Mindy managed to last for just over a year before she stood on her front porch and shot herself in the head, having already fatally shot her pet dog.
She killed herself at the same place, and in the same manner, that her ‘soulmate’, David Wilson, died under suspicious circumstances just a month before.
Malinda Gayle “Mindy” McCready was an American country music singer, recording a total of five studio albums, of which two went platinum and one gold, and included several singles that charted in the Billboard Country singles charts.
When she was 18, she moved to Nashville, where she was signed by BNA Records. Her debut album, Ten Thousand Angels, was released in 1996 and sold two million copies, producing four chart singles on the country charts: the title track at No. 6, followed by her only Number One hit, “Guys Do It All the Time.”
The next year, McCready released the album If I Don’t Stay the Night. The album spawned three singles, “What If I Do,” “The Other Side of This Kiss,” and “You’ll Never Know.” The album sold 825,000 copies.
The singer’s initial success was to prove short-lived as her popularity waned over time. In 1999, McCready released “I’m Not So Tough” and was a commercial failure, only selling 144,000 copies, causing her to be dropped by her label.
McCready was then signed by Capitol Records, releasing her self-titled album in 2002 to disappointing sales and was again dropped later that year.
Over the next few years, McCready’s life started to fall apart.
At the end of 2003 she started dating aspiring singer Billy McKnight. In 2005 McKnight was arrested and charged with attempted murder after beating and choking her. A few weeks later, after splitting from the singer, McCready was found unconscious in a hotel lobby in Florida, having attempting suicide.
Later that year she was stopped by Nashville police for speeding and then arrested and charged with driving under the influence and driving with a suspended license. A few weeks later she was again charged, this time in Arizona for identity theft, unlawful use of transportation, unlawful imprisonment, and hindering prosecution. The next month she was arrested for violating her probation, and then later again on drug charges.
She finished her dreadful year by again attempting suicide, this time by overdosing on antidepressants.
Over the next couple of years the singer was arrested several times and served two prison sentences for violating probation.
In 2008 it was alleged that McCready had been involved in an affair with baseball star Roger Clemens, starting when she was 15 and lasting more than a decade, ending when the sportsman refused to leave his wife for her.
In December of that year, paramedics were called to McCready’s home after another apparent suicide attempt. She was transported to hospital when wounds were found on her wrists.
In 2009 McCready wanted to turn her life around, and the country singer tried to get help for her struggles in a very unusual way, by joining the cast of “Celebrity Rehab 3” with Dr. Drew Pinsky.
On January 13, 2013, McCready’s ‘soulmate’ and ‘life partner’ of two years, David Wilson was found dead at the singer’s home, of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Cleburne County, Arkansas, sheriff’s department opened an investigation into his death following speculation that McCready herself might have been involved.
A short few weeks later, she killed herself, her death coming only days after she was released from rehab. A judge had ordered her committed to a mental health facility after she admitted she had been drinking too much. Her father said she was also abusing prescription drugs again.
“I haven’t had a hit in almost a decade,” she wrote in January 2012 on her official fan website. “I’ve spent my fortune, tarnished my public view and made myself the brunt of punch line after punch line. I’ve been beaten, sued, robbed, arrested, jailed, and evicted. But I’m still here. With a handful of people that I know and trust, a revived determination, and both middle fingers up in the air, I’m ready. I’ve been here before. I’m a fighter. I’m down, but I’ll never be out.”
