This is a brown leather bag believed to belong to Liam Payne that could shed more light on how the singer died.
Found on the second floor balcony at the hotel where he fell to his death, it was said to contain a selection of pills, a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and a note that read ‘for Liam’.
Its discovery on the balcony below his room has now further raised suggestions that the One Direction singer was trying to escape at the time he died.
Police also discovered a hat on or near his body, as well as a second bag that was strapped over his shoulder.
Sources close to the star claim that this was not the first time Liam had tried to ‘escape’ from where he was staying.
In mid-September last year he had attempted to flee a Florida rental property by using a garden hose to climb to the ground after a tense encounter with his bodyguard, who was concerned about a potential drug binge.
On the day of his death, the singer was reportedly carried, seemingly unconscious, from the hotel lobby back to his room by staff. Less than ten minutes later, he had plunged to his death from his balcony.
The singer had previously struggled with feeling trapped in hotel rooms after he claimed he had been ‘locked up’ while touring with One Direction.
Speaking on The Diary of a CEO podcast in 2021, the former One Direction member said that touring ‘really fu**ed him up’, with the worst part being ‘locked up’ in hotel rooms after performing.
A pensive-looking Liam Payne pictured in his last Snapchat story before his death
The third-floor hotel balcony (circled) from where the star fell to his death, you can see the brown bag beneath it
The bag, which is believed to have belonged to Liam, was found with a selection of pills, a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and a note that read ‘for Liam’ (pictured)
New details of Liam Payne’s final hours revealed in court documents
This theory is supported by the judge overseeing Payne’s case who said in January: ‘Payne’s consciousness was altered and there was a balcony in the room. The proper thing to do was to leave him in a safe place and with company until a doctor arrived.
‘I maintain that the person named tried to leave from the balcony of the place where he was left because the forensic experts noted that he did not lose his balance. This is how the fall occurred.’
On Wednesday, three of the five people named in connection with the death of Liam Payne had all charges dropped against them in an Argentine court.
The report exonerates Payne’s friend and sometime manager Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores, 35, who had previously been accused of negligent manslaughter following the star’s death. He has now had the case against him dropped. As well as two hotel workers.
MailOnline has also reported that a forensic examination of the tragic 31-year-old’s final few hours reveals he contacted two women – Aldana Serrano and Lucila Goitea – through a sex-worker website and invited them to his hotel room.
The women arrived at 11.30am on October 16 to find the tragic former One Direction star inhaling a ‘crystal-like’ drug from aluminium foil.
Payne then asked them to source him more drugs before the trio had sex, it’s said.
After two-and-a-half hours in the room, he smashed the TV before ordering them to leave without being paid, court documents show.
Continuing her account of the evening, the prostitute Goitea, 27, told investigators: ‘He [Payne] had…a small whiskey that he was drinking.
‘He was consuming something like crystal, with aluminium foil and he asked us to get [drugs] for him and we had nowhere to get it or anything because we don’t do that.
‘During the time we were there we had sex.’
Toxicology tests found traces of alcohol, cocaine, benzodiazepine, crack cocaine and ‘pink cocaine’ – which is a combination of crystal meth, ketamine and MDMA.
Describing the scene in the hotel room, Goitea, who had been booked through the Gemidos,TV website, said: ‘Everything was disorganized, messy, there were aluminium foils lying around with drugs.. on the part of the sofa there were other burned aluminium foils… mess, clothes lying around.
‘I remember that he had a strong smell of alcohol but he looked good, he looked a harmonious person, if you didn’t get close and smell the alcohol on him you didn’t realize that he had consumed so much.’
After leaving abruptly, Goitea and Serrano, 31, agreed that they then had to return to the room because they had forgotten some of their belongings.
The two prostitutes, named as Aldana Serrano (left), 31, and Lucila Goitea (right), 27, say Liam Payne contacted them through a sex-worker website and invited them to his hotel room
As this picture from Liam Payne’s hotel room shows, a toxic cocktail of drugs and booze is likely to have played a role in his death
Similar items, such as burnt aluminum foil, were also found in the hotel room’s bathtub
A pink powder nicknamed ‘pink cocaine’ – a combination of crystal meth, ketamine and MDMA – was also reportedly found in Liam Payne’s body by toxicology tests
Also known as ‘tuci’ or ‘tusi’ or ‘Pantera Rosa’, pink cocaine originates from Colombia but has been found in the US, Spain and the UK. Pictured pink cocaine supplies being seized by Spanish police
Prosecutors’ file of Liam Payne’s ‘leaked texts’ reveal his final hours – and tragic downward spiral
The ruling by judges Julio Lucini and Hernán López, members of Chamber V of the Criminal and Correctional Court, notes that: ‘On that occasion Payne apologized to them, even kneeling down as she did so and they left.’
