Liam Payne called hotel employees ‘all the time’ to ask for alcohol and advice on where he could buy cocaine shortly before he died and offered an escort $5,000 to visit him, a newly unearthed prosecution file has revealed.
The One Direction star died on October 16 after falling from a third floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was 31.
In the weeks since, police have launched a wide-ranging investigation into his death; five people have been charged, including several hotel staff and Argentinian businessman Roger Nores, who denies being a suspect.
Esteban Grassi, the chief receptionist who is now under formal investigation, claimed Payne called down ‘insistently’ to ask for alcohol, and to ask where he could get cocaine – allegedly insulting a member of staff who said he could not help.
Further to this, text messages purporting to have been exchanged between Liam and an escort in which he offered her $5,000 (£3,900) to ‘party’.
It came as reports suggested a psychiatrist had emailed Nores to advise it was ‘impossible’ to continue supporting Liam with his mental health – and to warn of the risks associated with mixing antidepressants and alcohol.
Messages provided to prosecutors, obtained by Argentine journalist Mauro Szeta and published on his website VíaSzeta, appeared to show a phone number from southeastern Florida sending messages to an escort on WhatsApp.
The messages included a link Liam’s Instagram profile to the escort, before asking if she wanted to ‘play’.
‘I have all day… I’d gift you $5,000… US dollars,’ the message reads. ‘You come to my hotel, we party, just me and u.’
Liam Payne in his last Snapchat story. New statements given to prosecutors suggest he had offered prostitutes $5,000 and asked hotel staff where he could get cocaine
The two women, named as Aldana Serrano (left), 31, and Lucila Goitea (right), 27, in the Argentinian press, have given sworn statements to the state prosecutor
Noticing that the escort’s WhatsApp background featured another woman, the texter alleged to be Payne then asks: ‘Who’s your friend, do you want to bring her?’
The escort replied: ‘Let’s go Noe [sic] until 7pm, 5000 USD both, it’s the whole day the two of us together.’
The person texting, alleged to be Payne, replies: ‘Ok fine but bank transfer.’
Prior to this, Grassi said he had been texted by a bellboy on Monday October 14 following an altercation with Payne as he dropped off a fruit basket to the singer’s room.
‘He invited me [in] to his room (which was a disaster, by the way) and asked me if I could get him cocaine,’ Mr Benitez said in his text.
‘I replied, “I apologise sir, but neither I nor any of the staff can help you with that type of service,” to which he replied that I was “useless” and that I should get out of his sight.
‘I felt a little intimidated, since his manner was not very polite.’
Reports in Argentinian media have named waiter Barian Paiz, hotel worker Ezequiel Pereyra and Nores as being accused of providing drugs for payment; Nores is also charged with abandoning Payne before he died.
Grassi and Gilda Martín, the hotel’s head of security, have also been charged and summoned to testify next week between December 17 and 19. Paiz, Pereyra and Nores are also being summoned for further questioning.
Emergency services outside the CasaSur Palermo hotel in Buenos Aires on October 16 after the death of Liam Payne
Fans staged a vigil outside in the hours after his death as it became clear that Liam was the person who had fallen to his death
Roger Nores, an Argentinian businessman and friend of Liam’s, has denied he is being investigated over Liam Payne’s death
Nores has repeatedly denied that he is a suspect, but prosecutors allege that he acted as a de facto manager for Liam while he was in Argentina, controlling his spending and giving him money for drugs.
He was deemed persona non grata at Liam’s funeral on November 20; sources said he had ‘never been popular’ with the 1D star’s wider circle.
Grassi said Liam had approached reception on the day he died and had asked for a taxi to collect a woman named Aldana Serrano from an apartment around four miles away.
She and another woman named in Argentine press reports as Lucila Goitea then arrived a short time later; Payne is alleged to have made an order for four bottles of whisky and a bottle of champagne, as well as cash.
Grassi then notified Nores of the order, who allegedly replied: ‘Thank you very much Esteban.’
After an hour, as previously reported, Payne and the two women then came down to the lobby and allegedly argued about money.
The escorts then showed Grassi the text message exchange in which someone alleged to be Liam had promised them $5,000.
Grassi claims the singer then returned to his room, allegedly trashing it, before returning to the lobby. He was then taken back to his room again, alone.
