A toxicology exam on Liam Payne’s body has not been completed yet, authorities in Argentina have said – amid reports of cocaine being found in his system.
The former One Direction star died in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last week after falling from a third-floor balcony at the Casa Sur hotel.
A representative of the public prosecutor’s office met with his father Geoff Payne, who is in Argentina, to update him on the investigation into the 31-year-old’s death.
Andrés Esteban Madrea told Mr Payne that toxicology and histopathological exams have not yet been completed and their results are needed before the body can be released to his family.
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It was reported last night that an Argentine official said an initial toxicology report had found the presence of cocaine, a class A drug, in Payne’s body at the time of his death.
The preliminary report was handed to local prosecutors, the official said, but they stressed it does not offer an accurate reading of how much of the drug was circulating in his blood when he died.
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The final toxicology results are not expected to be made public for several weeks.
Argentine investigators found what appeared to be narcotics and alcohol strewn around broken objects and furniture in Payne’s hotel room, leading the public prosecution to surmise he had suffered a substance abuse-induced breakdown around the time of his fall.
The prosecution said Payne could have been in a state of “semi or total unconsciousness” when he fell from his hotel balcony. Payne suffered “extremely serious injuries” after landing in the courtyard of the CasaSur Hotel, police said.
Minutes before his death, the hotel’s desk manager told a 911 operator there was “a guest drunk with drugs and alcohol” who was “breaking everything in the room”.