Nia Dalton, Saffron Otter & Isabelle Bates
·5-min read
Police investigating the death of Liam Payne are said to be searching for the singer's £30,000 Rolex watch. The former One Direction member died after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina.
He was pronounced dead on October 16 leaving his fans across the world in shock. The 31-year-old shot to fame as a teen when he appeared on The X Factor where he was placed into a boyband with Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik.
Dad-of-one Liam, who was from Wolverhampton, had been with his girlfriend of two years, Kate Cassidy, in South America before she decided to cut their trip short. He is said to have spent his final days with locals under the influence of drugs, The Mirror reports.
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Investigators have worked 'meticulously' to rule out suicide and 'third party' involvement, according to a lengthy statement released last week. Three people, including a hotel worker, have been arrested in connection with his death.
Officials confirmed the arrests of three suspects who are now under formal investigation. They have said the crimes were punishable by a prison sentence of up to 15 years on conviction.
The long statement read that "unlawful conduct was discovered" and as a result, "three people were charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death, supply and facilitation of narcotics".
The first of the accused is the person who "accompanied the artist on a daily basis during his stay in the city of Buenos Aires". That person is "charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death".
The second person is a hotel employee. They have been charged with "two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the period he was at the hotel". The third person, who is also a supplier of narcotics, is "charged with two other clearly proven supplies at two different times on 14 October."
One of the three people being investigated is Argentinian waiter, Braian Nahuel Paiz, who is suspected of being Liam's 'dealer' in the ongoing prosecution probe which he denies. Braian, 24, met Liam for the first time at the restaurant where he worked.
Talking to journalist Guillermo Panizza, Braian, on Argentinian TV on Saturday, he claimed Liam communicated with him using a secret Instagram account after they met when the singer was dining with his girlfriend. Braian admitted he did take drugs with Liam, but insisted he never supplied him with narcotics or received any money from him.
He said: "I never supplied Liam with drugs. Liam's first contact with me was at my place of work. We swapped details and saw each other later that night. It was all normal. He came down from his hotel room to fetch me because I had got lost.
"We got together there and he showed me some of the music he was going to bring out. I’ve heard people saying he was taking drugs, but the truth is that when he got to the restaurant where I was working he was already under the effects of drugs and he didn’t actually eat anything."
Braian claims the second time he met Liam, on October 13, they spent the night together while the singer consumed cocaine and Braian smoked marijuana. He said: "We took drugs together, but I never took drugs to him or accepted any money.
"We consumed drugs because the truth is that something intimate happened. I stayed there all night... He wasn’t aggressive at all, he behaved really well with me, he was really sweet. He asked me if I was okay. I’ve got all the messages where we arranged that second meeting. I haven’t erased anything."
Claiming he had no idea who the other two suspects were, Braian said he was confused when he saw photos from the singer's hotel room the day he died. He added: "When I saw the photos of the inside of Liam’s hotel room nothing made any sense to me. The Dove soap packet was there when I was in the hotel but I couldn’t understand what it was for or the candles or the glass of water."
Argentinian police investigating Liam's death have reportedly returned to his hotel room in an apparent search for his £30,000 Rolex watch which is still reported to be missing following his tragic passing.
Two uniformed officers arrived on Tuesday morning at the CasurSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires. The Mail Online reports that the officers swarmed the third storey room which Liam, 31, fell from in a continuing search for the singer’s gold Rolex.
Liam's suite has remained cordoned off following his tragic death with guests being kept away. The Strip That Down singer was seen wearing the expensive watch in CCTV images on the day he died on October 16, but it was not on his body and all efforts to locate it have so far failed, leading to fears it had been stolen.
A judicial source told La Nacion: "We know from images that have been analysed that Liam had the watch on the day of his death. He had it in one of his hands and he had it at least two to three hours before his fatal hotel fall. We looked for it in his hotel room and couldn't find it.
"The watch was searched for in the homes of the three people being investigated on suspicion of abandoning Liam and the supply and facilitation of drugs, as well as in the homes of the two female escorts who were with him in his room the afternoon he died."
Prosecutors reportedly believe Liam did not take his own life and have instead linked the tragedy to a substance-induced 'psychotic episode'.
