Horrifying moment Liam Payne tragically fell from hotel balcony 'was captured on CCTV'
The horrifying CCTV footage showed Liam Payne, 31, had fallen from the third-floor hotel room after he "fainted" on the balcony, journalist Paula Varela has claimed. The 45-year-old also alleged the authorities were keeping this a secret.
The mother-of-two also claimed a night worker at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel who had struck up a close relationship with Liam was the focus of an ongoing investigation which was trying to establish who supplied him with the drugs suspected of contributing to his death on October 16. Speaking on Socios del Espectaculo, a show broadcast on Buenos Aires-based TV station Canal 13, Paula said: "There is footage that is not being released to the media with the balcony scene where you see that Liam faints and tragically because of where he is, falls from that balcony.
"If he had been beside his bed, he would have fallen on it. It's not that he jumped deliberately. This footage is in the official case files."
She added: "There's a lad who's being investigated, he was working nights at the hotel. He's 20 and had struck up an excellent relationship with Liam. He's from Lomas de Zamora on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, but we're not going to say his name.
"He disobeyed an order from the hotel management. What was the order he disobeyed? It was not to take anything into Liam's room.
"Because of the good relationship he had with Liam, he requested a car through one of these taxi apps we all use because Liam wanted something.
"He did him that favour, a massive error because he's being investigated, and they're seeing what was transferred in that vehicle.
"It's one of the things the investigators are looking at at the moment, and obviously, this hotel worker has been suspended.
"He's a cherished member of staff, a good worker, but he disobeyed an order that could have proved fatal."
Prosecutors said Liam was "in a state of semi or total unconsciousness" during a substance-induced 'psychotic episode' when he fell in a statement after his death.
The father-of-one died of multiple trauma injuries, which had caused "internal and external haemorrhaging."
Investigators are on the search for his dealer following speculation someone from the hotel was supplying the star with narcotics.
Argentinian news portal Infobae said forensic experts discovered traces of cocaine in Liam's body, but tests on a white powder pictured in leaked photos showing the inside of his hotel suite after his death had so far proved "inconclusive."
Buenos Aires police officers descended on the hotel where Liam died last Thursday and were seen going through documents and looking at computers in the lobby.
Liam's father, Geoff Payne, got a flight to Buenos Aires after learning his son had died in a bed to speed up the repatriation of the singer's body. His funeral is expected to take place next month.
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