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Three people arrested and charged in connection with the death of Liam Payne, Argentinian authorities say
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Three people arrested and charged in connection with the death of Liam Payne, Argentinian authorities say

Three people have been charged in connection with the death of singer Liam Payne, Argentina’s public prosecutor announced in a statement on Thursday.

The prosecutor’s statement said that during the investigation into Payne’s death, “illegal conduct was discovered in which three people were charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death, furnishing and facilitating narcotics resources.”

The former One Direction member fell from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires on October 16.

A person who was with Payne daily while he was in Buenos Aires is accused of abandoning a person after death, Andrés Madrea’s statement said.

British singer Liam Payne, a former member of the group One Direction, died on Wednesday at the age of 31 after falling from the third floor of a hotel in Argentina, police in Buenos Aires said.
Forensic investigators remove the body of British singer Liam Payne from the hotel where he died on October 16 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Luis Robayo / AFP – Getty Images

A hotel employee is accused of supplying Payne with cocaine twice while he was staying at the hotel, the statement said, and a third person is accused of supplying drugs to the singer twice during his stay on October 14.

They are both charged with delivery of narcotics, two counts each, Madrea said.

Toxicology reports showed Payne had alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his system in the last 72 hours before his death, prosecutors said.

His death was caused by “multiple trauma” and “internal and external bleeding” as a result of the fall from the hotel’s third-floor balcony, the prosecutor’s office said.

Forensic doctors who performed the autopsy told prosecutors that his injuries were consistent with a fall from that height and that self-harm, as well as interference from anyone else, had been ruled out. They added that since Payne “did not adopt a reflex position” to protect himself during the fall, “it can be inferred that he may have fallen into a state of semi- or total unconsciousness.”

Throughout the investigation, “exhaustive and painstaking actions and measures were taken to clarify the circumstances surrounding the artist’s death,” the statement said. Prosecutors heard “several dozen” testimonies from hotel staff, family members, friends, medical professionals, biochemists and psychiatrists.

Prosecutors also analyzed more than 800 hours of security video footage from the hotel and public streets, and searched the contents of Payne’s cell phone.

Also following the investigation, Payne’s body was released to his father, Geoff Payne, last weekend.

Payne, who rose to fame as a member of boy band One Direction, reportedly displayed destructive behavior in the hours before his death.

The hotel where he was staying called 911 after he “drank too much drugs and alcohol” and “ruined the whole room.”

“The guest is in a room with a balcony, and we are a little concerned that he may do something life-threatening,” the caller said, according to audio obtained from local media by Telemundo.

Payne was found dead just minutes after the call was made.