Police in Argentina have returned to the hotel where Liam Payne died last week in order to retrieve several items and a list of those present on the property when he died.
Payne passed away at the age of 31 following a shocking fall from a third-floor balcony at the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires on Wednesday. A post-mortem examination revealed on Thursday that the late singer suffered multiple traumas leading to an "internal and external haemorrhage".
This afternoon, almost one week on from the star's tragic death, police arrived back at the hotel in which Payne stayed prior to his untimely death. After being inside the property for several hours, they removed numerous boxes of evidence marked "CCTV".
A source close to the investigation said: "Detectives have all the footage now from Liam’s entire stay - from the moment he checked in to the hours after he died. Police are determined to trace everyone and have also been given a list of all guests as well as visitors. In addition, they have a full list of employees."
The One Direction singer's body cannot be released until further toxicology reports have been completed, an Argentina prosecutor said earlier today. Payne’s father has travelled to Buenos Aires to arrange the repatriation of his body and vowed to tell police everything he knows about his son's life to speed up the process. A representative of the Public Prosecutor’s Office informed Geoff Payne that the results of the toxicology and histopathological report, complementary to the post-mortem, would be necessary to decide on the release of his son’s body.
The final toxicology results are not expected to be made public for some weeks, but the initial report suggested evidence of exposure to cocaine, an official told the Associated Press, but stressed the initial results do not offer an accurate reading of how much was circulating in his blood when he died.
For the investigation, expert reports are being carried out on mobile phones, computers and security cameras, which the Prosecutor’s Office said, "require a longer analysis time". A press release from the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office also said that reconstruction of the events, which has involved taking numerous statements from hotel workers and medical professionals, is "still ongoing".
A post-mortem examination report said Payne died of multiple traumas and "internal and external haemorrhage". Police officers and the emergency services found the music star dead at the scene on October 16 and his body was transferred to the judicial morgue.The prosecutor’s office indicated the musician was alone when the fall occurred and said he appeared to be "going through some kind of outbreak due to substance abuse".
Reports say staff at the hotel made two calls to emergency services, with audio revealing a staff member had asked for assistance for a guest who was "intoxicated by drugs and alcohol". Police in the Argentine capital previously said the music star’s hotel room had been "in complete disarray" with "various items broken". They added that a whiskey bottle, lighter and mobile phone had been retrieved from the internal hotel courtyard where Payne’s body was found.
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