Disturbing Details Emerge From Final Moments Before Liam Payne's Death

10/18/2024 01:06 PM

The death of former One Direction star Liam Payne rocked the entertainment world this week.

The 31-year-old former boy band star died after he fell from a third-floor balcony of his hotel room in Argentina earlier this week. Payne reportedly started behaving "erratically" in the hours before his death.

Details surrounding his death have started to trickle in and they paint a disturbing picture.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, a woman named Rebecca claimed she was staying at the same hotel as Payne for a friends wedding.

"I came into the hotel, and he was waiting by the elevator, and it was so clear he wanted someone to recognize him," the woman said. "There was something a bit desperate about him."

One of the parties in the wedding was reportedly supposed to have the suite Payne had been staying in, but he had not checked out as of 4:30 p.m.

While trying to give him space, Rebecca and a few friends ran into him around the elevator when he started behaving weirdly.

"When the lift came, he suddenly said to us without any prompting, 'Yes, I'm Liam!' really drawing it out, and then said, 'All right, come on, you lot, get in the elevator with me. I love a cuddle,'" she claimed.

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"Some of the other girls got in with him, and halfway up, he started saying, 'Oh, you're Americans. I live in West Palm Beach. I know Americans. You guys are [expletive] crazy! You guys are [expletive] dangerous!'" she remembered.

The hotel guest said Payne then grabbed a woman who she believed he had been "with him" and started "fake-choking her."

"Only lightly, but the others thought it was really disturbing," she admitted.

Ten minutes later, Rebecca returned to the lobby, only to see Payne return with his laptop shortly after.

"I have a blind relative, and I realized he had the laptop on its accessibility setting, for some reason, so that each time he moved the mouse, hovering over something, the machine spoke out loud to say where the cursor was," she recalled.

"I assumed he was doing that for the attention, too," she continued. "Then he opened his emails and saw one which obviously upset him. Suddenly he took the computer, shouted, 'F–k this s–t, mate!' and started bashing the computer on the ground."

The woman claimed his behavior was "out of place" for a high end hotel so she eventually went over to ask he if was okay.

"I went over, asked, 'Are you OK?' But he just kind of grunted. Then he said, 'I used to be in a boy band. That's why I'm so [expletive] up,'" she claimed.

Rebecca said eventually someone from Payne's entourage came over to apologize for his behavior before noting he "'just gets so high sometimes.'"

"I did wonder what these people with him were doing to help him, but maybe they had tried and failed," she said. "The hotel staff were freaking out and watching him really nervously. I could see one of them was on the phone to what I assumed was security or the police."

After leaving the lobby for an undetermined amount of time, Payne allegedly re-entered, but couldn't stay on his feet.

"He walked in again and just tripped and fell flat on his face, sprawling across the floor," she said. "The staff came to help him and get him back in the elevator, and that's when I took the last photo."

"It wasn't long after that when the police arrived, and initially we thought they were just going to kick him out, but then when the staff started running around like crazy, we suddenly realized the seriousness of what had happened," she added.

Her story lines up that a comment from Communications director for the Buenos Aires Security Ministry Pablo Policicchio who said Argentinian officials received a call about an "aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol."

Policicchio later claimed that the beloved singer "had jumped from the balcony of his room."

The New York Post reported that Payne's body was found on the ground floor with "a bottle of whiskey, a lighter and a cellphone."

Related: Prayers Pouring In For Liam Payne's Girlfriend After His Death