Turning the Tide: Suspect in Liam Payne’s Death Seeks to Aid Investigation

After Braian Nahuel Paiz was charged in connection to Liam Payne’s sudden death at 31, he exclusively told Us Weekly how he plans to cooperate fully with the ongoing police investigation.

“I want to contribute everything: my phone, everything to the investigation,” Paiz exclusively told Us. “I have nothing that can harm me. … The other thing is to contribute what I saw personally and what I experienced firsthand.”

Paiz has yet to testify to prosecutors, but he plans to share everything he witnessed. According to Paiz, he hopes that “justice [will] be served.”

Payne, best known as one-fifth of British boy band One Direction, fell to his death from a third-story Buenos Aires hotel balcony last month. An autopsy revealed that Payne sustained multiple injuries involving internal and external hemorrhage and had various drugs in his system.

Local Buenos Aires prosecutors subsequently launched an investigation into the circumstances of Payne’s death. They charged Paiz and two other individuals with abandonment leading to death and the supply and facilitation of narcotics. (Rogelio Nores was also implicated in the investigation, but he denied the claims.)

Paiz said he had only met Payne twice, hanging out at the late singer’s hotel in Buenos Aires alone.

“We met up with Liam, [it was] chill. We met, we listened to some music,” Paiz recalled to Us. “He asked me what kind of music I liked, hip hop or dance. I told him dance.” Payne then put “some beats” on his computer and cut rough musical tracks, Paiz recalled.

Paiz claimed that he met Payne through his job at local restaurant Cabaña Las Lilas. Payne then sent Paiz a private Instagram message from a burner account.

After Paiz traveled to Payne’s hotel, they bonded. He denied supplying Payne with drugs.

“No, we just saw each other,” Paiz told Us, alleging that the singer was already under the influence when they met up on October 13. “The person who was there before [me], I suppose, left him the box of soap and everything [that smuggled the drugs up to his room].”

Paiz further claimed that Payne asked him to leave when another individual arrived.

“I don’t know what was going on, what was that,” Paiz told Us. “I realized, because I had my back turned and he turned around, what was going on. I turned around, got up, opened the door and there was no one.”

Paiz did not see the other individual or discern their identity before he left the room.

Several days later, Paiz found out that Payne had suffered his fatal fall.

“It was really bad,” he said, noting one of his coworkers messaged him about the news. “I got really sad, really bad at work. … It took everything from me.”

Payne, for his part, is survived by his parents, his two older sisters and his 7-year-old son, whom she shared with ex Cheryl Cole. His remains were flown back to his native U.K. earlier this month ahead of a funeral service.

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, contact the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357).