Sinead O’Connor apparently returned to Facebook late Monday, hours after Wilmette authorities said the Irish singer had been found safe.
But her posting may have done little to calm concerns about her well-being after she reportedly was missing from Sunday morning until some time Monday.
Wilmette authorities announced Monday morning that someone with concerns about O’Connor’s state of mind had called to report she left for a bicycle ride about 6 a.m. Sunday — when it was unseasonably cold — and she had not returned.
Wilmette police Chief Brian King said Tuesday that detectives located O’Connor through a canvass of area hotels at a Best Western in Morton Grove.
A music industry source told the Tribune on Monday that O’Connor has been staying at the home of another musician in the North Shore suburb for the past few months.
In two postings made on O’Connor’s official Facebook page late Monday, the singer made no reference to the episode or to reports that she had been found in a north suburban hotel and hospitalized.
About 8 p.m. Monday, O’Connor posted a rambling, profanity-laced message that mentioned an ongoing custody situation, as well as references to self-harm.
“You all abandoned me FOR BEING SUICIDAL … Every one of you had better pray I die. Because I’m suing the … lot of you for what you’ve done to me if I manage to live through it,” she wrote.
Though O’Connor performed at a David Bowie tribute in Chicago in March, she said in the posting that she’s been unable to work and has lost income over the past two years.
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“If I manage not to kill myself, you’ll be paying the medical costs which have been and will continue to be involved with that, since you were and remain the chief coordinator of my total psychological and emotional destruction,” said the post, labeled an open letter to her ex-husband John Reynolds.
The message was similar to one posted on her Facebook page about two hours after she reportedly left for the bike ride Sunday morning, in which she rambled about an upcoming court hearing and a child custody dispute. On Friday, a long message posted as an “open letter to my son,” encouraged the 12-year-old to bring his own case against Tusla, a child welfare agency in Ireland.
A representative at the singer’s talent agency could not immediately be reached Tuesday.
O’Connor, who has performed at least twice in Chicago this year, scored an international hit in 1990 with her rendition of Prince’s ballad “Nothing Compares 2 U.” The gifted but troubled singer-songwriter is known as much for her fierce and expressive voice as her shaved head and blunt criticism of the Catholic Church and other institutions.
O’Connor was sued this month by comedian Arsenio Hall over a Facebook post that stated investigators looking into the supplier of drugs used by Prince should question Hall. She also accused him of drugging her. The lawsuit seeks $5 million.
And in November, she posted a message on Facebook saying she had taken an overdose at a hotel somewhere in Ireland. Irish police later said she had been found safe. The next month, O’Connor posted on Facebook that she had been detained in a hospital for mental health evaluation.
Susan Berger is a freelance reporter; Kathy Routliffe is a Pioneer Press reporter. The Associated Press contributed.