LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (Reuters) - An Arkansas Crime Lab preliminary autopsy confirmed country music singer Mindy McCready's death was a suicide from a single gunshot wound to the head, the Cleburne County Sheriff's Office said on Wednesday.
McCready, 37, whose career was overshadowed by substance abuse and suicide attempts, was found dead on the porch of a house in Heber Springs, Arkansas, on Sunday afternoon beside her boyfriend's dead dog. Officials have said she shot the dog.
"It is with the deepest sadness we say goodbye to an extraordinary and gifted talent, a daughter, a mother and friend, Miss Mindy McCready," McCready's family said in a statement released on Wednesday.
The statement requested a time of "quiet" for her family and friends and said McCready's "friends in music" were planning to host a memorial in Nashville soon.
The singer's 1996 debut album, "Ten Thousand Angels," sold 2 million copies. Four other studio albums followed. Her fifth album, "I'm Still Here," was released to acclaim in 2010.
McCready, though, had a complicated personal life with a history of substance abuse, suicide attempts, family disputes and tragedy. She was in a legal dispute over custody of her oldest son, Zander, with the boy's father at the time of her death.
In November 2011, she left Florida with Zander and fled to Arkansas. McCready's mother, who had custody of the child, filed a missing person report against her daughter and regained custody.
Last month, record producer David Wilson, the father of McCready's son Zayne, who was born last year, was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in Heber Springs. An investigation was ongoing into his death.
(Editing by David Bailey and Leslie Adler)
