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Country singer Mindy McCready performs in Nashville, Tenn. McCready, who hit the top of the country charts before personal problems sidetracked her career, died Sunday, Feb. 17, 2013. She was 37. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey, File)

Mindy McCready, who hit the top of the country charts before personal problems sidetracked her career, died Sunday in Arkansas in an apparent suicide. She was 37.

The Cleburne County Sheriff's Office said in a news release that McCready was found dead at a residence in Heber Springs from what appears to be a single, self-inflicted gunshot to the head. An autopsy is pending.

It wasn't the first suicide attempt for the troubled singer, whose list of problems only continued to grow in 2013.

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.

McCready's longtime boyfriend David Wilson, the father of her younger son, died last month in Arkansas. Authorities found his body on the same porch they discovered McCready's on Sunday and his death also was investigated as a suicide.

Wilson's passing struck McCready hard. She issued a statement last month lamenting his death. She called him her soulmate and a caregiver to her sons in an interview with NBC's "Today." She said she'd never gone through anything as painful as his passing.

"I just keep telling myself that the more suffering that I go through, the greater character I'll have," she said, according to a transcript of the interview.