Originally appeared on E! Online
The search for answers to Liam Payne’s death continues.
Nearly one month after the One Direction alum died after falling from the third floor balcony of his Buenos Aires hotel room, authorities have detained three people of interest.
“Police detained two hotel workers accused of supplying the drugs,” David Muir confirmed on ABC World News Tonight, citing authorities, Nov. 6, “and raided the home of a friend, also detained.”
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E! News has reached out to Buenos Aires City Police for comment and has not yet heard back.
The latest update on the 31-year-old’s unexpected death comes after a preliminary toxicology report showed that he had drugs in his system at the time of his fall, The New York Times reported, per an official with knowledge of the results. Among the substances was “pink cocaine,” a recreational drug typically made up of MDMA, ketamine and methamphetamine.
The National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor's Office No. 14 also confirmed that officials discovered "substances inside the room that at first glance—and pending confirmation from the experts—would be narcotics and alcoholic beverages," according to an Oct. 17 press release in Spanish.
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While an official toxicology report is still pending, Payne’s official cause of death was ruled as “polytraumism,” meaning multiple traumatic injuries internally and externally, the office confirmed.
The coroner confirmed the singer suffered from 25 injuries that coincided with those from a fall at that height and added that “the head injuries were sufficient to cause death, while the internal and external hemorrhages in the skull, thorax, abdomen and limbs contributed to the mechanism of death,” per the office’s release.
Authorities also believed that Payne may have been unconscious during the incident, noting in the announcement that “due to the position in which the body was left, Payne did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself and that he could have fallen in a state of semi or total unconsciousness."
And the office confirmed that there was no evidence of defensive wounds that suggested “the intervention of third parties."
The National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor's Office shared more insight into the framework of their investigation, per an Oct. 22 press release, noting that “expert reports are being carried out on cell phones, computers, photographs and videos from security cameras that require a longer analysis time.”
“Numerous statements were also taken to reconstruct the victim's final hours and the scene of the events,” the state continued, “a process that is still ongoing with hotel workers, acquaintances, technical and medical professionals, and other people linked to the victim through their work.”
As we await more details on Payne’s death, read on for everything we know so far.
PHOTOSLiam Payne
