Did Dolores O’Riordan Commit Suicide? New Details About Report The Cranberries Lead Singer Died Of Fentanyl Poisoning
She was found dead on Monday.
Getty Images The lead singer of the Cranberries may have died of Fentanyl poisoning Monday, January 15th in a possible suicide.
The Santa Monica Observer reported that a source in the London Police Department confirmed Dolores O’Riordan died of Fentanyl poisoning in a deliberate overdose.
Counterfeit Fentanyl was allegedly found by her bed in a London hotel and the singer was declared dead at the scene.
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"Her death is not being treated as suspicious," a police spokeswoman told NBC News.
The music icon has spoken of dying young before in a 2014 interview, according to Daily Mail.
“I am not going to live that long. I’m 43. If I see 50, I’ll be happy. I mean that,” she said in the interview.
O'Riordan also said that she would likely come back as an angel once she died.
“I think I’ll probably come back as an angel and I’d like to guide people or guard people going through similar experiences in life, whisper in their ear and kind of give them ideas on how to deal with things,” she continued.
O’Riordan has been a victim of depression, bipolar disorder, and sexual abuse over the course of her life, which led people to wonder if her death was a suicide.
In 2013, she revealed to LIFE Magazine that someone very close to her had sexually abused her as a young child.
“I was only a kid,” she told the publication. “It gets hard as well when you have daughters because you get flashbacks when you’re with them and when you are watching them. You wonder, ‘How can anyone get satisfaction in any way, you know?'”
O’Riordan is survived by her three children, Taylor, Molly, and Dakota, and ex-husband Don Burtan, a former tour manager for the band Duran Duran.
Moving on from her abusive childhood was difficult but she said her kids we “actually completely elemental in my healing process.”
She publicly announced she had been diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2017.
A post-mortem is scheduled for Thursday. Toxicology results will reveal her true cause of death. The Cranberries’ members are “devastated” upon learning about O’Riordan’s death.
“The world has lost a true artist today,” that band posted on its Twitter account.
According to friends, the 46-year-old was “full of life” on the phone just hours before her sudden death.
“Dolores left me a voice message just after midnight last night stating how much she loved Bad Wolves’ version of ‘Zombie,’” said Dan Waite, a longtime friend of O’Riordan and director of Eleven Seven International Managing. “She was looking forward to seeing me in the studio and recording vocals.”
Waite expressed his condolences to her family.
“She sounded full of life, was joking and excited to see me and my wife this week,” he continued. “The news of her passing is devastating and my thoughts are with Don her ex-husband, her children, and her mother.”
Bad Wolves singer Tommy Vext posted on Facebook that he was shocked when he learned of the singer’s passing.
“We are shocked and saddened at the news of Dolores’s passing, mere hours before she was to record vocals on our upcoming version of Zombie. We have always had deep respect for her as an artist and a vocalist and she was never afraid to bare her soul in her music and lyrics,” Vext said.
If true, O’Riordan is not the first star to die of Fentanyl poisoning. Prince and Lil Peep both overdosed on the dangerous drug.
The opioid is considered a synthetic cousin of heroin, according to Stat News. It only takes 3 milligrams of Fentanyl to kill an adult male, compared to 30 milligrams of heroin needed for an overdose. The two look exactly alike.
“You’re injecting yourself with a loaded gun,” said Tim Pifer, the director of the New Hampshire State Police Forensic Laboratory.