Cathriona White's friends' anguish after missing cry for help

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Cathriona White, 28, was found dead from a suspected drug overdose
Days earlier, she wrote a worrying message on Twitter in a cry for help
It said: 'Signing off Twitter, I hope I have been a light to my nearest and dearest'
Message received no responses before her death and has only now triggered thousands of comments
Friend: 'Because it was Twitter nobody thought about it or replied'

Published: 06:01 EST, 30 September 2015 | Updated: 09:17 EST, 30 September 2015

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Friends of Jim Carrey's ex-girlfriend have spoken of their despair that they missed her call for help on Twitter before she apparently took her life.

Make-up artist Cathriona White, 28, was found dead from a suspected drug overdose on Monday just days after breaking up with the comedian for a second time.

They are believed to have split last Thursday, the same day she wrote a worrying message on Twitter, saying: 'Signing off Twitter, I hope I have been a light to my nearest and dearest.'

The tweet received no responses before her death and has only now triggered thousands of comments after the tragedy was announced.

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Friends of Jim Carrey's ex-girlfriend Cathriona White (pictured, above, with the comedian in May) have told of their agony that they missed her cry for help on Twitter days before she died in a suspected suicide

White reportedly left behind a suicide note, mentioning the fact that she broke up with Carrey again on September 24 - the same day that she tweeted this troubling message in an apparent cry for help

White is pictured second from right at the wedding of her sister Lisa, second from left. Their mother Brigid is on the far left, and brother James, an Afghanistan war hero, on the far right

Her friend, Judd Weiss, 35, from Los Angeles, said: 'The fact she wrote that on Twitter is terrible. One of her friends I spoke to was really distressed about that.

'Because it was Twitter nobody thought about it or replied.'

The estate agent, who has been close friends with Cathriona since 2012, believes her life may have been saved if she had written a message on Facebook instead.

He told The Sun U.S. Editor Pete Sampson: 'If she'd written something like that on Facebook somebody would have been over to see her straight away.'

His comments came after Cathriona's traumatised mother spoke of her devastation over her daughter's tragic death.

Brigid Sweetman told a family friend of her heartbreak, saying: 'My Cathriona is dead. My Cathriona is dead.

'Can you believe it? What am I going to do? What am I going to do?'

Cathriona, originally from the small town of Cappawhite in Ireland's County Tipperary, was found at her Los Angeles, California home on Monday night after two friends went to check in on her at the $1.1million residence.

White allegedly left behind a suicide note in which she mentioned breaking up with Carrey on September 24, according to TMZ.

That's the same day that she wrote a worrying message on Twitter.

I am shocked and deeply saddened by the passing of my sweet Cathriona. She was a truly kind and delicate Irish flower, too sensitive for this soil, to whom loving and being loved was all that sparkled.

Jim Carrey

'Signing off Twitter, I hope I have been a light to my nearest and dearest,' White wrote.

Los Angeles deputy chief coroner Ed Winter said that a drug overdose is suspected because several pills were found near White's body.

While the death is believed to be a suicide, an official ruling has not yet been made.

Following news of his ex-girlfriend's death, Carrey issued a statement saying he is 'shocked and deeply saddened by the passing of my sweet Cathriona'.

He continued: 'She was a truly kind and delicate Irish flower, too sensitive for this soil, to whom loving and being loved was all that sparkled.

'My heart goes out to her family and friends and to everyone who loved and cared about her. We have all been hit with a lightning bolt.'

Meanwhile, in England, a relative said Cathriona's mother Brigid Sweetman was planning to travel to Ireland later this week to be with family.

Sweetman moved to the UK from Ireland after divorcing the father of her three children.

White and Carrey first started dating in late summer 2012, but by March the following year they had fallen apart.

The couple appeared to have rekindled their romance this past May when they were seen happily smiling and holding hands on outings in New York City.

