Country Music Star Mindy McCready Found Dead With Gunshot Wound; Suicide Suspected

Country music star Mindy McCready was found dead Sunday of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound on the porch of her house in Arkansas, authorities confirmed.

Florida-born McCready died "from what appears to be a single self-inflicted gunshot wound," the Cleburne County Sheriff's Office said in a statement. The body of the 37-year-old singer, known for albums including "Ten Thousand Angels" and "If I Don't Stay the Night," was found at 4 p.m. Sunday local time on the front porch of her home in Heber Springs, Ark., Reuters reported.

Neighbors called the police after they heard gunshots from the house, the Associated Press reported.

The country singer had a troubled personal life in the last few years and had been behaving in an erratic and violent manner after the mysterious death of her 34-year-old boyfriend and record producer David Wilson, last month.

Melinda Gayle McCready aka Mindy McCready moved to Nashville, Tenn. at the age of 18 and earned a contract with BNA Records. She had her first taste of success with her debut album, “Guys Do It All the Time," in 1996. In the same year, another album, ‘‘Ten Thousand Angels,’’ sold a reported 2 million copies.

However, problems in her personal life started making headlines in 2004 as she was placed on parole for alleged drug abuse. In 2005, she was arrested for violating probation terms after she was caught driving drunk, and she made unsuccessful suicide attempts in 2005 and 2008. In 2010, she was reportedly hospitalized for a drug overdose and underwent rehab.

McCready was locked in a bitter custody battle with her mother over her elder son, six-year-old Zander, with Billy McKnight. In 2007, a court awarded the custody of the child to McCready’s mother. In 2011, she took the boy from her father’s home at Florida, violating the custody arrangement, and fled to Tennessee. The authorities later traced her to a residence in Tennessee and retrieved the boy after a judge issued an “emergency pickup order.”

Her second child, Zayne, with David Wilson is nine months old.

However, after the death of her boyfriend, she reportedly was having serious behavioral issues, and a judge, in response to a petition filed by McCready’s father, ordered her to rehab and moved her children from her home. A judge responding to the petition said: “There is cause to find there is clear and convincing evidence that respondent is in imminent danger of harm to herself or others, suicidal or gravely disabled," E! reported.