Mindy McCready: Why the Late Singer Shot Her Dog

One of the more puzzling aspects in Mindy McCready's apparent suicide is the death of her dog.

Before allegedly taking her own life, McCready apparently also shot her pet, whom she shared with late boyfriend David Wilson before he passed away little over a month ago. 

But according to Mindy's close friend and private investigator Danno Hanks, the country singer's decision to take her dog's life was only fueled by her love for Wilson. 

"I'll tell you why she would have done it—if she did it—why she would have done it is...her discussions about leaving her life wasn't that she wanted to end her life but she wanted to join David and David loved that dog and so she'd be taking the dog with her," Hanks told E! News. 

Hanks also had a taped conversation with McCready, her last recorded conversation, where she recounts the experience of finding Wilson dead in his Heber Springs, Ark., home. 

"He was lying on the ground with his brains all over the floor," an emotional McCready said. "And then I held him and I kissed him and I told him I forgave him. And I said, 'David, none of this means anything. You didn't have to do this. Please, don't die. Please. We love you so much. Please don't die.'"

She added that "they kept me from spending two hours with him that would've been the most precious hours of my life with him." 

"But he was trying to tell me something," McCready continues. "He was grabbing me and trying to talk. Of course he couldn't talk at that point, half of his brain was on the floor."

The day before she was found dead of what authorities are calling an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Mindy sent Hanks one frame of her video for "I'll See You Yesterday," a song written by Courtney Dashe and produced by Wilson, with contact info for a suicide hotline.

"I thought she was talking about sending a message about suicide for David's death, but this is unbelievable. She was sending me a message. I wish I had been more alert to what it was," Hanks said.

"Everybody wants to reach out after the fact but nobody wants to be there when it is happening," he said. "I just didn't think she would do this. She had two kids to live for," he said. "I still can't fathom the whole thing."