Sinead O'Connor found safe after going missing in Chicago area: police
By Suzannah Gonzales and Fiona Ortiz
CHICAGO (Reuters) - Irish-born singer Sinead O'Connor turned up safe at an undisclosed location on Monday, hours after being reported missing in Illinois by a caller who told authorities she had failed to return from a bicycle ride, police said.
O'Connor, 49, who was reported missing in Wilmette, a suburb north of Chicago, has publicly acknowledged a history of mental illness. Six months ago, she said in a grief-wracked Facebook post that she had deliberately taken a drug overdose.
In separate Facebook messages posted in recent days, O'Connor expressed angst over failing to gain the release of her 12-year-old son, Shane, from Irish child welfare agency officials.
It was not clear why Shane, the second youngest of her four children, was in state custody.
The latest scare surrounding the well-being of the firebrand Irish performer surfaced on Monday morning when the Wilmette Police Department reported O'Connor missing amid a flurry of queries from fans and followers on social media about her safety and whereabouts.
Police said they were "seeking to check the well-being" of the entertainer who they said "reportedly left the Wilmette area for a bicycle ride (on Sunday) at 6 a.m. and has not returned."
"A caller has expressed concern for her well-being," the statement added.
Later on Monday, a police spokesman said O'Connor had been located and that she was safe but declined to give further details.
The Wilmette Beacon, a community newspaper, reported that O’Connor had been staying with friends in the town, but police would not confirm that information.
She performed on March 4 at a tribute concert for the late British recording star David Bowie at Chicago's Metro rock venue.
O'Connor shot to fame in the 1990s with her chart-topping second album, "I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got," and the hit single, "Nothing Compares 2 U," a song written by Prince.
O'Connor - outspoken in her views on religion, child abuse, sexism, racism and war - gained a measure of notoriety in 1992 by ripping up a photo of Pope John Paul II during a television appearance on "Saturday Night Live."
Earlier this month, comedian Arsenio Hall filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit in Los Angeles against O'Connor, who had accused Hall in a Facebook post of having for years supplied drugs to Prince before the music legend's sudden death on April 21.
(Additional reporting by Justin Madden in Chicago; Editing by Matthew Lewis and Jonathan Oatis)
