An intruder breaks into George Harrison’s Hawaiian home

On 23 December 1999, George Harrison’s home in Maui, Hawaii was broken into by a 27-year-old woman called Cristin Keleher.

Harrison had owned the property since the early 1980s, and had long sought to keep it a private residence away from public gaze. He and his wife Olivia were not present at the time of the break-in.

George Harrison's home in Maui, Hawaii

Keleher cooked a pizza taken from the house’s freezer, drank a bottle of soda and called her mother. Her presence triggered an alarm, and police were quickly alerted.

By the time the police arrived, Keleher was doing her laundry at the Harrisons’ home. When asked why she had broken in, she told them: “I thought I had a psychic connection with George”. She said she had entered the property through an open sliding glass door.

Keleher was released on bail – the amount was reduced from $10,000 to $1,500 after her attorney told a court hearing that she would be able to stay on the island if she were released – with an initial hearing set for January 2000.

In April 2000 she pleaded guilty to theft and burglary, and was imprisoned for four months. The prosecution in the Hawaiian courtroom said she had been stalking Harrison for years.

In 2006 Cristin Keleher’s body was found in a car in California along with that of another man, Stanley Everett Merchant. Both had sustained gunshot wounds to their heads. “From the investigation it appears that she was shot first and then he shot himself, so it is a murder-suicide,” Nevada County Sheriff’s Sergeant Shannan Moon said.

Last updated: 14 February 2024
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