The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan died by drowning in bath after drinking, inquest finds
The 'Zombie' singer was found dead in a London hotel room in January.
By Will Stroude
The Cranberries frontwoman Dolores O’Riordan died by drowning in a bathtub while under the influence of alcohol, a coroner has ruled.
An inquest into the death of the Irish rock singer, who was found dead in a London hotel room on January 15 at the age of 46, found that her death was the result of a “tragic accident”.
O’Riordan had “therapeutic” amounts of prescription medication in her blood and was over four times the legal drink-driving limit, toxicology tests found.
The singer, who was staying in London’s Park Lane Hilton hotel at the time of her death, showed no signs of injury of self-harm, the BBC reports.
The inquest, which took place on what would’ve been O’Riordan’s 47th birthday, heard that the singer checked into the hotel on 14 January, and spoke to her mother at around 3am.
She was later found unresponsive in the bathroom and confirmed dead at 9.16am.
PC Natalie Smart, who attended the scene, told the inquest: “I saw Mrs O’Riordan submerged in the bath with her nose and mouth fully under the water.”
O’Riordan, who was best known for hits including ‘Linger’, ‘Dreams’ and ‘Zombie’ and leaves behind three children, was recording new material with The Cranberries at the time of her death.
In a statement after the inquest, the band’s remaining members paid tribute to the late singer.
“On January 15th 2018, we lost our dear friend and bandmate Dolores O’Riordan,” Mike Hogan, Noel Hogan and Fergal Lawler said. “Today we continue to come to terms with what happened.”
They continued:”Our heartfelt condolences go out to Dolores’ children and her family, and our thoughts are with them today.”
“Dolores will live on eternally in her music. To see how much of a positive impact she had on people’s lives has been a source of great comfort to us.
“We’d like to say thank you to all of our fans for the outpouring of messages and their continued support during this difficult time.”