Cranberries’ Singer Dolores O’Riordan Likely Died of an Intentional Drug Overdose

Only yesterday we learned that Tom Petty’s death has been ruled an accidental overdose after a coroner’s report found several drugs in his system, and now a new account states that Cranberries’ vocalist Dolores O’Riordan, who was found dead in a London hotel room last week, died of an overdose as well, hers intentional.

The Santa Monica Observer, citing a source within the London Police Department, is reporting that O’Riordan died of an overdose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid that is reportedly 50 times as strong as heroin. Authorities found counterfeit fentanyl by the singer’s bed, and the LPD source noted that suicide was suspected but that a toxicology report would need to be conducted before determining the official cause of death.

O’Riordan suffered from depression and attempted to commit suicide in 2013. and was later diagnosed with bi-polar disorder.

If the reports of an intentional overdose prove true, O’Riordan will join Petty and Prince as iconic musicians to die from fentanyl in recent times, and she’ll join Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell as prominent rockers who have taken their own lives… and most sadly of all, that’s just the beginning of the list.

This doesn’t get any easier to report each time it happens. The only silver lining to be found is that these high-profile deaths have helped raise awareness of both the opioid crisis and mental health awareness, but the price to pay is so, so great. Hopefully this is the last instance of either on which we’ll need to report for a very long time.