Mindy McCready's ex-boyfriend Billy McKnight: Anyone close could see it coming

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LAS VEGAS: Singer Mindy McCready of the Queens of Heart poker team participates in the Ladies No-Limit Hold 'em poker tournament at the World Series of Poker at the Rio Hotel & Casino June 8, 2008 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Photographer: Angela Weiss/Getty Images
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Posted: 02/18/2013

By: Associated Press

TAMPA - Mindy McCready's ex-boyfriend says she threatened to kill herself earlier this month after she lost custody of her sons, but was somehow released from rehab days before apparently following through on her threat.

Billy McKnight, a former longtime boyfriend who shares a son with the country singer, says the mother of two stayed in court-ordered substance-abuse rehabilitation for about 18 hours before checking out.

McKnight said Monday by phone from Tampa that it was a "big mistake" to allow McCready to leave rehab, in light of her fiance David Wilson's recent suicide and the loss of her children.

McKnight is working with authorities to get his son Zander out of foster care.

In Arkansas, Cleburne County Sheriff Marty Moss said Monday that it appears McCready killed her late boyfriend David Wilson's dog before she turned the gun on herself Sunday.

The dog and McCready were found dead next to one another the home in Heber Springs, a vacation community about 65 miles north of Little Rock. Moss says the dog's body was next to McCready's.

Authorities are investigating Wilson's shooting death as a suicide, but Moss says an official determination hasn't been made.

Moss says he expects McCready's official cause of death to be released soon, but that "all indicators" point to suicide.