time of his death.
In an upcoming episode of “TMZ Investigates,” Argentine businessman Rogelio “Roger” Nores shares his account of what happened in the hours leading up to his death.
Nores, who’s been charged with abandoning Payne, tells the outlet his friend seemed “fine,” albeit tipsy, and that was nothing was “out of the ordinary.”
“He was in good spirits. He was perfectly balanced, talking to everybody and having fun. … He seemed playful and happy,” Nores says in a preview of the episode, confirming he left Payne roughly an hour before his fatal fall.
But eyewitness Bret Watson, an American who was staying at the CasaSur ahead of his wedding, tells TMZ that Payne appeared to get increasingly intoxicated throughout that fateful day. The afternoon allegedly culminated in a tantrum in which Payne threw his computer to the ground and was ultimately escorted to his room by employees, as seen in hotel surveillance video.
The account from authorities is more in line with that of Watson, as they say Payne had been drinking and doing drugs all day, and acting anything but balanced. They say he was also requesting more cocaine from Nores that day, sending at one text that read, “Can you get 6 grams?”
Nores, who was charged last month, denies he abandoned Payne. An accused drug dealer was also charged as was a hotel employee accused of delivering the drugs to Payne.
Earlier this month, an Argentinian judge ruled that national prosecutors can charge Nores with abandonment if they so choose.
“TMZ Investigates: Liam Payne: Who’s to Blame” airs Monday at 8 p.m. ET on Fox.
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