The last hours of Liam Payne have been pieced together through “leaked texts”, and it was revealed that the former One Direction member made a series of requests to hotel workers and a companion before his death, Radaronline.com reported.
The British singer was seen acting “erratically” in the lobby of the hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he was staying.
Moments after being escorted back to his room, he fell from the third-floor balcony of his room. He died at the age of 31 on October 16.
With the support of leaked text messages, as well as statements from employees of the hotel located in the Argentine capital, they give an idea of Payne’s last moments before his death.
Liam Payne’s pre-death messages
In a WhatsApp message sent from a South Florida phone number, the singer allegedly proposed to a woman to “touch” in exchange for $5,000.
The message read: “I have all day… I would give you $5,000… US dollars. You come to my hotel, we have a party, just you and me,” the text read.
The woman’s WhatsApp profile showed her and another woman, which led Payne to ask: “Who’s your friend? Do you want to bring her?”. She allegedly replied: “Let’s go Noe (sic) until 7pm, 5000 USD both, it’s all day both together”. Payne replied to the message: “Okay, but bank transfer”.
A manager at the Hotel CasaSur Palermo also recalled that the singer frequently called the receptionists to ask for alcohol and allegedly asked where he could buy cocaine in Buenos Aires.
Shortly after Payne checked into CasaSur Palermo, a bellhop brought him a fruit tray as a courtesy from the hotel to the singer’s room.
After delivering the tray, the bellhop told his bosses that Liam Payne insulted him after he asked him where he could buy cocaine and the employee responded with a “no”.
The employee sent to the front desk manager Esteban Grassi, who made the call to 999 requesting medical assistance for Payne before his fatal fall, and now those WhatsApp messages are under investigation because of the incident.
Payne’s request to a hotel employee in Buenos Aires
The message, sent by a person registered as Santiago Benitez Bellboy AM on Grassi’s phone, read: “Hello Esteban, how are you? Sorry to bother you, but I wanted to tell you about a little situation I had with the person in room 310.
“When I went to give him a guest gift and welcome him to the hotel and Argentina, he invited me to his room (which was completely messy) and asked me if I could get him cocaine.
“I told him, ‘I’m sorry sir, but neither I nor any other member of staff can help you with that kind of service’ to which he replied that I was useless and told me to get out of his sight. I felt a little threatened because he didn’t behave very politely.
“I’m also going to tell Gilda this so that they are both aware and there are no misunderstandings in case this man mentions my name again at some point during his stay, because he asked me what my name was.”
After Payne’s death, Grassi allegedly told investigators: “I understand that he was more active at night, that he would go to the front desk repeatedly to ask for alcohol all the time and ask where he could get drugs, specifically cocaine.”
He also claimed that he acted as a “translator” for two female escorts that Payne entertained at the hotel.
Grassi added: “Liam asked me to be a translator. That’s when I was told I had to pay them, but they didn’t specify why.
“They told me I owed them $5,000, but it seemed strange because before they had asked me for $300, and although I’m not an expert in these things, the amount of money they asked me seemed a bit excessive,” he said.
