Fans are wondering what happened to Sinead O’Connor after she disappeared in Chicago with a history of mental illness. Police called off their search after O’Connor was found safe.
Officer Fred King of the Willamette, Illinois, Police Department said Sinead O’Connor was located after being missing for more than a day. An unnamed caller had alerted authorities that the singer had not returned from a bike ride early Sunday morning.
Police didn’t offer any details about where the singer-songwriter had been or how they located her. The Irish-born singer, who became a global star in 1990 with her Prince-penned hit, “Nothing Compares 2 U,” has had her fair share of troubles in recent years.
“The Wilmette Police is seeking to check the well-being of Sinead O’Connor,” said an earlier press release from the desk of Wilmette Police Sgt. Michael Robinson. “O’Connor reportedly left the Wilmette area for a bicycle ride yesterday at 6:00 AM and has not returned. A caller has expressed concern for her well-being and no other information is available at this time.”
The caller asked Willamette police to check on O’Connor’s well-being check after she failed to return. Two hours after Sinead went on her bike ride, her official Facebook page had a vague, rambling post added to it.
“Jake, kindly go to the court on Tuesday and take custody your brother from Tusla. My lawyer will be making the illegal way yourself and Donal got him into Tusla (lying to the cops etc) known to the judge. expect to be in trouble. In fact you’d best bring a lawyer of your own. And do not abandon your brother or any other of my babies again. What you have done to your brother and your mother is LITERALLY criminal.”
It’s unclear what exactly the post was in reference to, but O’Connor’s oldest son’s name is Jake. Two days prior, Sinead posted an open letter to her youngest son, Shane, writing: “I love you. My baby. I’m waiting for you and will wait as long as I have to.”
And on May 7, on the eve of Mother’s Day, the singer wrote about Shane, saying that he was in foster care and “in intense distress.”
In November, O’Connor raised concerns of mental illness that she might harm herself after she posted a distressed note on her Facebook page saying she had taken an overdose in a hotel room in Ireland. Sinead was later found to be safe and was taken for medical treatment.
Earlier this month former late-night host Arsenio Hall filed suit against her for $5 million, claiming defamation after she accused him of supplying Prince with drugs “over the decades” and of drugging her.
Sinead O’Connor has spoken publicly in the past about her mental illness struggles, including suicide attempts in 1999 and 2012.
