What we know about Liam Payne's death, including some of the unanswered questions

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentine authorities continue to investigate the death of former One Direction singer Liam Payne, who died Wednesday at age 31 after falling three stories from a hotel balcony in Buenos Aires.

Payne was a beloved member of the group, which formed in 2010 after its members — Payne, Harry Styles, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik — auditioned for “The X-Factor” singing competition series as solo acts and were brought together by judge Simon Cowell to form the band. They became one of the most successful boy bands of all time, with a loyal fan base of “Directioners” and a meteoric rise to fame on par with Beatlemania.

Here is what we know — and what remains unknown — about the star's untimely death.

Hotel staff at the Casa Sur Hotel in the chic Palermo neighborhood of Argentina’s capital where Payne was staying called the police Wednesday evening with concerns about a guest who they say was “overwhelmed with drugs and alcohol.” Police rushed to the hotel and responded to the call just after 5 p.m. local time and they later confirmed they arrived just minutes before the fall.

The hotel manager can be heard on a 911 call obtained by The Associated Press saying the guest was “destroying the entire room” and added, "We need you to send someone, please.” The manager’s voice became more anxious as the call went on, noting the room had a balcony.

Officials said Payne's fall injuries alone were enough to cause his death, but prosecutors described Payne’s case as “suspicious,” citing the likelihood that the star had been drinking alcohol and taking drugs. The office also confirmed all signs pointed to Payne being alone at the time of the incident and authorities have ordered a toxicology report.

Whether the fall was intentional or accidental remains unknown, but the public prosecutor said the lack of defensive injuries on Payne’s hands indicated that “he did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself and that he could have fallen into a state of semi- or total unconsciousness.”

Buenos Aires police said they found Payne’s hotel room “in complete disarray.” They saw “various items broken” and recovered packs of clonazepam, a central nervous system depressant, energy supplements and other over-the-counter drugs strewn among his belongings.

Forensics teams also reported that authorities recovered a whiskey bottle, lighter and cellphone from the internal courtyard where Payne’s body was found. Evidence collected from the scene, a statement from Argentine authorities added, suggested Payne “was going through some kind of substance abuse episode.”

In recent years, Payne had acknowledged struggling with alcoholism, saying in a YouTube video posted in July 2023 that he had been sober for six months after receiving treatment.

As police and prosecutors await the results of the toxicology report, they are continuing the investigation and trying to reconstruct Payne's final moments. Authorities said they took statements from three hotel employees and two women who had visited Payne in his hotel room hours before his fall. The two women had left the hotel by the time of the incident, the prosecution said.

TMZ, a celebrity news site known for its scoops and tabloid sensibilities, initially included cropped photos of Payne's body after the fall that featured his identifying tattoos in their early reporting Wednesday. After receiving swift backlash, the site pulled the photos.

In the updated version of the story, the outlet wrote, “TMZ has seen a photo showing Liam’s body on the deck at the hotel with tables and chairs nearby” and proceeded to describe the tattoos and how the image helped to confirm early reports of Payne's death.

Fans took to social media to express outrage at the outlet for its decision to share the photos.

TMZ did not immediately return requests for comment.

The photos are still circulating on social media, as well as a video of a man jumping from a building on fire that users are mistakenly taking as a video of Payne’s fall. Several other videos of falls or jumps from balconies have been circulating, as well. X’s “community notes” feature, where readers can provide context and — in this case — debunk falsely represented content, are present on several, but not all posts.

The surviving members of One Direction — Horan, Tomlinson, Styles and Malik — put out a statement Thursday saying they are “completely devastated” by Payne's death.

"In time, and when everyone is able to, there will be more to say. But for now, we will take some time to grieve and process the loss of our brother, who we loved dearly. The memories we shared with him will be treasured forever,” their statement concluded.

Malik, Tomlinson and Styles also shared individual tributes on their Instagram pages Thursday, each writing about their close friendships with Payne. All three wrote again that they are “devastated.”

Malik and Tomlinson addressed Payne directly in their statements, each of them calling him their brother. Tomlinson wrote that he wants to “be the Uncle” for Payne's 7-year-old son, Bear, and plans to “tell him stories of how amazing his dad was.”

Payne had his son, Bear Grey Payne, with his former girlfriend, the musician Cheryl, in 2017. He is also survived by his parents, Geoff and Karen Payne, and his two older sisters, Ruth and Nicola.

Huamani reported from Los Angeles.

