FAILED BY HOTEL: New pics reveal Liam Payne alone in the dim 3rd-floor hallway of Buenos Aires’ Gran Hotel at 11:47 PM — just hours before tragedy struck. Hotel cleaner María Pereyra, who was working the 10–2 AM shift, says staff ignored alarms and delayed a call to emergency services by 9 minutes. “They could have saved him,” she whispers, “but a mistake froze time.” Every echoed footstep, every unanswered knock, every fleeting smile is now frozen in haunting silence, a farewell disguised as a final night. 💔
New pics show Liam Payne during final night as hotel cleaner claims staff could have saved star but made ‘mistake’
As haunting images emerge of the star’s final minutes in Buenos Aires, hotel cleaner Pereyra says there are questions that are ‘being avoided’
A CLEANER locked up over Liam Payne’s death says the former 1D star could have been saved but was failed by hotel bosses.
On today’s one-year anniversary of Liam’s balcony fall, Ezequiel David Pereyra, 22, claimed the “biggest mistake” was not calling an ambulance when the singer, 31, collapsed in a lobby — instead carrying him to his room.
Former One Direction star Liam Payne lost his life one year agoCredit: Getty
Liam on hotel sofa at 4.28pm, with image notes telling of bottles and laptop
Liam seems to wait for someone outside hotel
Ezequiel David Pereyra — who is awaiting trial for allegedly selling the singer cocaine — spoke out for the first time from jail.
His comments came as new footage shows Liam inside the CasaSur Palermo hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, shortly before he fell from a third-floor balcony.
Pereyra, 22 — locked up in Marcos Paz jail two hours from the capital — claims hotel bosses turned a blind eye to all of Liam’s drug use in October 2024.
He said: “They had him in an isolated bunker and let him do anything he wanted including drugs in the room, and in public areas of the hotel.
“Bosses said he was making them too much money — triple the money.
“But I think the biggest mistake was not calling an ambulance when Payne passed out in the lobby.
“If the hotel had acted differently Liam could have been saved.
“They lifted him by his arms and legs and carried him to the room via the elevator. He should have been kept where he was and an ambulance called.
But because that day they had many foreign guests checking in they decided to take him to the room in the condition he was in.
“After that they called police instead of an ambulance. They made the call only after leaving him in the room alone. By the time they were making the call it was already too late.
“What happened was very sad. Liam’s death was truly tragic and could have been prevented.”
Pereyra added: “I’m detained in prison with real criminals, really dangerous people. I do not belong here.
“There are questions that are being avoided. I just want justice and I offer my condolences to Liam’s family.”
A poor lad from a tough Buenos Aires suburb, Pereyra started working at the four-star hotel in January 2024.
Nine months later Liam was a guest in Room 310. Pereyra said: “It was my job to bring him a lot of whiskey bottles and he told me to leave them on the table.
“The room was a mess and there were a lot of empty bottles and drug paraphernalia including foil.
“Liam translated on his laptop and asked me if I could buy drugs, offering me cash to spend time with him. He gave me a $100 bill as a tip.
“I ended my shift and got back home and a hotel employee told me the guest from Room 310 was angry.
My son was ordered to do whatever Liam wants. The hotel knew what was going on inside that room but they just wanted to keep him happy
Pereyra’s mum Ruth
“He’d said I had stolen the money and he wanted to send a car to my house.
“This employee told me this person was suffering from drug withdrawal and because I accepted his money even as a tip I had an obligation to stay with him as he asked me to.
“I was advised to give the money back or I could get fired.
“So I went back to the hotel. The employee translated and told Liam I could get fired. Liam apologised and gave me a bracelet.”
Prosecutors have accused Pereyra of selling Liam drugs at this point, on October 15, based on testimony from the hotel’s general maintenance manager.
In case files seen by The Sun the witness said he saw Pereyra with the $100 bill and that he told him he had to “run an errand for a guest” which he later clarified was “to bring drugs”.
