Yesterday, we discussed the fortunate discovery of Rosie O’Donnell’s 17-year-old daughter, Chelsea Belle O’Donnell, after she went missing for a week. Rosie said Chelsea was off her medication and left with her therapy dog. There was speculation that Chelsea may have run off with her mess of a biological mother. Radar updated their initial take with a claim from Deanna Micoley, who said she spoke with Chelsea three days before she went missing. Deanna said she made plans to meet with Chelsea, but nothing ever happened.
Instead, Chelsea was located in the attic of a guy she met on Tinder. Us Weekly reports that underage Chelsea was “discovered unharmed” in the 27-year-old’s addict. She was tracked via a cell phone signal after the missing person’s report was filed. Page Six fills in more alarming details:
Chelsea, who suffers from mental illness and had not been taking her medication, was found in New Jersey on Tuesday at the home of Steve Sheerer, who was arrested in 2012 for possessing heroin with intent to distribute and child endangerment.
A source told Page Six that Chelsea was found at the Barnegat Township, New Jersey, home of Sheerer after meeting him on Tinder, “She is 17 and he is an [alleged] drug dealer, they met online, on Tinder. Chelsea is mentally ill, it is a parent’s worst nightmare. Rosie is relieved that Chelsea is back but is frightened for her daughter, she is extremely upset that Chelsea was with this guy. He’s a heroin dealer who lives with his mother.”
A rep for O’Donnell told us, “Rosie is relieved to have Chelsea back safely but is obviously very concerned about her well-being.” Sheerer, who it says has been convicted of drug offenses, first told police officers that Chelsea was not at his home. But they refused to believe him and found Chelsea huddled in the attic with her therapy dog Bear.
The police officer who found Chelsea by tracking her through her burner phone, said he had no evidence that Sheerer and Chelsea had any sexual contact or that any crime had been committed. Patrolman Nicholas Dapuzzo said, “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 they were sexually involved. But they met through Tinder sometime in July.” He added that while Chelsea stated she didn’t want to go home, she said “she was fine.”
[From Page Six]
Those are some seriously terrifying details, and thank goodness Chelsea was not harmed. She met this dude on Tinder! Of course he had designs on being more than her friend, and he sounds like a predator. Not to mention he has a record of drug offenses too. This story is sobering enough already, but here’s a tweet from Rosie that will do you in. Parenting is tough stuff.
no mom is perfect – we all do our best @LisaMarasco –
— Rosie (@Rosie) August 19, 2015
Photos courtesy of Rosie.com, Fame/Flynet & WENN
So scary, hope she can get her daughter the help she needs.
What kind of person directs snarky remarks to a Mother after what she’s just been thru?
God Twitter can be so damaging in the hands of judge mental asshats!
Is this your first time on the internet? Hate is sadly everywhere.
isn’t that terrible? You have to wonder what is wrong with people, that that is their first reaction to the story, and that they directed the comment right to her.
My heart broke just a little reading Rosie’s response.
Even the best parents can have problems with their kids! Very scary stuff! Mental illness is so hard to deal with, especially if it is your child. The mental health system in America is abysmal. Rosie is one of the lucky ones in that she has enough money to get Chelsea help. I am middle America, have health insurance, and still had such a hard time trying to get help for one of my kids. It took months and months to find a pyschiatrist that was taking new patients. And then, even with insurance, it was costing us a fortune. I can’t imagine how a parent, living in poverty copes with a loved one in a mental health crisis. I know, I felt helpless, and was terrified that my child would commit suicide before I could get him professional help.
You could be describing our situation, too. It is terrifying. And truly heartbreaking to think of how many people go untreated. I hope things are better for your son/daughter.
the mental health system is abysmal worldwide not only in America
“I felt helpless, and was terrified that my child would commit suicide before I could get him professional help”.
I hope your child is O.k. I wish you and everybody happiness.
It is a horribly broken system. If there’s peer support where you live, or near where you live, that can be a helpful thing. There’s a terrible shortage of psychiatrists in this country. Way too long to go into here as to the genesis of our current situation, but I hope your children are getting the help they need, and that you parents are, too. This is one of those situations where support for everyone involved is crucial. Also, if you have other children who are not suffering in this particular way, I recommend this: http://www.jeannesaferphd.com/book/the-normal-one/
Yeah I’ve been dealing with this with a family member for years. Unfortunately it gets worse when you are dealing with an adult who may not be willing to get help plus a system that doesn’t do much when they are willing to get it. It’s a constant nightmare for everyone involved. I feel terrible for Rosie.
