Newly released security footage of Liam Payne shows the One Direction alum hours before his fatal fall last month, chatting with one of the hotel employees now charged in connection with his death.
Video obtained by TMZ shows the staffer, who sources say is bellboy Ezequiel David Pereyra, stacking chairs in the basement of Buenos Aires’ CasaSur Palermo Hotel, when an elevator door opens and the 31-year-old popstar pokes his head out.
The staffer can be seen ducking inside a back room, then reappearing and shaking hands with someone, presumably Payne, inside the elevator. Payne again pops his head out and the man retreats to the back room once more.
Authorities, who are reportedly in possession of the eerie footage, have yet to confirm the identity of the staffer in the video.
The encounter occurred just after 2 p.m. local time on Oct. 16, roughly three hours before Payne fell from the balcony of his third-floor hotel room, suffering multiple traumatic injuries resulting in internal and external bleeding.
Benzodiazepine, crack, cocaine and a drug cocktail known as “pink cocaine” — often a mix of methamphetamine, ketamine and MDMA — were found in Payne’s system at the time of his death, according to a toxicology report.
Though local officials quickly said Payne had “jumped from the balcony of his room,” the investigating prosecutor last week ruled out suicide, instead attributing the tragedy to the effects of the drugs.
In the days following Payne’s shocking death, sources in the prosecutor’s office told People an indictment could be forthcoming as they believed employees may have “sourced the drugs for Payne.” Raids soon followed, both at the hotel and the home of Payne’s “friend,” an unnamed Argentine businessman said to be in his room sometime before the fall.
Last week, authorities charged three in connection with Payne’s death, including the friend and an accused drug dealer, who has denied supplying any drugs to the popstar or receiving any money from him.
