A close friend of Liam Payne has shared the final messages she’d received from the star shortly before his tragic death.
The 31-year-old passed away on Tuesday (16 October) after falling from a third-floor balcony of the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Alberto Crescenti, the head of the state emergency medical system, has since released a statement which revealed Payne had fallen around 40 metres and suffered ‘severe injuries which were incompatible with life’.
“The alarm was raised at 5.04pm local time saying a person was lying in an internal patio at Casa Sur,” he said.
“At 5.11pm, an ambulance arrived and the man was certified dead.
Liam Payne’s friend Jodie Richards has shared the messages she’d received shortly before his tragic death (Jodie Richards)
“Afterwards we found out he had been a famous singer. Unfortunately the injuries he had suffered as a result of the fall proved to be fatal. There was no possibility of resuscitating him.”
It is understood the One Direction singer was in the city to attend the concert of his former bandmate Niall Horan.
Now, a close friend of the star has revealed that the pair spoke just hours before his death.
Liam had messaged Jodie Richards on Monday and asked her what she was doing, to which she said she was at a gym with her son.
The singer replied “nice” before sharing a picture of himself in his hotel room.
She later replied: “Sorry just home x.”
Then, on Wednesday morning, just hours before the singer died, he messaged Jodie again and asked if she was awake.
She replied at around 8am and the pair spoke for a short while, with Liam telling her that he was ‘chilling’ in Argentina.
She said she’d seen ‘no reason for any kind of concern’ while speaking to him (Sky News)
Jodie has since spoken to Sky News about her friendship with the star.
She said: “I’m really close to Liam, we’ve been friends for years and he was away yesterday in Argentina and I think he just wanted to touch base and check I was okay, see how everyone was back at home.
“We speak near enough every day and have done for years. Obviously he’s always been there at times I’ve needed him even though he’s not local.”
She also spoke about his state of mind on the day he died, saying she saw ‘no reason for any kind of concern’.
“He seemed fine, he looked happy, he looked healthy – no reason for any kind of concern and then obviously I heard it on the news,” she said.
After learning about her friend’s tragic death just hours after they’d last spoken, Jodie said she ‘couldn’t believe’ it and messaged the star multiple times to ‘tell me this isn’t true’.
“It’s a wicked waste of a life, he had a future ahead of him.”