Liam Payne: Everything we know about the suspects who the police are investigating

The One Direction singer tragically died on 16th October after falling from a balcony of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires. The police are still investigating the circumstances of his death. Now, the authorities have revealed that they’re questioning two new people, in addition to the three other suspects. Here’s everything we know about all five people who the police are looking into in relation to Liam Payne’s death.

The manager of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel

Rolling Stone saw new documents from 9th December in which the judge called for five people to be formally questioned. Two of these people are new. They’ve been listed as “imputados”, which means “people charged”, but the document doesn’t specify what they’ve been charged with.

The judge has called for the manager of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel to be questioned by the court on the morning of 19th December.

We know from security footage and witnesses’ accounts that Liam Payne spent the afternoon in the hotel lobby.

His friend  Rogelio Nores spent time with him there. He told the Daily Mail, “I never abandoned Liam. I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened. There were over 15 people at the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left. I could have never imagined something like this would happen.”

CCTV footage from the CasaSur Palermo Hotel shows Liam Payne causing a disturbance in the lobby. Three hotel staff carried him upstairs to his room. Liam Payne seems to have resisted.

The head of reception who phoned the emergency services

The CasaSur Palermo Hotel
(Image via Google Maps)

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The judge also now wants to question the person who phoned the emergency services. He’s the head of reception at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel, and still works there as of Tuesday morning. He will appear in court on the morning of 18th December.

The BBC published transcripts of the two phone calls between this receptionist and the Buenos Aires police.

The receptionist said, “We’ve got a guest who has had too many drugs and alcohol and, well, when he is conscious he is trashing the entire room and we need you to send someone, please.”

He continued, “We need you to send someone urgently because, well, I don’t know whether his life may be in danger, the guest’s life. He is in a room with a balcony and well, we’re a little afraid.”

Liam Payne’s friend who has been accused of abandoning him

A statement from the National Prosecutor’s Office for Criminal and Correctional Matters in Argentina revealed three people were being investigated for criminal activity.

Fans laying tributes to Liam Payne outside the CasaSur Palermo Hotel
(Credit: Roberto Tuero/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)

The report says, “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, who is charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death – contemplated in article 106 of the Penal Code and which provides for a prison sentence of 5 to 15 years –  as perpetrator, in ideal concurrence with the supply and facilitation of narcotics.”

Liam Payne’s friend will be questioned on 18th December.

In November, Rogelio Nores denied the police were investigating him.

A hotel worker who could have supplied drugs to Liam Payne

The prosecutor’s office said, “The second defendant is an employee of the hotel who is charged with two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the period he was at the hotel.”

Liam Payne stayed at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel from 13th October until he tragically died on 16th October.

Another person who has been accused of supplying drugs

Braian Nahuel Paiz on the Argentinian news show Telefa Noticias

The final suspect is described in the report from the prosecutor’s office as “also a supplier of narcotics” who has been “charged with two other clearly proven supplies at two different times on 14 October.”

A 24-year-old waiter called Braian Nahuel Paiz said on the Argentinian news that the police were investigating him and had searched his home. Argentinian media has reported that he is the suspect accused of supplying drugs to Liam Payne, although the police haven’t officially named him as a suspect.

Braian Nahuel Paiz says he met Liam Payne at the restaurant where he was working. They communicated on Instagram. He admitted to smoking marijuana with Liam Payne while the singer took cocaine. But he denied supplying him with the drugs.

He said, “We took drugs together, but I never took drugs to him or accepted any money. I have messages where he’s offering me money because he was apparently used to offering money for everything but I never accepted anything.”

Both the suspects accused of supplying Liam Payne with drugs will be questioned on 17th December.

Feature image credit: Scott Garfitt/Shutterstock