Liam Payne’s influencer girlfriend and others believe he “could have been saved” after watching “painful” CCTV footage of him, high on drugs and being carried through the lobby of his Argentinian hotel, moments before he fell to his death from his third-floor suite on Oct. 16.
The report about Kate Cassidy’s heart-wrenching reaction to the video from inside the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires came just before another report Monday, saying that the One Direction singer had been so out of control that afternoon that he was locked alone in his hotel suite, with the report also theorizing that he was trying to escape the room by way of its balcony when he fell.
Now, another report Tuesday details just how out of control Payne was in the final 18 hours of his life. TMZ, citing a prosecutor’s report, said that Payne allegedly ordered nine bottles of whisky and tried to hit up several different people for cocaine, while also having sex with two prostitutes in his room several hours before his death. The report furthermore describes Payne “trashing” his room and punching a TV in his room three times after he became enraged when the prostitutes asked for payment.
The prosecutor’s report outlines why they want to file charges against Payne’s good friend Roger Nores for abandoning him in his final hours, TMZ reported. Nores had reportedly volunteered to take over Payne’s care and was supposed to arrange for him to go back to rehab, Payne’s father told police, according to TMZ.
For reasons that are not explained, Nores instead traveled to Argentina with Payne, where Payne ostensibly wanted to attend former bandmate Niall Horan’s gig at the Movistar Arena in Buenos Aires.
But while in Argentina, Nores stayed at a different hotel, even though he understood that Payne shouldn’t be left alone and he knew that the had relapsed, prosecutors allege, according to TMZ.
At 10 p.m. the night before Payne died, the singer ordered four bottles of whiskey, TMZ reported. At 6:36 a.m. the next morning he ordered five more bottles of whiskey. At 7 a.m., Payne texted Nores and stated his attention to have sex with “a hooker.” Two and a half hours later, Payne texted Nores again, asking, “Can you get six grams?” He was presumably referring to cocaine.
Nores soon arrived at the hotel, where they had breakfast while Payne drank whiskey, TMZ reported. While the men were at breakfast, a maid went to Payne’s suite to clean and found it “trashed.” After breakfast, Payne returned to his room, where the maid said he “chaotically” looked for something and eventually found a “powder,” TMZ said.
At 11:30 a.m., two prostitutes arrived, and the women told police they had sex with Payne, TMZ reported. The prostitutes said Payne also asked them for cocaine because he said he had run out. When the women asked for payment, they said he became enraged and punched a TV three times.
At around 2 p.m., authorities said Payne asked a hotel employee to obtain cocaine, saying, “I’m gonna need another 7 grams for today,” TMZ reported.
Nores returned to Payne’s room around 3:45 p.m. to pay the prostitutes, according to the prosecutor’s documents, TMZ said. At 4 p.m., a hotel employee saw Payne appearing to be “visibly drunk” with dilated pupils. Nores left the hotel at 4:04 p.m. after which a housekeeper heard Payne breaking objects in his room.
Someone from the hotel tried to call Nores but he didn’t answer, TMZ reported. Nores texted Payne at 4:25 p.m, asking Payne, “How are you?” But Payne didn’t respond.
Sources close to Nores told TMZ that he checked on Payne three times that day and insisted that Payne appeared to be fine — not under the influence — an hour before he died.
But witnesses and CCTV footage from inside the hotel have told authorities a different story, according to TMZ and the Daily Mail. CCTV footage published over the weekend show three men carrying a seemingly unconscious Payne by his arms and legs out of the main lobby of the building, the New York Post reported.
The Daily Mail added that Payne, high on drugs, was picked up by the trio of hotel employees after he had, according to one witness, been “convulsing” on the lobby floor. He was then taken, via the elevator, back to his third-floor suite.
This footage was timestamped at 4:54 p.m. on Oct. 16 — some 13 minutes before Payne plummeted to his death at 5:07 p.m., according to the New York Post and Reuters. A second image showed Page with the three hotel employees outside his room, the Daily Mail said.
While there is some confusion about the timestamp for this image, the Daily Mail raised the question: Why did hotel employees move him to his room if he was so ill? Why didn’t they immediately call for an ambulance when he was struggling in the lobby?
Such questions are likely to grow following TMZ’s report Monday that said that hotel staff deposited Payne in his room — alone — even though they knew he was ill and threatening to use the balcony as a means of escape. TMZ said the footage of him with the hotel staff outside his room showed him struggling with them, clearly not wanting to go inside.
Nevertheless, an employee used a master key to enter the room and leave Payne there. Around the time that Payne was being carried to his room and locked inside, a man who identified himself as a hotel manager also called 911 and asked for SAME, Argentina’s medical emergency services, Page Six reported.
“We have a guest who is [allegedly] high and drunk; and when he is conscious, he is destroying his room and we need you to send someone, please,” the manager said, according to a transcript of the phone call. “We need you to send someone urgently because I don’t know if his life is in danger.”
TMZ said this manager and other hotel employees knew Payne might use the balcony to escape because the manager also said, “He is in a room with a balcony, and, well, we’re a little afraid … .”
To argue that Payne was indeed trying to escape his room via the balcony, TMZ reported that he had a bag strapped over his shoulder when his body was found. He didn’t have the bag with him when he was carried from the lobby. Police also found a hat on or near Liam’s body. “The hat is telling,” TMZ said. “He had to have put the hat on inside the room, because it wasn’t on in the lobby.”
TMZ said that Payne had been known for escaping hotel rooms before — and had escaped a Florida rental house in September by way of a balcony after a security guard locked him in the room of a Florida rental house during another drug binge.
Payne died from multiple blunt force trauma following his fatal fall. An autopsy found that he had a toxic mixture of drugs in his system at the time of his death — including crack cocaine and so-called “pink cocaine” — which is a mixture of ketamine and other drugs, the New York Post reported.
Seeing the CCTV footage was especially “devastating” for Cassidy, who began dating Payne in 2022, the New York Post reported. She believes it suggests there was a chance to intervene and get her boyfriend help.
“Whenever it seems it can’t get more painful for Kate, it gets even more painful,” a close friend of the 25-year-old influencer told the New York Post.
“He could have been saved, he could have been helped,” the friend said. “It’s devastating — and infuriating.”
“Whenever it seems it can’t get more painful for Kate, it gets even more painful,” a close pal of the 25-year-old influencer told The Post.
“He could have been saved, he could have been helped. It’s devastating — and infuriating.”
Cassidy also had traveled to Argentina with Payne, expecting that they would only stay for five days, E! News reported. But the couple ended up extending their trip for two two weeks, after which Cassidy declared on TikTok before Payne’s death, “I was so ready to leave.” She flew back to the United States on Oct. 12 — several days before Payne’s reported out-of-control behavior and his fatal fall.
Officials are poring through testimony from hotel staff, family members, friends, medical professionals and others to determine whether charges should be filed, specifically against three people, including Nores and a former hotel employee who alleged supplied Payne with drugs, the New York Post reported.
