Naomi Judd was still alive when her daughter Ashley found her with a reported self inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
In a shocking essay in New York Times, the grieving famous offspring recounted finding the country singer on Saturday, April 30, as she described it as "the most shattering day of my life."
"The trauma of discovering and then holding her laboring body haunts my nights," Ashley wrote in the harrowing essay.
Making the horrifying moment worse, Ashley said instead of being able to comfort her famous mom in her final moments, authorities harshly interrogated her and kept her away from the dying matriarch.
"I felt cornered and powerless as law enforcement officers began questioning me while the last of my mother’s life was fading," she penned, "I wanted to be comforting her, telling her how she was about to see her daddy and younger brother as she 'went away home,' as we say in Appalachia."
Ashley shared the tragic final moments with Naomi while announcing she is undertaking "legal cause" to prevent the public from accessing police records in sensitive situations and cases.
"I intend to make the subsequent invasion of privacy — the deceased person's privacy and the family's privacy — a personal as well as a legal cause," she continued.
Two weeks after Naomi's daughters revealed, "We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness," Ashley claimed she had taken her own life with a gun. "She [Naomi] used a weapon … a firearm," she said during an appearance on Good Morning America. "So that’s the piece of information we’re very uncomfortable sharing.”
As OK! reported, Naomi left a suicide note where her body was found by her family — many of whom were left out of her will.
If you or someone you know is considering suicide, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by dialing 988, text “HOME” to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 or go to 988lifeline.org.