My sister is going through this now with her 6 year old. She has insurance but there is nobody close by that accepts her insurance. The one that does accept insurance has a 10 month waiting list. She needs to write a letter to insurance to ask if she can choose an out of network provider because no other is available. Meanwhile, she still has a huge deductibleand tjis is going to cost a lot of money. She is in a panic.
I wish Rosie the best. She is inan awful situation.
I just hope that her biological mother will leave her along and let her have chance in life. How selfish of her to emotionally play her child into despair. Unfortunately, Rosie can’t really do very much there , Chelsea is at that age where she can make her own moves. I feel deeply for Rosie, she has been so dedicated to her kids, despite her own troubles. And I truly believe, that she is trying her best.
I don’t understand why some of my fellow psychiatrists have to be so expensive and so unwavering in regard to their fee. Yes, I make a good amount of money, but I also have patients I see on a sliding scale and some I see for whatever their insurance pays out, and some I see for next to nothing. And they all get the same care.
It’s also possible for a psychiatrist to work with the drug companies to make medication affordable if it is needed. I’m not a big pharma kind of doctor, but I do prescribe meds when they are essential.
According to TMZ, there were no drugs found in the house and she was lucid. So, while still not ideal, I don’t think there is any evidence of him dealing or abusing drugs since his arrest in 2013.
Even if he stopped dealing and taking drugs, he is still a 27-year old grown-ass man, who met a 17-year old girl on Tinder and invited her to live in his attic with who-knows what intentions. Who does that? He could have been a rapist or a murderer – it’s terrifying to even think about.
Chelsea is very lucky…who knows what this man’s intentions were for her….He could have changed her in the attic and kept her there for as long as he wanted….why does Chelsea have a “burner” phone??? That sounded odd to me!
Oh, I agree. I would flip my sh*t if I had a child in her situation. I’m not actually defending him, but by stating that he is currently a heroin user and dealer, then most people will assume that she was there shooting up. I think that is very unfair to her, especially since there was no evidence of drug use on her part. The whole world already knows that she has some mental issues, no need for people to assume she’s using heroin as well.
I agree with you here! Sensational details aren’t necessary to give this situation anymore gravity. I truly dislike that aspect of the media.
I’m surprised that the police would collect a 17 year old as if she were a child? It’s bizarre to jnfantalise her like that. The US has such a confusing culture, 17 year olds packed up and sent home unwillingly as if they were young children, 12 year olds (real children) prosecuted as adults. I suppose it depends on the race and social class they come from. Rich, white females are forever ‘kids’ to be protected.
Even though the age of consent in NY is 17, it is possible there is an exception because of her mental health issues.She will be 18 next month.
Age of consent and age of majority are not the same thing. Basically in all of the countries in the world, not just USA, except for maybe 5 or 6, including Iran, Malta and Indonesia, people are considered legally as adults when they are 18 or older (in some countries the threshold is as high as 20, 21). They might be able to drive or drink or have other rights, but they are still minors and their parents/legal guardians are legally responsible for them.
That’s not true NORMAN, in Britain you can get married or join the army at 16 and there’s nothing a parent can do to stop it. In most European countries the cops wouldn’t go near an over 16 year old who chose to escape their parents, let alone break into someone’s house, collect them like a baby and return them!!!!! I left home at seventeen for university as did most of my friends, some left earlier because they got a job or trade training. Infantilising young adults is extremely dangerous because it prevents their brain from fully maturing. It’s the reason there are so many crazy twenty-thirty something’s living at home with their parents playing computer games all day.
They only collected her because she was white and from a rich family. They will go arrest a poor black ten year old now for jaywalking.
@Jas sorry, but you really don’t know what you are talking about. In the U. S. you aren’t a legal adult until 18. This means that your parent or legal guardian has a say in your life.
This is a 17 yr old with a medical condition and that is the main reason the police went after her. It has nothing to do with the fact that she is white or from a rich family. I see kids all the time on the news that have run away with mental health issues and the police have gone to the news to help find these kids. They are all races and from different economic classes.
Its her mental health status. We had a neighbor call the cops when their son who has schizophrenia went missing. They tracked him through his phone as well and picked him up. Took him straight to a hospital…and he was an adult at the time
Enough the white/black stuff already, please fellow readers? Let’s just snark.
rosie needs to take her child off blast
In my country the media takes down the photo of a missing person once they are found. I’m hoping she will be left alone to recover with the help of her family.
