Liam Payne’s family have been issued a huge update on their son’s death, with the One Direction star reportedly being flown back to the UK in the coming days.
It has been reported that undertakers are said to have moved the singer from a Buenos Aires morgue to the 1820s-founded British Cemetery in the northern part of the Argentinian capital.
Prosecutors recently gave his heartbroken dad, Geoff Payne, permission to take him home, with local media reporting the repatriation will take place tomorrow or Monday – “48 hours maximum”.
Respected Argentinian daily La Nacion said Payne’s father had been told personally in a meeting with prosecution chief Andres Madrea that he could return to the UK with his son’s body two weeks after flying to the South American country following the 31-year-old’s three-storey hotel fall.
It said: “All the documents are ready for the former One Direction singer to return to his homeland so a funeral can take place there next week.
“When Geoff Payne reached Argentina on October 18 he was told the repatriation process could take between four and five days, but because of the circumstances surrounding his son’s death things took longer than expected.”
The star died after falling from the third floor of his hotel
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Whilst Payne’s family will now have the comfort of bringing their son home, prosecutors have yet to confirm the results are back from the toxicology.
The singer’s father was told that tissue tests would have to be completed before the repatriation could occur during his first meeting with Mr Madrea on October 21.
The What Makes You Beautiful singer’s death at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel sparked a probe which investigators initially linked to a substance-induced “psychotic episode” with no “third-party” involvement.
It was reported that Argentinian police entered the hotel where Payne had been staying to examine computers and paperwork in what is thought to have been part of a hunt for his drug dealer.
Thousands attended a memorial for the singer in the UK
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Foreign news outlet – Infobae – allegedly reported that three days prior, forensic experts had discovered traces of cocaine in Payne’s body but tests on a white powder pictured in leaked photos showing the inside of his hotel suite after his death had so far proved “inconclusive.”
Whilst some reports remain unconfirmed, it has been reported that a cocktail of drugs including designer narcotic pink cocaine containing MDMA, ketamine, methamphetamine had been found in his system during a partial autopsy along with crack cocaine and benzodiazepine.
Payne’s father flew to Argentina two days after his son’s death and was pictured reading messages at a shrine fans made outside the hotel.
He also visited the third-floor suite the Strip That Down singer was staying in after being given permission to take away his son’s clothes and other belongings.
Payne had been in Argentina with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy for a holiday and to also attend former bandmater Nial Horan’s tour.
Cassidy left Payne in the South American country just days before his death.
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Thousands of grieving Liam Payne fans have signed a petition urging that a memorial is erected in honour of the singer.
The star’s fans have requested a permanent “structure or mural” is put in place in his home city of Wolverhampton in the West Midlands.
The cemetery contains the war graves of one Royal Navy seaman from World War I and eleven World War II British service personnel.