Liam Payne death investigation latest: Police question witnesses as escorts tell prosecutors star refused to pay them

Two Argentinian escorts who were with Liam Payne in the final hours of his life have told how the star refused to pay them.

In sworn statements to the Buenos Aires prosecutor, the women, who are both 25 and admit to working as prostitutes, said they were booked through an online escort service for a client at the CasaSur hotel.

They arrived at the hotel at 11:30 am and left at 4:00 pm. They had expected to leave the hotel early but lingered because they claimed they had not been paid, sources close to the investigation said.

The couple said the singer did not use drugs while with them and that he seemed normal. “We drank alcohol,” the two women stated.

They gave their testimony Wednesday night, just hours after Payne’s body was discovered. A source said: ‘The witnesses were cooperative, not only in their statements but also in offering access to their phones.’

According to the Argentine newspaper, prosecutors have also questioned three employees of the Casa Sur hotel to reconstruct the incident. Clarin.

Police in the capital said Payne’s hotel room was “completely in disarray” and that “several items were broken” – adding that a whiskey bottle, lighter and mobile phone had been recovered from the courtyard of the hotel where his body was found .

One Direction fans and celebrities paid tribute to Payne, while others mourned his death at a vigil outside the hotel where they lit candles and laid flowers.

The singer died of multiple traumas and “internal and external bleeding,” according to a post-mortem examination report.

Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No. 16 said it is investigating the incident as an “inconclusive death” following the report.

Meanwhile, aides have revealed they were concerned about the star’s access to a balcony prior to his fall.

Employees reportedly feared that the 6-foot-2 star was so intoxicated that he could easily fall over the glass railing of the balcony, which was reportedly at a height of about 4 feet and “easily fell over.”

Argentine police now believe he suffered “some kind of outbreak due to substance abuse” before his death.

The star plunged into the courtyard of the Casa Sur Hotel in the Argentine capital from the third floor at 5pm local time (9pm UK time) on Wednesday, before medics confirmed his death.

In the run-up to his death, a panicked hotel worker made two phone calls, the first of which said: ‘We have a guest who is completely out of his mind on drugs and is destroying everything in his room. Someone has to come.’

When the line went dead, he called back and said, “I don’t know if the guest’s life is in danger. The room has a balcony and we are afraid he will do something.’

According to local media, Payne allegedly ‘behaved erratically in the hotel lobby and broke his laptop’ before having to be ‘carried back to his room’.

Seconds later, the employee, who identified himself as Esteban, added, “Just send an ambulance, only an ambulance.” Workers had heard a loud noise in the courtyard before the singer’s body was discovered, just after 5pm local time (9pm UK time).

The singer died from 25 injuries sustained during his fall that led to “internal and external bleeding.” Preliminary autopsy results showed that the “injuries to his head alone were sufficient to cause death.”

Doctors revealed that the singer “did not adopt a reflex position” during his fall, suggesting that he may have been completely or semi-conscious at the time of his death.

Last night, guests staying at the same hotel as Payne shared memories of the moments leading up to his death, including hearing “violent noises” and a “scream.”

One, Doug Jones, told the BBC: ‘I thought they were working on the room. There was a lot of noise, like heavy lifting, like banging, a lot of loud, violent noises, I thought.

“And I saw hotel people going in and out of that room, so I thought they were working on the room.

“So around 4:00, 4:30, I started hearing some more noise, I was still working, and I heard a very loud, violent scream around 4:45, 5:00.”

Hotel staff raised the alarm at 5.04pm after Payne’s fall. An ambulance arrived at 5.11pm and Payne was subsequently pronounced dead.

Payne’s One Direction toured around the world and had five chart-topping albums, as well as four number one singles in the UK chart-topping singles chart, including Little Things.

Born in Wolverhampton, Payne released his debut solo album LP1 in 2019, which included the songs Polaroid and Strip That Down with Quavo.