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Mindy McCready found dead in her home at 37 Mindy McCready found dead in her home at 37
(about 4 hours later)
Mindy McCready, who hit the top of the country charts before personal problems sidetracked her career, died on Sunday after she apparently shot herself. She was 37. Country singer Mindy McCready died in Arkansas on Sunday, police said, after apparently shooting herself in the head.
Cleburne County sheriff's office said McCready was found dead with what appeared to be a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound. Deputies were sent to a home at around 4 pm and found her body on the front porch. An autopsy is pending. The 37-year-old, who was noted for a turbulent personal life and her struggles with addiction, was found on the same porch where her boyfriend David Wilson is believed to have shot himself last month.
Coroner Waren Olmstead said he didn't have further information on who was taking care of her two sons. McCready found fame in 1996 with a series of hits from her first album, Ten Thousand Angels. Her best known track, Guys Do It All the Time, reached number one in the US country charts but she failed to maintain that level of success despite releasing another four albums over the following 14 years.
McCready arrived in Nashville in 1994 with tapes of her karaoke vocals and earned a recording contract with BNA Records. Cleburne County sheriff's office said deputies were dispatched to McCready's home at 3.31pm on Sunday after receiving a report of gunshots. Officers found McCready on the front porch of the house in Heber Springs, about 60 miles north of Little Rock. A police news release said she was pronounced dead at the scene, "from what appears to be a single self-inflicted gunshot wound".
In 1996, her Guys Do It All the Time hit No 1 with its dig at male chauvinism endearing her to females. Her other hits included Ten Thousand Angels, also in 1996, and her album by the same title sold 2 million copies. It is thought that McCready had tried to kill herself at least three times since 2005. She was charged with obtaining the painkiller OxyContin fraudulently at a pharmacy in 2004, pleading guilty, and violated the terms of her probation from that offence a year later when she was arrested for drunk driving. McCready had been hospitalised in May 2010 after police responded to an overdose call at a Florida home owned by her mother.
However, personal problems plagued her, including a custody battle with her mother over one of her sons. "I call my life a beautiful mess and organised chaos," she told the Associated Press in 2010. "It's just always been like that. My entire life, things have been attracted to me, and vice versa, that turn into chaotic nightmares, or I create the chaos myself. I think that's really the life of a celebrity, of a big, huge, giant personality."
McCready took her older son Zander from her mother and the boy's legal guardian, Gayle Inge, in late 2011. She fled to Arkansas without permission over what she called child abuse fears. Authorities eventually found McCready in hiding and took the boy into custody. McCready had been ordered by a court to enter rehab earlier this month, Fox News reported, after her father told a judge she was abusing alcohol and was unable to take care of herself or her two sons. The boys were placed in foster care when McCready entered rehab, but it was not clear where they were at the time of her death.
She and her boyfriend David Wilson had a son, Zayne, in April 2012. The singer had previously appeared on Celebrity Rehab with Dr Drew in 2010, where she had discussed her problems with alcohol. McCready was back in the news in December 2011 when she took Zander, her elder son from a relationship with singer Billy McKnight, from the Florida home of his maternal grandmother – the boy's legal guardian since 2007 – without permission.
In May 2010, she was hospitalised briefly after police responded to an overdose call at a home in North Fort Myers, Florida, owned by her mother. This followed a stint on Celebrity Rehab With Dr Drew, where she declared herself clean from drugs. Police found McCready and the then 5-year-old child in the bedroom closet of an unoccupied summer home in Arkansas.
In 2004, she was charged with obtaining the painkiller OxyContin fraudulently at a pharmacy. She pleaded guilty and was placed on three years' probation. McCready had previously spoken of her pain after Wilson's death on 13 January, describing the record producer and father of her second child as her "soulmate".
She violated the probation with a drunken driving arrest in May 2005. Then she attempted suicide in July 2005, overdosed in September 2005 and slit her wrists again in December 2008. "Those who knew and loved him will miss him; those who did not know David missed the opportunity to know a truly loving and gifted man," McCready said. The pair had been in a relationship for over two years, and had a nine-month old son, Zayne.
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/>In a statement released after Wilson's death McCready said he had been a father figure to both her children.
Also that year, McCready was charged in Arizona with hindering prosecution and unlawful use of transportation. Those charges stemmed from an alleged attempt in June 2005 to purchase two high-performance boats, but she claimed she was trying to stop a con man. "David was my soulmate; he was a caregiver and guiding hand to our sons, Zander and Zayne," she said. In an interview with NBC soon after his death she added: "I just keep telling myself that the more suffering that I go through, the greater character I'll have."
She made headlines again in April 2008 when she acknowledged a longtime relationship with baseball great Roger Clemens. Published reports at the time said she met the pitcher at a Florida karaoke bar when she was 15 and he was 28 and married. Following her dearth, a number of singers paid tributes to McCready. "I grew up listening to Mindy McCready … so sad for her family tonight. Many prayers are going out to them," said Carrie Underwood, who won American Idol in 2005.
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/>Richard Marx remembered the singer's "poor children", while Natalie Maines of The Dixie Chicks wrote: "Too much tragedy to overcome. RIP Mindy McCready."
Growing up in Fort Myers, she took seven years of private vocal lessons and later sang in karaoke bars.
After getting her recording contract, she did concert appearances with top country stars including George Strait, Tim McGraw and Alan Jackson.
Her other singles included Maybe He'll Notice Her Now, A Girl's Gotta Do (What a Girl's Gotta Do) and You'll Never Know.
In 1998, she was engaged to actor Dean Cain.