Sheffield Keeley: Woman found dead on street treated like 'performing clown' for TikToks
Share:
A woman who was found dead in a city centre had been treated like a "performing clown" according to a homeless charity. Keeley Thornton, 34, was found unconscious early on Tuesday evening in the middle of Sheffield. Emergency services were called to Arundel Gate in the city shortly after 6.30pm on Tuesday, January 15th.
A member of the public tried to perform CPR on her after she was found unresponsive, until the ambulance arrived but tragically she was pronounced dead. The woman was named locally as ‘Sheffield Keeley,’ a woman often seen drinking in the city centre whose antics were shared more than a billion times by TikTok users.
Police said her death was being treated as unexplained after a 47-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of administering a noxious substance. The Archer Project in Sheffield, who help the homeless, told how that day she had visited them earlier that day and hugged a support worker before she left.
They slammed social media users who they say "exploited" the mum "just for likes". They didn't name Keeley but claimed she was paid to swim in fountains in the middle of winter and dance in an inebriated state “like a performing clown.' Soon after her death, TikTok users posted a video of Keeley singing the Nelly Furtado song, I’m Like A Bird, often with people singing behind her.
On TikTok, one video shared millions of times shows her splashing around in a fountain with people shouting at her things like ‘Do your Tom Daley dive’. Other content providers would come across her in Sheffield city centre and scream at her: ‘Oh my God we’ve found Keeley. She’s famous’ before posing with her and singing with her.