Aldana and Goitea have since given statements to prosecutors investigating the case.
At some point shortly after, Grassi claims, Payne then fell unconscious on his way back to the lobby before waking up and trying to sit on a stool at the hotel bar – at which point he collapsed again.
Geoff Payne, Liam Payne’s father, arrives at the CasaSur Hotel on October 18, two days after the singer died
Mr Payne is seen inspecting tributes to Liam outside the hotel. The family is thought to have barred Roger Nores from attending the singer’s funeral
Hotel staff were then seen on CCTV, first revealed to the world by the Mail, carrying Liam by his limbs back to his room for what would be the last time.
Prosecutors are reported to be considering charges of ‘negligent homicide’ against staff who took Payne back to his room at a time of immediate crisis, rather than keeping him in the lobby.
Grassi said: ‘After a few minutes we did indeed hear him breaking everything in there again, like he was throwing things or kicking things, I don’t know why.
‘The noises didn’t stop so I decided to go down to reception – I think we all did – and if I remember correctly I called 911 – or [ambulance service] SAME, I don’t remember well, I’m very stressed out by the situation – and I explained the situation to them, that I was afraid of what could happen to this person because of the state he was in.
‘At that moment I saw a police car approach the hotel and one of the sales guys appeared and told me… that he had fallen in the patio of the Sacro restaurant and that he had heard the sound of the fall.’
Grassi added that he called Roger Nores and notified him. Nores reportedly told him he would notify Liam’s family, but was not seen or heard from again.
An autopsy report confirmed Payne died of traumatic brain injuries, after striking the base of his skull on a concrete umbrella base after falling from a third-floor balcony.
Reports at the end of November suggested Liam had antidepressants in his system when he died – and that a psychiatrist had warned she could no longer effectively treat him amid his recurrent crises.
Toxicology analysis revealed Payne had cocaine in his urine, blood, stomach and nasal passages. The antidepressant sertraline, sold in the US as Zoloft, was also present in his system.
Previous reports suggested Payne may have ingested so-called ‘pink cocaine’ – a psychoactive party drug popular in Ibiza made up of ketamine, methamphetamine, MDMA and heroin.
Liam Payne found fame as a member of One Direction (pictured left alongside Zayn Malik, Niall Horan, Harry Styles and Louis Tomlinson in 2013)
Liam later dated one-time X-Factor judge Cheryl Tweedy, and went on to have son Bear, seven, with her
Liam pictured with girlfriend Kate Cassidy in March 2023. She had stayed with Liam elsewhere in Argentina but flew home before he checked into the CasaSur
Liam Payne pictured in 2019 arriving at an event at the SSE Wembley Arena. He pursued a solo career after 1D went on hiatus in 2016
Liam’s father, Geoff Payne, submitted an email to the court from the unnamed Miami therapist, allegedly been sent to Roger Nores, warning that she could not effectively treat Liam’s ongoing mental health issues.
In her email to Nores, sent on September 16, exactly a month before Liam died, the neuropsychiatrist warned that mixing sertraline with alcohol could have lethal consequences.
She added that she was disengaging from treating Liam, as it was ‘impossible’ to support him because of his recurrent crises.
Payne had arrived at the CasaSur hotel around a day after his girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, had flown back to the US.
A source previously told the Mail that Ms Cassidy had become disillusioned by the singer’s relapse into drug-taking, prompting her return to Miami.
Following his death, his girlfriend wrote on Instagram: ‘My heart is shattered in ways I can’t put into words. I will love you for the rest of my life and beyond, carrying our dreams and memories with me everywhere I go.’
She has since shared a touching home video of moments between her and Liam during their two-year relationship.
The case is being overseen by Argentina’s national courts. Lawyers acting for Nores had asked for his case to be investigated by local prosecutors – initially approved by Laura Graciela Bruniard.
But national prosecutors appealed and Judge Marcelo Lucini, of the National Court of Appeals in Criminal and Correctional Matters, said this was ‘premature’ and returned the case to national prosecutors.
Prosecutors have pored over 800 hours of video footage and have taken ‘several dozen’ testimonies from witnesses, as well as data from Liam’s phone and those belonging to others.
Prosecutors are now hunting for video footage that appears to show the moment of Payne’s death. Such footage exists but has not been found, according to Argentine news outlet Infobae.