In one of the pictures of the couple taken in May, Carrey is seen wearing an Irish hurling jersey representing White's home county of Tipperary.

On Tuesday, the three-bedroom, $1.1million house where White's body was found had been sealed by the coroner.

The house has a swimming pool at the rear and spectacular views overlooking the valley opposite.

Family photographs can still be seen in one of the bedrooms, including one in silhouette that appears to be of White and Carrey.

It is believed White was renting the property for $5,000 a month.

White's body was found after two friends came to check up on her at her Los Angeles residence Monday night (pictured above)

The home had been sealed by the coroner on Tuesday when reporters arrived on the scene

Frank Nakama, 81, a gardener who has worked in the street for 40 years, said he last spoke to White on Friday. and says she was 'quiet but polite as usual.'

A neighbor, who did not want to be named, said she had seemed paranoid and depressed in recent days.

He told The Sun: 'She wasn't smiling. She seemed paranoid — she'd also installed security cameras all over the property in the last couple of months.'

Another neighbour said: 'There were fire trucks and police cars up here between 9pm and 11.30pm.

'She was very private and had only lived in the house a few months. I'd heard Carrey was her boyfriend, but never saw him here.'

Carrey and the make-up artist first met in 2012, but broke up in March 2013. They rekindled their romance this past May, when they were seen holding hands in New York City together (left and right)

In October 2012, friends from White's home village with a population less than 400 told the Irish Mail on Sunday how they were completely taken aback when they saw pictures of her hand in hand with Carrey, when the couple first started dating.

'We can't believe it,' a former classmate of White's from the Convent of Mercy in the nearby town of Doon, County Limerick, said.

'Of all the people, you wouldn't have expected it. Cathriona was always lovely looking, but she wasn't pushy - she was very shy really, and quiet.'

But she was also ambitious. White completed her Leaving Certificate at the Convent of Mercy before going on to study beauty and complementary therapies at the Limerick College of Further Education.

After that, she found work as a beautician in Tipperary before packing her bags for America in 2009.

A community in shock: The Whites funeral undertakers near Cappawhite in Ireland's County Tipperary run by Caitriona's grandfather and uncle

Above is the last picture White posted to her Instagram. It was published five days ago and included no captain other than a series of hashtags which included the words 'yearning,' 'love' and 'faith'

The day before her last Instagram post, White published a picture of flowers with a dark quote from Irish poet W.B. Yeats.

White captioned the photo above, posted to her Instagram one week ago: 'Before going for a wonderful belated birthday dinner at Nobu in Malibu last night.'

White pictured above taking a hike on Easter Sunday in southern California. She moved to California from Ireland in 2009

Within weeks of moving to America, White started taking acting classes in addition to finding work as a make-up artist.

According to her IMDB profile, White worked as a make-up artist on the TV series The Online Gamer, for which she also won a walk-on role.

However, her professional profile doesn't list any work since 2013, when she worked as a make-up artist on a short-film called Solitude.

Meanwhile, local Fine Gael councillor Mary Hanna, who is a friend of the White family, paid a glowing tribute to Cathriona.

'Cathriona was a stunning looking girl, very quiet, very reserved, and very gentle, as are all the Whote family. She was very bright girl going to school,' Ms Hanna said.

'Everybody would remember her. Obviously we are in shock that she is not with us any longer.

'The people in Cappawhite are deeply shocked. It's hard to believe that poor child is gone, whatever happened. The facts remain that a mother is without her daughter this evening.

'Her sister Lisa and her brother James are without a sister, her grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins are all without Cathriona. It's so heartbreaking.'

White retweeted this post from her then-boyfriend Jim Carrey on September 1

News broke of Carrey's relationship with White in 2012, when he was pictured with the then-mystery woman on a beach in Malibu

Emigrating to America appears to have been tough for the young woman, who wasn't able to be home when her father Pat died in September 2012, nor could she attend his funeral.

