Rosie O’Donnell‘s 17-year-old daughter Chelsea went missing last week from her Nyack, New York neighbourhood, but thankfully was found earlier this week, relatively safe and sound in New Jersey with her therapy dog, Bear. Despite Rosie’s pleas that her daughter required medical attention and had stopped taking her medication for an undisclosed mental illness, authorities have said that Chelsea was lucid when they found her and of sound mind. Unfortunately, it’s not all good news, since she was actually found in the attic at heroin dealer Steve Sheerer’s house, whom she’d met on Tinder. Yikes!
A few days ago, Rosie tweeted an old newspaper article about a couple that was arrested in 2012 on drug and child endangerment charges. One half of that couple? Steve Sheerer. Something doesn’t bode well here.
Here’s Gothamist‘s roundup of what’s going on, from several different sources:
According to the Asbury Park Press, “Barnegat Officer Nicholas Dapuzzo went to the home and confronted Sheerer at the front door, according to [Barnegat Police Lt. Keith] Germain. Noticing Sheerer was acting nervous, the officer pressed Sheerer, who ultimately relented and allowed the officer to search the home. Dapuzzo searched the home and found O’Donnell in the attic with her dog, Bear, according to Germain.”
The Daily Mail spoke to Dapuzzo, who said, “When I got to the house, a man there said she wasn’t in house. I told him of the severity of the incident, she was a juvenile and she needed medication. He finally let us in the house and Chelsea was hiding upstairs in the attic. He didn’t want us going in the house, but she came right down ‘She said she didn’t want to be home and came here ‘Thursday-ish’.'”
“She was a little apprehensive. It was written on her face that she didn’t want to go. I told her she was a juvenile and she needed medical attention and she needed to come with me,” Dapuzzo continued. “I wouldn’t say he was a boyfriend, more of an acquaintance. She stayed there a few nights and she had stayed elsewhere, but she wouldn’t tell me where. I couldn’t say that they were sexually involved. But they met through Tinder sometime in July.”
Chelsea was using a burner phone, which is what police used to track and trace her location. She left her laptop and her actual phone back home in Nyack. It’s impossible to say what she was up to and what would have happened to her if she wasn’t found, but something tells me nothing good can come out of it. I’m still curious as to why a 17-year-old child is living on her own without any parental guidance, especially given her history of mental illness and inability to make good decisions, clearly.
Whatever happens, I hope Chelsea can get some help from whomever can best provide it.