Liam Payne’s body to be handed over to family after ex-One Direction singer’s tragic death in Buenos Aires: police sources

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Liam Payne’s body to be released to his family Two police sources told ABC News.

Prosecutors have authorized the release of Payne’s body to his father, Jeff Payne, sources said.

According to representatives of the British Embassy in Buenos Aires, Jeff Payne has been in the capital of Argentina since October 18, trying to return his son’s body for burial in his native England.

Sources previously said that the release of Payne’s body depends on the court’s findings in the criminal case.

The One Direction The singer died on October 16 after falling from the third-floor balcony of his hotel room at the CasaSur Hotel in Palermo, Buenos Aires.

Emergency services were called to deal with the man, who was acting erratically and possibly under the influence, Alberto Crescenti, director of the Buenos Aires SAME emergency medical service, told ABC News earlier. Payne’s body was found on the hotel’s patio, where he was pronounced dead at the scene, Crescenti said.

After his death, a partial autopsy revealed that Payne had several substances in his system the day he fell to his death from his hotel room.

A preliminary report released a day after his death said the singer died of “multiple injuries” and “internal and external bleeding.” As the autopsy showed, there were twenty-five injuries on his body, all of them as a result of a fall.

This is reported by several sources who are directly familiar with the investigation The police reviewed the recordings from the video surveillance cameras appeared to show several drug exchanges between a dealer and a hotel employee that occurred before Payne’s death.

Sources said police are still investigating whether Payne was drugged by a hotel employee.

Argentine officials searched the hotel on October 23 as part of an ongoing investigation into the late singer’s death.

Sources told ABC News that surveillance footage shows Payne sleeping in a hotel lobby with a bottle of whiskey in hand.

Sources say police never believed Payne’s death was a suicide or intentional.

According to multiple sources with direct knowledge of the investigation, police also identified the presence of two female escorts at the hotel in the hours before Payne’s death.

ABC News has reached out to the hotel for comment.

See “The Price of Fame: The Liam Payne Story – 20/20 Special Edition” broadcast at 21:00 Kyiv time on Sunday, November 3, on ABC and broadcast on Hulu from November 4.