Liam Payne was found dead after falling from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires overnight Thursday. He was 31 years old.
Payne broke through with the British boy band One Direction with bandmates Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik.
On Thursday night, they issued a joint statement saying they are completely devastated by the news of the band member’s passing. They also asked for time to grieve and process “the loss of our brother, whom we loved deeply.”
“We will miss him immensely. We love you, Liam. – Louis, Zayn, Niall and Harry.”, they finished the statement.
After the joint statement, Louis Tomlinson published a post on Instagram in which he hails his friend as the most essential part of One Direction.
“I feel incredibly grateful to have had you in my life, but I really have a hard time accepting the idea of saying goodbye,” writes Tomlinson.
The autopsy report states
The statement comes just hours after Argentine media reported the autopsy report was already complete.
The newspaper Clarín writes that they have seen the autopsy report and that the doctors determined that the cause of death was “external and internal bleeding”, and that the injuries to the head were serious enough to have caused his death.
Shortly before Payne was found dead in the courtyard under the hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, the police were called to the scene because of an aggressive and affected person. In the call to the emergency center at 5 p.m., an employee can be heard in the hotel’s worried voice asking them to send someone immediately.
It is still unclear under what exact circumstances Payne died.