Argentina prosecutors deny releasing Liam Payne toxicology tests

BUENOS AIRES

Argentine prosecutors on Oct. 22 denied releasing toxicology test results for British pop star Liam Payne, after U.S. media reported he had multiple drugs in his system when he died.

The public prosecutor's office said the person in charge of the case had met with Geoff Payne, the father of the One Direction boy band member who fell to his death from a hotel balcony last week in Buenos Aires.

The representative updated him on the investigation and told him that toxicology tests still needed to be completed before the body can be released, a statement said.

It said the office had not "disclosed any specific technical report outside the exclusive framework of the investigation and the judicial process corresponding to the case."

U.S. media reported on Oct. 21 that Payne had a cocktail of drugs in his system when he died.

ABC and TMZ said "pink cocaine," containing methamphetamine, ketamine and MDMA, had been found during a partial autopsy, citing anonymous sources familiar with the preliminary tests.

Payne, who was found dead after staff called emergency services twice to report a guest "overwhelmed by drugs and alcohol" was "destroying" a hotel room, had spoken publicly about struggles with substance abuse and coping with fame.

Post-mortem results indicated that the 31-year-old was alone at the time of the fall and "was going through an episode of substance abuse," prosecutors have said.

Investigators were examining cell phones, computers, photographs and videos from security cameras, and have taken "numerous witness statements to reconstruct the victim's final hours and the scene of the events," the public prosecutor's office said.