AP Photo/Nick Ut; David Baxter/ZumaPress.comA woman described as being obsessed with Paula Abdul has been found dead after apparently killing herself in a car parked outside the American Idol judge's hillside home.
"I am deeply shocked and saddened by what transpired yesterday," Abdul told E! News. "My heart and prayers go out to her family."
The county coroner has identified the victim as 30-year-old Paula Goodspeed, a fifth-season Idol auditioner with a long fixation on the "Forever Your Girl" singer.
"She has a history of mental illness," said Capt. Ross Bonfiglio of the Ventura County Sheriff's Dept.
While poilce say the cause of death appears to be a suicide, the official pronouncement won't be made for several weeks, pending the outcome of toxicology tests.
Goodspeed's family members in Thousand Oaks, Calif., reported the woman missing Tuesday around 3 p.m., said Bonfiglio.
The family member who notified authorities said Goodspeed hadn't been seen since 11 p.m. Monday night. The family member also expressed concern that Goodspeed might possibly overdose.
Ventura County officials, aware of Goodspeed's interest in Abdul, then informed their counterparts in Los Angeles, who found the woman's body about three hours later in the 3800 block of Beverly Ridge Drive in Sherman Oaks.
While Goodspeed had no prior arrests, her family did ask the LAPD and L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. to locate her after she went missing in January. Bonfiglio said the family was concerned at the time that she might try to harm herself.
(Originally published Nov. 12, 2008, at 8:40 a.m. PT.)