Mindy McCready dead in apparent suicide

Mindy McCready dead in apparent suicide

Troubled country music star Mindy McCready, whose platinum singing career was shadowed by substance abuse and suicide attempts, was found dead on Sunday of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, an Arkansas sheriff said. She was 37.

McCready's body was found on the porch of a house in Heber Springs, Arkansas, on Sunday afternoon. She was pronounced dead at the scene "from what appears to be a single self-inflicted gunshot wound," the Cleburne County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Just last month David Wilson, McCready’s boyfriend and the father of her 9-month-old son Zayne, was found dead on the same porch where McCready's body was found. His death also was investigated as a suicide.

McCready entered court-ordered rehab earlier this month after her father told a judge she was no longer taking care of herself or her children and was abusing drugs and alcohol. Her sons were put in foster care at the time, but it's not clear where Zander and Zayne were at the time of McCready's suicide.

News of McCready's death spread quickly Sunday night on Twitter with major country stars paying their respects to Nashville's onetime darling.

- Christer B Herou

Mindy McCready dead in apparent suicide