Liam in one of his final postsCredit: Reuters
The hotel where Liam plunged off a balcony to his deathCredit: Reuters
Next day Liam asked a hotel receptionist for a taxi to Pereyra’s address in Lomas de Zamora “because someone needed to bring him something”.
The files reveal how Pereyra has also been accused of selling Liam cocaine in the hotel basement hours before the tragedy.
They say CCTV captured him shaking hands with the star while stacking chairs.
Witnesses allegedly heard Liam saying: “Hey man, I’ll need another seven grams for today.”
Pereyra said: “The footage shows I’m not giving him anything, but justice says otherwise.
“I have been punished for having isolated contact with this person. They are hiding the truth.
“The hotel knew everything and they allowed Liam to be vulnerable. I even said how we shouldn’t be delivering whiskey bottles early in the morning when he was clearly unwell.”
‘Still don’t have answers’
Pereyra’s parents Fernando and Ruth blame others for not helping the star.
A tearful Ruth said: “My son is being used as a scapegoat and others who actually were negligent have been let off.
“He was working in the basement and Liam ends up there as he presses the wrong elevator button.
“My son and Liam got friendly as he is a rapper. They spoke about music over Google translate.
“There’s evidence on Liam’s phone which shows who supplied the drugs.
“But the justice system is taking so long so none of us can get closure, including Liam’s family.
“My son was ordered to do whatever Liam wants.
“The hotel knew what was going on inside that room but they just wanted to keep him happy. A year on and we still don’t have answers.”
Liam fell from a third-floor balcony in Buenos AiresCredit: Getty
Hotel cleaner Ezequiel David PereyraCredit: Jeff RaynerColeman-Rayner
Pereyra was charged in January but was understood to still be waiting to be interrogated by police.
Waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz, 25, is also accused of supplying cocaine.
They face 15 years’ jail if convicted.
Liam died shortly after 5pm on October 16, 2024.
New CCTV stills obtained by The Sun and part of the case file, show him outside the hotel appearing to be waiting for someone at 3.48pm.
At 4.28pm he is reclining on a lobby sofa with his laptop and bottles nearby.
The case file includes a text said to be from Liam to a potential dealer saying: “We need five grams so I can make crack”, plus pictures of the laptop’s hard drive which police are trying to recover after it was damaged.
Liam had flown to Argentina with girlfriend Kate Cassidy for a five-day holiday, to see his ex-1D bandmate Niall Horan in concert.
Liam extended the trip but Kate returned home to the US.
It is claimed Liam then turned to drink and drugs.
An autopsy confirmed he died from multiple trauma and internal and external bleeding.
A toxicology report revealed alcohol, cocaine and an antidepressant, which would have left him severely impaired.
PAYNE’S LAST DAYS
By Scarlet Howes
SEPTEMBER 20: Liam and his girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, arrive in Argentina for a five-day holiday.
OCTOBER 2: The star goes to see ex-bandmate Niall Horan while he is on tour, telling fans on Snapchat: “It’s been a while since me and Niall have spoken. We’ve got a lot to talk about.”
OCTOBER 12: Kate flies back home to Florida after two weeks away, leaving Liam in Argentina.
She tells her followers on TikTok: “Love South America, but I hate staying in one place for too long and we were supposed to be there for five days, turned into two weeks and I was just like, ‘I need to go home’.”
OCTOBER 13: Liam checks into the CasaSur Palermo Hotel alone three days before he died. He was reportedly asked to leave his previous hotel.
OCTOBER 15: Hours before his death, he spends some time with Aldana Serrano, 31, and Lucila Goitea, 27, who arrived at the hotel at about 11.30am local time and left at 4pm, just one hour before he died.
At about 5pm, Liam is said to have been arguing over money with a mystery woman in the lobby, before falling 45ft and landing in the inner courtyard of the hotel.
