Liam Payne’s shocking death prompts outpouring of grief and questions

More than an hour after sundown in Buenos Aires, a red van backed up to a side door of the four-star CasaSur Palermo Hotel to remove the body of former One Direction band member Liam Payne from the premises.

More than an hour after sundown in Buenos Aires on Wednesday, a red van backed up to a side door of the four-star CasaSur Palermo Hotel to remove the body of former One Direction band member Liam Payne from the premises. Payne, 31, had died earlier in the day after falling from the third floor of the hotel, according to a statement from Buenos Aires police. As fans started to gather outside of the hotel, building a vigil to the popular musician, the circumstances surrounding his death were still unclear. 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.” Police rushed to the hotel in response to an emergency call just after 5 p.m. local time, he said, warning of an “aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.” With hoards of onlookers and press assembled on the street outside the hotel, the fire department van was parked as close to the exit door as possible, seemingly to prevent others from viewing the scene as responders worked. In death, Payne was afforded privacy he was rarely given in life. One Direction was famously assembled by producer Simon Cowell after he saw Payne and four other talented young men – Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson and Niall Horan – audition for UK’s version of “The X-Factor.” Individually, they weren’t good enough, Cowell thought. Together, it turned out, they were a sensation.