White's father was in his 50s at the time of his death, but had been battling a brain tumor for the past two decades.

Pat White raised Cathriona and her two siblings after divorcing their mother Brigid, who remarried and moved to England.

Her father's funeral isn't the only major family event that White has missed out on.

In 2011, her brother James, who is two years older than her, was awarded the Military Cross at Buckingham Palace by Queen Elizabeth II for courageous acts while serving with the British army in Afghanistan, but she couldn't make the ceremony.

It was a rare honor considering James was born and bred in Ireland, and left his home country for England in order to join the foreign army.

Living across the pond also means she hasn't had much time to dote on her young nieces and nephews.

However she was able to come home recently when her sister Lisa got married.

CATHRIONA WHITE'S AFGHANISTAN WAR-HERO OLDER BROTHER

Cathriona White was living in America when her brother James was awarded the Military Cross by Queen Elizabeth II for heroic acts during his deployment to Afghanistan

Cathriona White was living in America when her brother James was awarded the Military Cross by Queen Elizabeth II for heroic acts during his deployment to Afghanistan.

The Irish-born man had always wanted to be a soldier, and decided to join the British army after getting first turned down by the Irish army, his father Pat White told the Irish Independent in 2011.

'He tried to join the Irish army, but failed on the medical because he had asthma as a child, but he quickly grew out of that. He worked here for a bit before moving to England and joined the army,' Mr White, now deceased, said.

A member of the Parachute Regiment, James was one of 136 members of the British Armed Forces chosen to be honored by the queen with a medal in 2011.

While James had served two seven-month tours in Afghanistan at that point, as part of a special forces support, it was his brave actions on his second tour that merited the medal.

The first happened when two platoons were pinned down by enemy fire, and James ran more than 200 yards in open ground to assist his comrades.

James is also said to have took out an insurgent machine gunner and helped evacuate soldiers taking causalities by attacking an enemy-held compound.

Meanwhile, the death no doubt comes as a hard blow for Carrey, not only because of his romantic relationship with White but because of his longtime battle with depression.

In a 2004 60 Minutes interview, Carrey revealed that he had been medicated to combat the disease.

'I was on Prozac for a long time. It may have helped me out of a jam for a little bit, but people stay on it forever.

'I had to get off at a certain point because I realized that, you know, everything's just OK.

'There are peaks, there are valleys. But they're all kind of carved and smoothed out, and it feels like a low level of despair you live in. Where you're not getting any answers, but you're living OK. And you can smile at the office. You know? But it's a low level of despair. You know?' he said

Carrey pictured above in April, around the time that he got back together with White

In addition to quitting Prozac, Carrey said he stopped drinking alcohol and pretty much nixed caffeine as well.

'I rarely drink coffee. I'm very serious about no alcohol, no drugs. Life is too beautiful,' he said.

Carrey has twice been married. In 1987 he wed Comedy Store waitress Melissa Womer; they stayed together for eight years and have a daughter, Jane Erin Carrey, the same age as White, who has a child of her own.

A year after Carrey's split from Womer in 1995, the actor married his Dumb and Dumber co-star Lauren Holly, but that marriage lasted less than a year.

After than he was involved in a number of relationships with other actresses including January Jones, Laurie Holden and Me Myself and Irene co-star Renee Zellweger, to whom he was briefly engaged.

In 2005 he began a five-year relationship with Jenny McCarthy, and became a step-father to her son Evan.

Carrey started out his career as a comedic actor in such Blockbuster hits as The Mask, Dumb and Dumber and Ace Ventura: Pet Detective before moving on to more serious work.

He has twice won a Golden Globe award for acting, for roles in Man on the Moon and The Truman Show.

His part in the cult film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, in which he plays a man undergoing a procedure to erase the memory of an ex-girlfriend, has also become a career-defining role for the actor.

• For confidential help, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 or click here

• For confidential support on suicide matters in the UK, call the Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90, visit a local Samaritans branch or click here