Serrano added that at one point Payne ‘took off his watch and threw it against the wall and broke it’.
The multi-millionaire had been seen arguing with one woman in the street about money on the day he died, according to a guest at the CasaSur hotel who told how the singer appeared ‘a little wild’ as he argued with a woman about money.
Michael Fleischmann, from the USA, claimed the former boy band star kept repeating to the woman: ‘I’ll give you $20,000 dollars just because I can.
‘I have $55 million, and I like to help people.’
During the ‘very tense situation’ the woman is said to have spoken in Spanish with the hotel manager translating the conversation to Payne at around 2pm local time.
Mr Fleischmann told the Buenos Aires Herald that he only recognised that the man ‘with an English accent who seemed to be causing a disturbance’ in the lobby was Payne until after news of his death broke.
He added that the singer had ‘seemed very upset, agitated, a little wild, walking around and pacing’ and ‘seemed very energized’.
Roger Nores, an Argentinian businessman and friend of Liam’s, said he was ‘delighted’ to be cleared of any involvement in the former One Direction star’s tragic death
The singer died suddenly aged 31 after falling from the third floor (circled) of the CasaSur hotel in Buenos Aires
Emergency services outside the CasaSur Palermo hotel in Buenos Aires on October 16 after the death of Liam Payne
Liam’s father Geoff is seen inspecting tributes to Liam outside the hotel. The family is thought to have barred Liam’s friend Roger Nores – who has been cleared from any involvement in Liam’s death – from attending the singer’s funeral
Following the prosecutor’s decision today, Nores has said he was ‘delighted’ to be cleared of any involvement in the former One Direction star’s tragic death.
Nores, who is an American citizen, had been accused of having ‘abandoned him [Liam Payne] to his luck knowing that he was incapable of fending for himself and knowing that he suffered from multiple addictions’, court documents showed.
Nores shared with MailOnline the 35 page court ruling which overturned a decision made on December 27 to keep him in the country and indict him in Liam’s death.
The ruling said:’ The prosecutors and the plaintiff have not pointed out any relationship or complicity on the part of Nores with the two defendants for supplying narcotics to Liam Payne, nor any contribution on his part in the execution of such acts.’
But Judge Laura Bruniard did say Nores ‘failed to fulfil his duties of care, assistance and help’ towards the singer.
Roger had been held in the South American country since Payne’s death on October 16, after being implicated by authorities investigating how the singer fell.
He had been forbidden to leave and had his assets seized and he faced up to 15 years in jail but his legal team appealed against the decision earlier last month and overnight the court cleared him and he shared his news with MailOnline first.
Speaking from Buenos Aries he said: ‘These last few months have been hard but now I am cleared of anything to do with Liam’s death, I am delighted to be a free man and innocent of all charges.
Liam Payne pictured in 2019 arriving at an event at the SSE Wembley Arena. He pursued a solo career after 1D went on hiatus in 2016
Liam later dated one-time X-Factor judge Cheryl Tweedy, and went on to have son Bear, seven, with her
Liam pictured with girlfriend Kate Cassidy in March 2023. She had stayed with Liam elsewhere in Argentina but flew home before he checked into the CasaSur
‘Liam was my friend and I am so sorry for what happened but as my legal team and I explained to the court very clearly, I had nothing to do with it and I am not in any way responsible.’
The decision was made by judges Julio Lucini and Hernán López, members of Chamber V of the Criminal and Correctional Court.
Nores shared with MailOnline the 35 page court ruling which overturned a decision made on December 27 to keep him in the country and indict him in Liam’s death.
The ruling said:’ The prosecutors and the plaintiff have not pointed out any relationship or complicity on the part of Nores with the two defendants for supplying narcotics to Liam Payne, nor any contribution on his part in the execution of such acts.’
It concluded:’Finally, just as it cannot be reasonably conceived that Nores could be required to take precautions that would go beyond the contractual relationship of the Casa Sur hotel and its managers with the person who was staying there –all of them adults and in unrestricted exercise of their legal capacities – much less could he be held responsible for the consequences of his acts.’
