Liam Hampson’s continuously ringing phone led club staffers' to his body hours after he went missing
BARCELONA, SPAIN: Liam Hampson’s phone was reportedly continuously ringing as his worried friends were trying every means to find him after he disappeared at 4:30 am on Tuesday morning, October 18, 2022, from a Spanish nightclub. But the desperation to find him safe did not end well as the staff members of the Sala Apolo music club in Barcelona discovered him dead on Wednesday.
It has been reported that it was the buzzing phone of the 24-year-old that only led the staffers to the body lying on the floor of a prohibited area of the club. Now, it has also been discovered how the Redcliffe Dolphins player ended up going to the secluded area of the bar as the CCTV footage showed his last moments before the tragedy.
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According to the club's director Albert Guijarro, as reported by the Daily Mail, “The entire route that Liam took is recorded step by step”. Guijarro reportedly claimed that the surveillance footage showed Hampson exiting the main room of the club via an emergency door before arriving on a terrace through a second emergency door. However, the young man soon understood that the doors he used to come to the terrace region could not be unfastened from the other end.
Guijarro also noted that “Hampson then saw a 50m wall" and "without thinking: jumped over it, and fell into a void where ducts run through. Guijarro said the path Hampson took was "very clear and illuminated" and that he "made a leap towards a place that was not even in the middle of his route" and "it was not well understood" why he made that decision,” the media outlet stated.
The club director mentioned that the workers of the club ultimately heard the ring of Hampson’s phone nearly 30 hours after he vanished which resulted in the shocking finding. “A mobile phone rang with a sound...we didn't know where it was coming from, we finally saw that it was coming from the ducts,” Guijarro added. Besides, reports said that the surveillance video has now been given to the cops.
In a statement, the club said, “These are sad and very painful moments. First of all for all the people affected by the unforeseeable accident that occurred in the early hours of Tuesday October 18 in the outdoor facilities of the Apolo venue. It's been sad as well for those of us who are part of this organisation. The management and entire Apolo team are beyond appalled by what happened and we express our deepest condolences to the family and friends of Liam Hampson.”
Meanwhile, a Catalan newspaper called La Vanguardia, citing anonymous police sources, has reported, “The friends he was with lost sight of him and thought he had felt unwell and gone back to the hotel. But he wasn't there when they got to his room and after waiting for what they thought was a prudent amount of time, spoke with his family and alerted the police at the same time they asked for the public's help in locating him.”
La Vanguardia also stated, “The young man had fallen into an internal patio from a height of 14 metres and died instantly. Police have concluded from a reconstruction of the victim's movements, that he must have got lost in the venue and tried to get somewhere else going through what turned out to be an emergency door,” before adding, “That led to a space in which there was a small wall he got over without any difficulty, without seeing because of the darkness that on the other side there was a drop to the internal courtyard he plunged into.”
A GoFundMe was also created to help Hampson’s family financially so that they get him home for the final service. His friend, Jordan Riki, launched the campaign with a message that read, “Hello my name is Jordan Riki on behalf of Liam’s family and friends we would like to support his beautiful family in helping getting Liam home. Also supporting his family through this difficult time.
“As we all know Liam was a beautiful soul who brought people together with his love, wisdom, and jokes. Liam was an outstanding talent on and off the football field if it was helping his teammates win a nail biting game or educating kids and many others on life and his wisdom. We love Liam and any donation would go a long way thank you.”
The fundraising has now been stopped after it received AUD72,448 ($45,258.27) way more than its goal of AUD50,000 ($31,235).