FILE - One Direction's Niall Horan, from left, Harry Styles , Simon Cowell, Louis Tomlinson and Liam Payne present the Music Industry Trust Award to Simon Cowell at the Music Industry Trusts Award (MITS) in aid of charities Nordon Robbins and Brit Trust at the Grosvenor House Hotel, in London, Nov. 2, 2015. (Dominic Lipinski/PA via AP)

FILE - One Direction's Zayn Malik, from left, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Harry Styles pictured during an interview on Capital Breakfast with Dave Berry and Lisa Snowdon, in their studios in Leicester Square, in London, on Friday, Oct. 5, 2012. (Yui Mok/PA via AP, File)

Fans light candles outside the hotel where former One Direction singer Liam Payne was found dead after he fell from a balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

FILE - Liam Payne performs during the first day of BBC Radio 1's Biggest Weekend at Singleton Park, in Swansea, Wales, May 26, 2018. (Ben Birchall/PA via AP, File)

A picture of former One Direction singer Liam Payne sits surrounded by flowers and candles as fans gather outside the hotel where he was found dead after falling from a balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to hundreds of victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades.

The settlement with 1,353 people who allege that they were abused by local Catholic priests is the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese, according to experts. The accusers were able to sue after California approved a law that opened a three-year window in 2020 for cases that exceeded the statute of limitations.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has previously paid $740 million to victims. With the settlement announced Wednesday, the total payout will be more than $1.5 billion.

Attorneys still need to get approval for the settlement from all plaintiffs to finalize it, the Plaintiffs’ Liaison Committee said.

The agreement brings to an end most sexual abuse litigation against the largest archdiocese in the United States, though a few lawsuits against the church are still pending, attorneys for the victims say.

Here are some things to know about the settlement:

Negotiations began in 2022, lead plaintiff attorney Morgan Stewart said Thursday.

Attorneys wanted their clients to get the highest settlement possible while allowing the archdiocese to survive financially, Steward said. California is one of at least 15 states that have extended the window for people to sue institutions over long-ago abuse, leading to thousands of new cases that have forced several archdioceses to declare bankruptcy, including San Francisco and Oakland.

California's law also allowed triple damages in cases where abuse resulted from a “cover-up” of previous assaults by an employee or volunteer.

“One of our goals was to avoid the bankruptcy process that has befallen so many other dioceses,” Stewart said.

The plaintiffs were abused 30, 40, or 50 years ago, Steward said.

“These survivors have suffered for decades in the aftermath of the abuse,” Stewart told the Los Angeles Times. “Dozens of the survivors have died. They are aging, and many of those with knowledge of the abuse within the church are too. It was time to get this resolved.”

The archdiocese has pledged to better protect its church members while paying hundreds of millions of dollars in various settlements.

Archbishop José H. Gomez apologized in a statement.

“My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered,” the archbishop added. “I believe that we have come to a resolution of these claims that will provide just compensation to the survivor-victims of these past abuses.”

Gomez said that the new settlement would be paid through “reserves, investments and loans, along with other archdiocesan assets and payments that will be made by religious orders and others named in the litigation.”

More than 300 priests who worked in the archdiocese in Los Angeles have been accused of sexually abusing minors over decades.

One of those priests was Michael Baker, who was convicted of child molestation in 2007 and paroled in 2011. In 2013, the archdiocese agreed to pay nearly $10 million to settle four cases alleging abuse by the now-defrocked priest.

Confidential files show that Baker met with then-Archbishop Roger Mahony in 1986 and confessed to molesting two boys over a nearly seven-year period.

Mahony removed Baker from ministry and sent him for psychological treatment, but the priest returned to ministry and was allowed to be alone with boys. The priest wasn’t removed from ministry until 2000 after serving in nine parishes.

Authorities believe that Baker molested more than 40 children during his years as a priest, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The church now enforces strict background and reporting requirements on priests and has extensive training programs for staff and volunteers to protect young people, said Gomez, who succeeded Mahony after he retired as archbishop of Los Angeles in 2011. Mahony remains a cardinal.

“Today, as a result of these reforms, new cases of sexual misconduct by priests and clergy involving minors are rare in the Archdiocese,” Gomez told the Los Angeles Times. “No one who has been found to have harmed a minor is serving in ministry at this time. And I promise: We will remain vigilant.”

As part of the new settlement, the archdiocese will disclose more of the files it kept that documented abuse by priests.

“I’m not excusing anything, but the fact remains that today the archdiocese is a much, much different place than it was 40, 50, 60 years ago,” said Kirk Dillman, an attorney representing the archdiocese. “The understanding of abuse is much different and more sophisticated than it was then. So we have put in place programs beginning in the 1990s, zero-tolerance policy.”

FILE - People attend a memorial service outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in Los Angeles Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2021. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes, File)

Television news crews report the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in Los Angeles, Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)