Liam Payne: Police question women who were with One Direction star prior to his death

Two mystery women were with Liam Payne the night before he died and departed the hotel shortly before the tragedy, it has been alleged.

An Argentinian journalist has claimed police and prosecutors have located and spoken to the pair. Before it was confirmed by prosecutors that they had questioned five individuals, including the two women who were with Liam in the hours leading up to his death for a "reconstruction of his last hours", she said: "He was with two women in his room where there was access to drugs.

"I'm not going to say they're surnames. "[Woman A] gave a statement last night and [Woman B] has just finished hers."

READ MORE: Inside Liam Payne's hotel room as photos show white powder and smashed TV

The woman are said to have left the hotel before Liam fell to his death and have been categorised as "key witnesses" in local media reports rather than suspects in his death, which prosecutors have said is "duduso".

'Dudoso' means "doubtful" but in the current context is believed to indicate it is an "unexplained" death, reports the Mirror. Prosecutors said in their first official statement today they had questioned five witnesses, saying two were women and three were hotel workers, and confirmed Liam had 25 separate injuries.

In the lengthy statement, they also confirmed they had taken away "several substances" from Liam's room they believe would show he had consumed drugs before plunging to his death from a third-floor hotel balcony. It is not yet clear who police think could have supplied him with drugs.

In their statement, their first since Liam's death at the Hotel CasaSur Palermo, prosecutors said, confirming the autopsy took place late last night and not today as initially believed: "The National Prosecutor's Office for Criminal and Correctional Matters N16, under the interim charge of Marcelo Roma, can confirm that the autopsy on British musician Liam James Payne, 31, determined that the former member of the boy band One Direction died of multiple injuries and internal and external haemorrhaging as a result of the fall he suffered from the balcony of the third floor room of the hotel in the Palermo neighbourhood of Buenos Aires where he was staying."

The prosecutor's office pointed out that, as a matter of protocol, the circumstances of the case are being investigated as a 'doubtful death', although everything suggests that the musician was alone when the fall occurred, and was going through some kind of psychotic episode as a result of substance abuse.

"According to the reconstruction by the prosecution, the incident occurred at 17:07 yesterday. Minutes earlier the Hotel Casa Sur, located at 6000 Costa Rica Street in Palermo, requested help through the 911 emergency line for a guest who was under the influence of drugs and alcohol and had destroyed some objects in the room.

"On the arrival of the SAME medical emergency response service and members of the 14B Neighbourhood Police Station of the Buenos Aires City Police, Payne had already fallen from the balcony of his room and died on the spot due to the seriousness of his injuries.

"Payne's body was taken to the Judicial Morgue where forensic doctors from the Forensic Medical Corps performed the autopsy between 21:45 and 23:05 local time. The autopsy protocol sent to the prosecutor's office and signed by Santiago Maffia Bizzozero and Roberto Victor Cohen, concluded that 'the cause of death of Liam James Payne macroscopically determined, has been polytraumatism, internal and external haemorrhage'.

"The forensic doctors clarified that ‘the complementary studies requested could confirm, rectify and/or complement the above macroscopic conclusions’, and in this sense they reported that histopathological, biochemical and toxicological studies were requested.

“On this point, the analysis of stomach contents, alcohol and toxins in blood, vitreous humour, bile, nasal swab and urine for alcohol and toxins was requested. In their medico-legal considerations, the forensic experts reported that the 25 injuries described in the autopsy are compatible with those produced by a fall from height. They also pointed out that the cranioencephalic injuries were sufficiently suitable to cause death, while the internal and external haemorrhages in the skull, thorax, abdomen and limbs contributed to the mechanism of death.

"The forensic experts also considered that, having analysed his hands, no defensive injuries were found, that all the injuries on the body were life-threatening and produced at the same time, and that no injuries were observed that would suggest the intervention of third parties.

"The prosecutor's office indicated that, due to the position of the body and the injuries sustained in the fall, it is presumed that Payne did not adopt a reflexive posture to protect himself and that he may have fallen in a state of semi-or total unconsciousness.

“The prosecutor Roma and the secretary Florencia Lavaggi ordered the first measures, among them the summoning of the experts of the Mobile Criminalistic Unit of the City Police who surveyed the scene and found inside the room substances that at first glance - and pending the confirmation of the experts - would be narcotics and alcoholic beverages, as well as several objects and destroyed furniture.

“Also, last night, at the headquarters of the National Prosecutor's Office for Criminal and Correctional Matters N°16, five testimonies were taken from three hotel workers and two women who, in the previous hours, had been with the musician in his room, but who had already left the hotel when the event occurred.

“The prosecutor's office said that beyond reconstructing the circumstances of the musician's death, the investigation is also aimed at determining the possible involvement of third parties in the events leading up to the victim's death."