Published: 19:36 BST, 8 August 2026 | Updated: 21:09 BST, 9 August 2026
He was a pop superstar adored by millions, a devoted son and father, a man who had amassed a fortune of £22million and appeared to have the world at his feet.
Yet in the final days of his life, former One Direction singer Liam Payne was in the grip of a devastating spiral of drug and alcohol abuse, paying sex workers to keep him company in a soulless hotel room while bingeing on crack cocaine and whisky.
While much has been written about Liam’s death, the full heartbreaking facts have not been revealed – until now.
Today, The Mail on Sunday can disclose details of the singer’s death from an extraordinary trove of 3,000 documents, photographs, sworn statements and official reports gathered by investigators after he died in Buenos Aires on October 16, 2024.
One haunting CCTV image shows him hollow-eyed and gaunt, stumbling through the corridors of the CasaSur Hotel just one hour before he plunged from the balcony of Room 310.
The report also lays bare his family’s despair, with a sworn statement from Liam’s grief-stricken father Geoff telling prosecutors his son ‘went away’ when he was in the grip of his demons saying: ‘He was not in control with what he did. He was not Liam.’
While some information is too graphic and personal to be shared, the cache of evidence paints the clearest – and most profoundly painful – portrait yet of a man completely out of touch with reality in the hours before his death.
Liam Payne is seen looking hollow-eyed and gaunt, stumbling through the corridors of the CasaSur Hotel just one hour before he plunged from the balcony of Room 310
Prostitutes Aldana Serrano and Lucila Goitea in the hotel lobby. The file is filled with images showing the escorts imploring hotel staff to help them, after they argued with Liam over pay
To fully understand how quickly Liam turned from sober friend and father – he ‘adored’ his nine-year-old son Bear (with singer Cheryl Cole) – into a man one witness described as ‘possessed’, you have to start at the beginning of the case file.
Liam was in Argentina to renew his US visa and to watch his former One Direction bandmate Niall Horan in concert.
He spent two weeks on holiday with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy, but when she left him alone to return to their home in Wellington, Florida, Liam spiralled. He was asked to leave one hotel for ‘acting belligerent’ and checked into the CasaSur on the afternoon of October 14.
His father Geoff later told prosecutors that Liam could keep his addictions under control as long as he always had someone with him to prevent him going off the rails.
Geoff said his son became ‘another person’ on drugs. His family had last seen him on August 29 when the singer was filming a Netflix show in Manchester and he appeared ‘well, stable, clean of any drugs or alcohol’.