Just a few days before Mindy’s death, she received court papers proposing her sons go live with her mother. Did her devastation contribute to her horrific suicide?

In an e-mail sent to her private investigator friend, obtained by People, country singer Mindy McCready had “lost all hope” after tragedy hit her. “The most important thing are my babies must come home,” Mindy, 37, wrote to close friend Danno Hanks.

The mother of two was found dead Feb. 17 after an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The death took place in her home in Arkansas, the same place the body of her boyfriend David Wilson was found dead last month after he committed suicide.

On Feb. 6, Mindy’s two sons, Zander, 6, and Zayne, 9 months, were taken into foster care after she entered a treatment facility for a mental-health and alcohol-abuse evaluation. She was released after only two days. Mindy had...