Newly released security footage of Liam Payne shows the One Direction alum hours before his fatal fall last month, chatting with one of the hotel workers now charged in connection with his death.

The video obtained by TMZ shows the employee, who sources say it is hunter Ezequiel David Pereyrastacking chairs in the basement of the CasaSur Palermo hotel in Buenos Aires, when an elevator door opened and the 31-year-old popstar stuck her head out.

The staff member can be seen hiding in a back room, then reappearing and shaking hands with someone, presumably Payne, inside the elevator. Payne sticks his head out again and the man retreats into the back room again.

Authorities, who are believed to be in possession of the strange footage, have yet to confirm the identity of the staff member in the video.

The encounter occurred shortly after 2 p.m. local time on October 16, approximately three hours before Payne fell from the balcony from his hotel room on the third floor, suffering multiple traumatic injuries leading to internal and external bleeding.

Benzodiazepine, crack, cocaine and a drug cocktail known as “pink cocaine” – often a mixture of methamphetamine, ketamine and MDMA – were found in Payne’s system at the time of his death, according to a toxicology report.

Although local authorities quickly declared Payne had ‘jumped from his bedroom balcony’ the prosecutor in charge of the investigation last week excluded suicideinstead attributing the tragedy to the effects of drugs.

In the days following Payne’s shocking death, sources in the DA’s office told People a an indictment could be imminent because they thought the employees could have “obtained the drugs for Payne.” Raids quickly followedboth at the hotel and at the home of Payne’s “friend”, an unnamed Argentine businessman, who was said to have been in his room sometime before the fall.

Last week, authorities charged three people in connection with Payne’s death, including the friend and an accused drug dealer, who denied providing drugs to the popstar or receiving money from him.

Hotel staff were tasked with delivering the drugs to Payne, probably in a soap box.