Police in Argentina are reportedly investigating a hotel worker who was filmed on CCTV carrying Liam Payne to his room just minutes before his death.
The suspect has been named locally as chief receptionist Esteban Grassi, who made a 999 call requesting urgent medical assistance for Liam before he plunged to his death from his third-floor balcony in Buenos Aires.
He was also among a trio of men pictured carrying him up to his room shortly before the tragedy at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in October.
The photo, first revealed by the Daily Mail, sparked concerns about the behaviour of hotel staff and their decision not to leave the singer in the lobby while they waited for help to arrive.
Another hotel worker, named as head of security Gilda Martin, is also now being investigated, according to respected Argentinian news website Infobae.
It said investigating judge Laura Bruniard, who is leading the probe, had told the two men to designate a defence lawyer so she could formally question them under oath.
The date for their first interrogation, expected to take place via Zoom, is said to have been scheduled for next week between December 17 and 19.
Public prosecutors have yet to make any official comment but are expected to do so in the coming days.
Infobae did not say what criminal charges the hotel workers could eventually face if the judge concludes there is enough evidence to formally accuse them of wrongdoing at a later date in her probe.
Local reports last week said prosecutors were considering bringing manslaughter charges against the hotel employees filmed carrying Liam out of the lobby shortly before his drink and drug-fuelled balcony plunge.
Nothing has so far been said in public about the third man seen lifting up the singer, who was wearing trainers, shorts and a T-shirt and was identified last month by the Daily Mail as a masseur in the hotel spa.
Today’s reports about the naming of new suspects came as the three people already under formal investigation were summoned for questioning.
They have been identified locally as Liam’s close friend Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores, former hotel worker Ezequiel David Pereyra, and Braian Nahuel Paiz.
Waiter Paiz, accused of being Liam’s ‘drug dealer’ told journalist Guillermo Panizza on Telefe Noticias last month he had consumed marijuana and Liam had taken cocaine during their second hotel rendezvous shortly before the singer’s death.
But he insisted: ‘I never took drugs to him or accepted any money.
‘I have messages where he’s offering me money because he was apparently used to offering money for everything but I never accepted anything.’
Mr Nores, who has been described as the singer’s manager, had previously protested his innocence after being named locally as one of the trio under investigation.
Responding to the reports which identified him as one of the suspects linked to the drug accusations and allegations he abandoned Liam before his death, the businessman said in a statement: ‘I never abandoned Liam, I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened.
‘There were over 15 people at the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left.
‘I could have never imagined something like this would happen.
‘I’ve given my statement to the prosecutor on October 17 as a witness and I haven’t spoken to any police officer or prosecutor ever since.
‘I wasn’t Liam’s manager. He was just my very dear friend.’
Ezequiel David Pereyra has yet to make any public comment.
In a lengthy statement released on November 7, prosecutors said the three men they did not identify by name were now being formally investigated on suspicion of abandoning a person who subsequently died and supplying and facilitating drugs.
The statement described one as the person who ‘routinely accompanied Liam during his stay in Buenos Aires.’
Tests have shown the singer binged on alcohol and cocaine before he died and also had traces of an antidepressant in his system.
Prosecutors also made it clear the idea Liam had committed suicide had been ruled out and said he was in a state of ‘semi or total unconsciousness’ as he fell to his death from his hotel balcony when he ‘didn’t know what he was doing.’
They said of the hotel worker and the alleged ‘drug dealer’: ‘The second suspect is a hotel employee who must respond for two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the time he was in the hotel.
‘The third is also a drug dealer who is being investigated on suspicion of another two clearly proven supplies of cocaine at two different times on October 14.’
Liam’s dad Geoff flew to Argentina two days after his son died and returned to the UK on November 7 with his body to help finalise funeral arrangements following a second visit to the makeshift shrine set up by fans outside the singer’s hotel.
His former bandmates Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik were among mourners at his November 20 funeral in Amersham, Bucks.
Simon Cowell, James Corden, his girlfriend Kate Cassidy and Liam’s former partner Cheryl, mum to their seven-year-old son Bear, also joined his family and other friends at the private ceremony.
The logjam into Liam’s hotel death was lifted last week after prosecutors won their battle to reverse a judge’s decision to rule herself out of the probe.
Lead prosecutor Andres Madrea’s appeal court win was expected to pave the way for the acceleration of the inquiry.
Judge Laura Bruniard had claimed the case had to be investigated by a conventional Buenos Aires court under Argentinian law because one of the allegations was Liam, 31, had been abandoned before his October 16 death at the Casasur Palermo Hotel.
Mr Madrea’s submission that her decision was ‘premature’ was accepted late last Tuesday by a higher court.
His appeal win was the second in two days after he successfully challenged an earlier decision not to remand to prison Braian Nahuel Paiz.
A final decision on whether the 24-year-old is sent to jail pending the ongoing probe is expected to be taken after he is questioned.
Two female escorts Liam spent time with before he died are currently being treated as witnesses but are said to have hired a lawyer to represent them despite not having to do so.
The singer reportedly offered the women $5,000 after contacting them hours before his fatal hotel plunge – but they are said to have ended up getting only a fraction of the promised money after Roger Nores intervened to help out.
Argentinian media outlets have reported the two prostitutes told prosecutors during questioning ‘gentleman’ Liam had kneeled in front of them during their time together, telling them: ‘I love you, I love you’ and even ‘promised them’ his missing £30,000 Rolex.
But they alleged he failed to hand over any cash as promised in the room or later in the lobby before Mr Nores arrived to ‘resolve the situation.’
They are understood to have handed in their mobile phones voluntarily although the data stored on them is not yet thought to have been extracted and analysed.
Raids last month on a string of properties, including a flat said to have been used by one of the two sex workers to meet up with clients, failed to yield any trace of the missing Rolex.
The designer watch is said to have disappeared around the time one of the two women said she had left make-up in Liam’s room after their hotel lobby disagreement and the singer accompanied her back up to the room to collect it.