Liam Payne tragically passed on October 16, falling from a third-floor balcony in a Buenos Aires hotel.
Now, three people have been arrested and charged in Argentina in connection to his death.
They stand charged of abandonment of a person followed by death, alongside charges of supply and facilitation of narcotics.
The charges were confirmed by Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office in a press release. As yet, the people charged have not been named.
The investigation has found that Payne was not “fully conscious” when he fell to his death and was experiencing a “state of noticeable decrease or loss of consciousness”.
They shared, “The victim did not adopt a reflex posture to protect himself from the fall, so, for the moment, it can be inferred that he could have fallen in a state of semi or total unconsciousness.”
He was under the influence of drugs at the time, but prosecutors say that there was no “conscious or voluntary act” on behalf of Payne that led to the fall.
Listen to The Quicky discuss Liam Payne’s death here. Post continues below.
Police conducted a series of raids this week, numbering as many as nine, to look into how this devastating situation unfolded. They accrued over 800 hours of video footage from security cameras and analysed several dozen testimonies from family, friends, hotel staff, medical professionals, biochemists and psychiatrists.
Law enforcement sources told TMZ raids on two hotel workers were carried out on Tuesday night, with the outlet also claiming lockers of the staffers at the hotel where Liam died were also searched.
A forensic extraction of Payne’s mobile phone also took place, where calls, messages and chats on social networks were analysed.
No names have been released to identify the people charged.
The first charge is against someone who “accompanied [Payne] on a daily basis during his stay in the city of Buenos Aires,” and is charged with abandonment of a person followed by death.
Another defendant is a hotel employee accused of supplying cocaine on two occasions. The third defendant is an alleged “drug supplier,” charged with two supplies on two separate occasions.
The police’s investigation has focused on reconstructing the days that Payne stayed at the Casa Sur hotel, between October 13 and 16.
They simultaneously confirmed that “self-harm of any kind and/or physical intervention by third parties were ruled out.”
They also confirmed that Payne was using a ‘polydrug’ of “alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant” in the lead up to his fall.
Once the investigators were comfortable with their findings, Payne’s body was given back to his father, Geoff, last weekend for burial.
Police are continuing to explore other elements of the case, including unlocking and accessing Payne’s laptop, which was broken.