The Buenos Aires police are investigating the disappearance of the luxury Rolex watch worn by British musician Liam Payne, which he had on before falling from his hotel room in Buenos Aires, as reported by the newspaper La Nación.
"We know, from analyzed images, that Payne, on the day of his death, was wearing a Rolex. He had it on one of his hands and had it, at least, up to two to three hours before jumping. We searched for it in the CasaSur hotel room where he was staying and we couldn't find it," stated La Nación, citing sources from the investigation, as reported by Efe.
Police suspect that the valuable watch may have been stolen, and it was one of the items being sought in the nine searches conducted at the hotel since the death of the former One Direction member.
Following these searches, the Argentinian prosecutor charged three people last Thursday in connection with the singer's death, who have already been detained.
"The watch was searched for in the homes of the individuals charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person and drug supply and facilitation, as well as in the homes of the two prostitutes who were with Payne in the room the afternoon of his death," stated a reliable judicial source to La Nación.
"By court order, the room remains closed and no one could enter. The most urgent task was to search for the watch in the homes of the people Payne had contact with before his death, and now another inspection will be carried out to determine if it was left somewhere in the room," explained an investigator to the newspaper.
After analyzing the security cameras at the CasaSur hotel, judicial and police investigators determined that between 2 pm and 3 pm on October 16, the day of Payne's death, he was wearing the valuable watch on one of his wrists.
Additionally, the case file includes screenshots from the videos showing, for example, that until 11 am, the musician had the Rolex. By the time the body was examined in the hotel's internal courtyard, he no longer had it.
Judicial officials suspected that perhaps one of the two women Payne had called from the Gemidos app had stolen the watch, the newspaper adds, although it was not found during the searches of their residences.
Apparently, and according to the newspaper, the two women were the last people to see the artist alive. The musician refused to pay them the $5,000 that, according to the "companions," they had agreed upon to go to Payne's room.
Liam Payne fell from the balcony of his room at the CasaSur hotel in the Palermo neighborhood of the capital on October 16 and died instantly.
The preliminary autopsy report concluded that the cause of death of the 31-year-old singer was "multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding."
The prosecution presumed that "the musician was alone at the time of the fall and experiencing some kind of episode due to substance abuse."
It also reported finding substances in the room that would indicate "a prior situation of alcohol and drug consumption."