[Source: CNN Entertainment]
Rogelio “Roger” Nores, a close friend of Liam Payne who was one of the last people to see the former One Direction singer alive, believes that Payne’s death was the result of an “extremely unfortunate” series of events.
Payne fell to his death from the third floor of a hotel he was staying at in Buenos Aires, Argentina in October, local police told CNN at the time. He was 31.
Five people were charged in connection with Payne’s death in January, according to local prosecutors. Nores was one of those individuals, but his charges and those of two others have since been dismissed. A hotel employee and a local waiter were detained on charges related to supplying Payne with cocaine during his stay at the hotel.
Nores told CNN en Español’s Cecilia Dominguez in an interview Tuesday that when he left Payne around an hour before his fall, “he was doing ok, he was being Liam.”
Nores never could have imagined that Payne would’ve died that day. “It was very hard to see it coming,” he said.
Nores and Payne had traveled to Buenos Aires together for what he described as a personal trip and so Payne could see his former band mate Niall Horan’s concert.
“He was just a guy who enjoyed life and he liked traveling to places and seeing people and honestly, he was happy. It’s not like he was sad or depressed,” Nores said. “What happened was extremely unfortunate.”
The two, along with Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy, spent time together having fun and doing “normal” activities like bowling and seeing movies, Nores said. Payne “had stayed sober” during the trip, according to Nores. Days before Payne fell, Cassidy left Buenos Aires to return home.
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