Naomi Judd Autopsy Confirms Tragic Details About the Country Singer's Death as Family Seeks "Respectful Privacy"

According to an autopsy report, Naomi Judd was shot once in the head and left a suicide note close to her body.

The medical examiner's office in Nashville revealed on Friday that the country music icon passed away in April 2022 at the age of 76 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Judd reportedly struggled with "severe" levels of anxiety, depression, and bipolar disorder.

Naomi Judd's Autopsy Released

Judd left a suicide note before she passed away, but its contents have not been made public. The singer had multiple different substances in her system at the time of death, according to a toxicology report.

At the Country Music Awards in April 2022, Naomi Judd and Wynonna unexpectedly reunited two weeks before the country singer's untimely passing. This was Naomi Judd's final public performance before she committed herself, and they sang a stirring song of reconciliation that she had composed, 'Love Can Build A Bridge.'

The bullet "perforated through the right side of the scalp and entered the skull through an entrance-type gunshot wound," the report said. The Judds were the most popular country musicians of the 1980s, selling 20 million albums, earning five Grammys and nine CMA awards, Daily Mail reported.

Ashley and Wynonna attended their mother's induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame on May 1, the day after she committed herself, to support one another in the immediate aftermath of their mother's passing.

Ashley, Judd's daughter, previously shared information about her mother's passing in a May 12 interview with Diane Sawyer for ABC's 'Good Morning America.' Following the passing of their mother, Ashley, 54, and Wynonna, 58, have spoken out about their grief process and their need for privacy as they grieve.

The Judd family petitioned the court earlier in August to stop the disclosure of records pertaining to Naomi Judd's passing. Outside of Nashville, in Williamson County Chancery Court, Strickland and her daughters submitted the petition. Video and audio interviews taken right after Judd's death are among the data from the inquiry, according to the petition, and their publication would inflict "severe pain and irreparable injury."

In addition to the video and audio records, the family requested all investigative materials be kept confidential. According to the lawsuit, toxicological and autopsy reports are exempt from the family's request for privacy because they are constituted by Tennessee open records laws as public records. Per USA Today, the family shared a statement after filing their petition, calling the day Naomi Judd died "the most shattering day of our lives."

Who Is Naomi Judd?

According to The Sun, Naomi Judd was a native of Ashland, Kentucky, and was born there on January 11, 1946. At the age of 18, she gave birth to Wynonna, her first child. She gave birth to her daughter Ashley four years later.

Naomi was married to Michael Ciminella from 1964 till 1972. Naomi and her kids moved to California after the two got divorced. Before she and Wynonna teamed up to become The Judds, Naomi started her nursing studies at the College of Marin.

She remarried Larry Strickland again in 1989, and the two stayed married until Naomi's passing in 2022. Before 1991, the Judds released six studio albums under their first record deal, which they signed in 1983.

Naomi and Wynona Judd had great success as a team, earning nine Country Music Association (CMA) honors and five GRAMMY Awards. In 2021, the mother-daughter duo was honored by the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Although the pair split up formally in 1991, they frequently got back together for shows throughout the years. At the 2022 CMT Music Awards, The Judds performed together before Naomi passed away in April.