Liam Payne had ‘pink cocaine’ in system at time of death

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According to an autopsy report obtained by TMZ and ABC News, Liam Payne had numerous drugs in his system at the time of his death last week.

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ABC reports that the 31-year-old One Direction singer “had multiple substances in his system” when he fell from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

One of the illicit substances found in Payne’s body, ABC reported, was “pink cocaine,” also known as Tusi, a popular party drug that was also named in the lawsuit against Sean “Diddy” Combs as one of his alleged go-to drugs. The drug does not contain cocaine and is made up of methamphetamine, ketamine and MDMA, according to the U.S. National Capital Poison Center.

Sources told TMZ that police found a bottle of alcohol in Payne’s room, as well as prescription medications — “namely, anti-anxiety meds.”

Payne’s autopsy also revealed traces of cocaine, crack and benzodiazepine, which is a depressant, were present in his body at the time of his death.

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Additionally, ABC reported that “an improvised aluminum pipe to ingest drugs was also found in his hotel room.”

In the leadup to Payne’s death, 911 audio detailed a frantic scene in the hotel as staff sought medical help dealing with the troubled star.

On Thursday, the U,K, Sun, the Associated Press and Argentinian outlet La Nacion translated an emergency call made by the manager of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in which the person could be heard saying a guest was “overwhelmed with drugs and alcohol” and “putting his life at risk.”

“We have a guest who is (allegedly) high and drunk; and when he is conscious, he is destroying his room and we need you to send someone, please. We need you to send someone urgently because I don’t know if his life is in danger,” the manager named “Esteban” said.

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“They must be in a room that has a balcony. And well, we’re a little bit worried he’ll do something, that he’ll put his life at risk,” he said.

By the time medics arrived, Payne was already dead, with his body found in the inside courtyard of the hotel, where he was pronounced dead.

Pablo Policicchio, the communications director for the Buenos Aires Security Ministry, said in a statement to The Associated Press that Payne “had jumped from the balcony of his room.” 

Buenos Aires police told the Associated Press that they found Payne’s room “in complete disarray” with broken objects and furniture. They found packs of clonazepam, a central nervous system depressant, energy supplements and over-the-counter medications strewn about his belongings. The Argentine public prosecutor said there also appeared to be alcohol and narcotics in the room.

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According to AP, an autopsy showed internal bleeding and 25 traumatic injuries to his skull, limbs and abdomen, consistent with a fall. It said those injuries alone were enough to cause his death.

Payne may have fallen into “a state of unconsciousness,” AP reported, and might have been “going through some kind of substance abuse episode.”

Local police told TMZ previously that they believed Payne had been high on “cristal,” a substance “known to cause psychotic attacks and hallucinations” and “causes users to experience extreme highs and extreme lows, often making them aggressive.”

What led to Payne’s jumping to his death remains a mystery, but according to TMZ, “one theory is he may have been hallucinating as a result of the illicit substance he was using.”

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Some guests who were staying at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel described the singer’s “disturbing” behaviour in his final hours.

A woman named Rebecca told told the Daily Mail “there was something a bit desperate about him” when she encountered Payne in the hotel lobby.

“I came into the hotel, and he was waiting by the elevator, and it was so clear he wanted someone to recognize him,” Rebecca, who did not share her last name, told the outlet.

While she was still in the lobby, Payne had returned with his laptop, which she said was on “its accessibility setting.”

“Each time he moved the mouse, hovering over something, the machine spoke out loud to say where the cursor was,” she recalled. “I assumed he was doing that for the attention, too. Then he opened his emails and saw one which obviously upset him. Suddenly he took the computer, shouted, ‘F*** this s***, mate!’ and started bashing the computer on the ground.”

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She said she approached Payne and asked if he needed assistance. “I went over, asked, ‘Are you OK?’ But he just kind of grunted. Then he said, ‘I used to be in a boy band. That’s why I’m so f***ed up,’” she said. “There was a lot more swearing, and he took the laptop and went to get back in the lift.”

Rebecca said “hotel staff were freaking out and watching him really nervously.”

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Another guest told PEOPLE they heard “a lot of noise” in his room right before he fell, including “a really loud, violent scream.”

But in the weeks prior to his death, as he travelled through Argentina with his girlfriend, social media influencer Kate Cassidy, a source told PEOPLE that the father of one “was extremely overwhelmed by all of the legal issues … related to his ex-fiancee, Maya Henry.” 

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According to the Daily Mail, Payne was hit with a cease-and-desist order earlier this month after he repeatedly tried to contact Henry.

Speculation that Payne might have been struggling also began to mount after a source told the Daily Mail that the singer — who gained fame as a member of One Direction alongside Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson in 2010 — had been dropped by his record label. 

“Out of all of the One Direction boys, Liam was on the wrong path musically,” the insider claimed.

Payne released the EP First Time in 2018, and his 18-song studio album, LP1, the following year. But he was open about how hard it was for him to grow up under the glare of intense media coverage after One Direction exploded in popularity and became one of the biggest bands in the world.

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Speaking to Stephen Bartlett on The Diary Of The CEO podcast in 2021, Payne was open about his struggle with substance abuse and the pressures of fame.

“I was worried how far my rock bottom was going to be. Where’s rock bottom for me?” he said. “It feels to me, like when we were in the band. The best way to secure us was to lock us in our rooms, and what is in the room? A mini-bar. So I had a party-for-one that seemed to carry on for many years of my life, and then you look back at how long you’ve been drinking? And Jesus Christ that’s a long time, even for someone as young as I am.”

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