Liam Payne reportedly hit out at staff at the hotel where he died when they refused to deliver drugs to him, following several calls by the singer to the reception desk
11:20, 12 Dec 2024Updated 11:54, 12 Dec 2024
Liam Payne called receptionists at the hotel where he fell to his death to request alcohol "all the time" and asked where he could buy cocaine, a senior employee has claimed.
The One Direction star tragically died on October 16 after falling from the balcony of his third floor hotel room at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires. An initial toxicology report has found the singer had cocaine in his body at the time of his death.
A bellboy who took him a platter of fruit at the hotel claimed to bosses the singer had asked him to supply him cocaine and insulted him when the worker told him 'no'. The claims came from Esteban Grassi, the chief receptionist who made a 999 call requesting urgent medical assistance for Liam before his death.
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Grassi, who is now under formal investigation, is one of five suspects in an ongoing probe into Liam's death. He is also one of the three men pictured carrying Liam back up to his third-floor hotel room in the lobby shortly before he died.
Argentinian news site Todo Noticias published WhatsApp messages it claimed Grassi had handed in to the courts. One of the text exchanges, from a person registered in Esteban's phone as Santiago Benitez Bellboy AM, said: "Hello Esteban how are you? Sorry for bothering you but I wanted to let you know about a little situation I had with the person in room 310. When I went to hand him a guest amenity and welcome him to the hotel and Argentina, he invited me into his room (which was a complete mess) and asked me if I could get him cocaine.
"I told him, 'I'm sorry sir, but neither I or any other staff can help you with that type of service' to which he replied that I was useless and told me to get out of his sight. I felt a bit threatened because he didn't behave very politely."
The message seemed to reference another hotel worker, head of security Gilda Martin, identified locally as one of the five men under investigation. It continued: "I'm going to tell Gilda this too so you're both aware and there's no misunderstandings in case this man mentions my name again at some point in his stay, because he asked me what my name was. I'm just telling you and Gilda this."
Mr Grassi tried told the worker "not to worry" about what Liam had said. He told investigators, according to Todo Noticias: "I understand he was more active at night, that he ran reception repeatedly to ask for alcohol all the time and ask where he could get drugs, specifically cocaine."
He claimed he acted as a translator for the two female escorts Liam spent time with before he died because they didn't speak English and the singer didn't speak Spanish. He also alleged the singer asked for 300 dollars and alcohol when they went up to his room.
Mr Grassi said: "Liam asked me to act as translator. That's when they tell me he had to pay them but they didn't specify why. They told me he owed them 5,000 dollars but it seemed strange to me because he had asked me previously for 300 dollars and although I'm not an expert about these things, the amount of money they were asking for seemed a bit excessive to me."
Screenshots of WhatsApp messages sent between Liam and one of the women, were also published by Todo Noticias which said the sex worker had showed Mr Grassi the conversation to prove he owed them the money. The mobile phone user identified as Liam by the news portal sent a link to the singer's Instagram in an initial message.
It asked in English 'Wanna play' before adding after making a video call that wasn't picked up: "I have all day, I'd gift you 5,000 US dollars." The person receiving the messages sent back a Whatsapp location and wrote 'Are you coming?' but received the reply: "You come to my hotel, we party, just me and u.'
After sending a voice message, the man Todo Noticias identified as Liam wrote: "Do you want to bring her?" in an apparent reference to the second female escort, and added: "Casa Sur, I'm just gunna clean my room."
The WhatsApp exchange showed the woman had asked for "5,000 US dollars both" and the man identified as Liam replied: 'Hmmm. That's a lot huh, let's discuss' but then wrote 'Ok' and referred to a bank transfer after the other person replied: "It's the whole day the two of us together."
According to Todo Noticias, Mr Grassi said of Liam's last moments alive: "He was staring blankly, in a totally drunken state. It was clear he wasn't okay. When we opened the door we went in behind him and he just walked around.
"That's when I saw everything was broken, vases, lamps, his clothes strewn everything around the room, the towels stained with wine, broken bottles. I didn't see blood or any type of drug."
Claiming Liam fainted several times "because he was very drunk" in the minutes leading up to his third-floor balcony plunge, he added: "We heard he was once again smashing up everything inside, as if he was throwing or kicking things.
"We stayed outside trying to hear if things were calming down or how the situation was evolving and how we could intervene." Saying he learnt about Liam's fatal plunge after making his 999 call, he recalled: "One of the sales lads appeared and told me, 'He threw himself off the balcony'
"I asked him if he was alive and he said he didn't know, that he'd fallen onto the restaurant terrace and heard the noise, but no-one had seen how he'd fallen."
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