Police find singer Sinéad O’Connor after brief scare
Singer was staying with friends when she went missing
Singer with history of mental illness missing for over a day in a Chicago suburb.
Sinéad O’Connor, the Irish singer with a history of mental illness, was missing in a Chicago suburb for more than a day but has been found, according to local police.
Police in the village of Wilmette, Ill., north of Chicago, confirmed that O’Connor was found Monday and is safe. The local paper, The Wilmette
Beacon, also reported the news and added that O’Connor has been staying with friends in Wilmette for several weeks.
A “check-for-well-being alert” sent out by police Sgt. Michael Robinson in Wilmette on Monday said O’Connor, 49, went for a bike ride in the area on Sunday at 6 a.m. and did not return.
An unidentified caller expressed concern for her well-being, according to the alert.
Police said they had no further information and declined to answer more questions.
But according to the alert, about three hours after she was last seen, she posted a long and confusing message to her Facebook page. It did not mention where she was when she posted it.
O’Connor has said she was suicidal in the past and has received mental health treatment.
Most recently, in November, she posted an alarming suicide threat on Facebook, saying she had taken an overdose because of a “horrifying set of betrayals.”
“There is only so much any woman can be expected to bear,” the post read. “I’ve taken an overdose. There is no other way to get respect.”
She said in the post that she was not at home. “I’m at a hotel, somewhere in Ireland, under another name. If I wasn’t posting this, my kids and family wouldn’t even find out.”
O’Connor recently was sued for libel by comedian and talk show host Arsenio Hall after she accused him in another Facebook post of supplying the late superstar Prince with drugs. Hall’s rep vociferously denied that accusation.
“Two words for the DEA investigating where Prince got his drugs over the decades: Arsenio Hall ... Anyone imagining prince was not a long time hard drug user is living in cloud cuckoo land,” O’Connor said in the post.
O’Connor scored her biggest hit with her cover of Prince’s
Nothing Compares 2 U but had a testy relationship with the singer.
She said she had reported Hall to the Carver County Sheriff ’s Office, which is investigating Prince’s death April 21, possibly from a prescription painkiller overdose, and warned Hall, “You best get tidying your main cave.”
O’Connor has been upfront about her battle with depression over the years and has publicly pleaded on social media for help.