Death takes two former Idol contestants

Death has taken two performers who emerged Australian TV screens as contestants on the Idol series

They were Queensland country music performer Kate Cook, semi-finalist on 2009 series of Australian idol, and Janice Freeman who wowed judges Jennifer Hudson and Miley Cyrus on the 13th season of American Idol.

Cook, 36, is thought to have taken her life after wandering into the bush in her hometown of Lowood.

Friends had expressed concern of her mental state. Police are not treating her death as suspicious.

When Cook auditioned for Australian Idol, she played a song ‘Make You Stay’ that she wrote after she and her younger sister found their mother after she took her life in 2000.

It was two days before Cook’s 17th birthday.

“I’ve had a long road to sort of find myself after being lost for a long time. So I sort found myself through strength and music,” she told judges Kyle Sandilands, Marcia Hines and Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson.

Freeman was at home in Pasadena, California, with her husband Dion, when a blood clot travelled to her heart and she died after being rushed to hospital. She was 33.

Hudson, who was won over by Freeman’s wildly applauded rendition of Imagine Dragons’ ‘Radioactive’, sent her condolences to the family, saying. “The voice of hers we got to hear and the bit of life we got to watch her live was a blessing and inspiration to us all!”

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