NRL star AJ Brimson has opened up about the ‘heartbreaking’ details surrounding his good friend Liam Hampson’s death last month.
The rugby league player had been found dead at the Sala Appolo nightclub in Barcelona after going missing for 30 hours.
He had been holidaying in Europe with Broncos stars Jordan Riki, Jesse Arthars, and Gold Coast player AJ Brimson.
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Later reports claimed that Hampson had fallen 10m to his death after scaling a wall outside a security exit after being unable to re-enter the nightclub.
His funeral service is set to be held today (Monday, 7 November) at Dolphins Stadium in Redcliffe.
Brimson spoke to The Courier-Mail about the traumatic hours leading up to finding out about Hampson’s death and the heartbreaking search for their mate.
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The Titans player says he had begun to get worried when Hampson didn’t check into his mates, which was not in his nature.
He had suspected Hampson may have been with a girl, but his fears grew when none of the boys had heard from him.
He said: “I knew what he was like and he wasn’t the type of guy that wouldn’t message us, but it was hard to get that across to the police. It was frustrating.
“We were trying to tell the police something was wrong and they were saying, ‘We see this all the time, people go missing but they’re just with a girl or something’.
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“I knew that wasn’t Liam at all. We knew something was very wrong by Tuesday night.
“At worst he would have messaged us. If he got mugged he would have found his way back. I thought he had been murdered.
“We knew it wasn’t good, but just hoped he was alright somewhere. We walked the same route home trying to find something, anything.
“We went back to the club at about 5 pm to try and get footage to see who he left with and when, but they wouldn’t let us see it before the cops.
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“It’s weird to think we were outside the club and he was in there, but we had no way of knowing that.”
Brimson touched on the tragic moment authorities revealed the horrifying news.
He said: “By that stage, we knew it wasn’t good. They could have sent us wherever he was if he was OK. Then the social workers started to arrive and they told us (he was dead) through a translator.
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“You can’t really explain it. It was just disbelief. I felt like I was going to be sick. You never think that’s going to happen.
“It made sense because he just vanished. We didn’t remember him being outside the club or anything and that’s because he never left.”
Hampson and Brimson attended Keebra Park State High School together and played junior rugby league at the Tweed Seagulls.
Featured Image Credit: NRL/Supplied. @brimmmo/Instagram.Topics: Rugby League, Australia, NRL