What a cruel and unfair twitter comment. I wish her and her family the best. Tough stuff.
Once she’s 18 it will be impossible to control her. You can’t commit an adult again there will or have thr police bring an 18 year old home. This is terrifying. I’m not a Rosie fan but my heart goes out to her.
Yes Rosie can. Look what Britney Spears dad did. Conservatorship. It has worked so-so for Amanda Bynes but I think her mental illness is so much worse then Spears. Sad situation.
True but thing had to get really bad for both of them before their parents could step in.
Why does she have a burner phone and not a regular cell phone?
Why does she not want to go home?
Why is she not taking her medication?
It makes me wonder if she’s being overly controlled at home, and her mental health professional isn’t helping very much. I was in an abusive home with my untreated bipolar disorder and the psychologists and psychiatrists that I sought out were horrible and useless. I hope she gets the help she needs and gets away from Rosie, if there is a problem there.
I questioned the burner phone, too! However, to address the part of your statement “It makes me wonder if she’s being overly controlled at home”….As a Mom of a child (actually, he is an adult now) who has mental and emotional issues, I know, myself, that I could be very controlling of my son. I was so afraid that he would do something to hurt himself, that I could be over the top in trying to find out what he was doing, where he was going….the fear of losing my son, that I loved more than life itself, made me that way. I’m not saying it’s right, but I understand. It’s trying to protect them…and you can’t always…
@mrsbpitt I was a child that had lots of issues. Though my issues didn’t fully hit until I was around 20 and then I went spectacularly off the rails. Legally my parents couldn’t do anything, but they would track me down through friends, cell phone records etc…when I would go missing. They truly didn’t believe I would make it to 25. At the time, I hated them for it but I think they saved my life. Now that I’m a parent, I know I would do the same thing. I pray I don’t have to because I can’t imagine going through the same sort of thing with my son that I put them through.
I hope your son is doing better now ❤️
Thanks, MrsB….My son was the same as you…a kid who had a lot of issues, but seem to hit worse, in his early 20’s….He is doing somewhat better…but still has periods that are worriesome. I pray that your son has a happy, healthy life!
I’m not going to judge. My niece is entering into teenage years and i’ve seen the stubborn, you say black/i say white streak coming out in her for a while. She’s a good girl, but i worry that she will get mixed up with bad people when she goes to high school. Raising teens in this age is HARD. You really have to police their internet/phone usage, and a lot of parents just don’t have the time to do it all the time or they think their kid is sensible.
I hope Chelsea gets on the right path,. This is a dream come true for Rosie’s ex-wife fo her custody battle though…
And she’s likely almost 18. Sadly unless some kind of conservatorship gets put in place I don’t see this having a happy ending.
A heroin dealer who lives with his mother? You know sometimes you worry that maybe you haven’t done all you could with your life….then you remember at least you’re not a heroin dealer who lives with your mother. Yikes.
everyone seems puzzled about her burner phone …
she perhaps lost her actual phone. or her new ‘alleged’ drug dealer friend stole it, or sold it, etc. god knows what shes been up to …
Thumbs up on the service dog. Bear may have protected her from things getting much worse. Certainly he was a source of stability and comfort.
I wonder if Chelsea has a better relationship with her other mother then she does with Rosie because her running away with a 28 year old man does not speak well for things to come. She turns 18 next month so unless she a danger to herself or others Rosie won’t be able to control whether she comes home or takes her medication.
How anyone could be hateful enough to turn this into an attack on Rosie is beyond me. Rosie is a lot of things, but she has always been, by all accounts, an enthusiastic and involved mother.
Every parent struggles, and every kid does things, in some degree, that can be used to reflect poorly on a parent if you want to twist it around that way. Especially in the older teen years, young people do scary, stupid things to relieve anxiety or chase wish fulfillment. They do this whether they had excellent parents or no parents. This young lady has mental illness on top of being 17.
She ran away with a potential love interest or someone who paid attention to her and made her feel good temporarily. That is pretty typical, as is a “good” girl dating a “bad” boy, even for girls with great families. Making this an indictment of Rosie’s parenting is beyond stupid.
I’m glad she is safe, and whatever my opinions on Rosie O’Donnell, I’m glad she has her daughter back unharmed.
People on the internet can be so cruel.