The incident happened the day before The Judds were to be formally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. With the family’s blessing, the ceremony went forward as planned, with Ashley speaking along with her sister and 2nd half of The Judds, Wynonna.
Ashley went on to tell Diane Sawyer, “Our mother couldn’t hang on until she was inducted into the Hall of Fame by her peers. That is the level of catastrophe of what was going on inside of her, because the barrier between the regard in which they held her couldn’t penetrate into her heart, and the lie the disease told her was so convincing.”
Though the family is convinced the death was due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound, it is important to note that the Williamson County Sheriff’s Department has still not ruled on a cause of death, and is waiting for a conclusive medical examiner’s report before making any determinations.
“We don’t have anything more to release than what we’ve already said, which is that this is a death investigation, simply because we’re waiting for the results from the medical examiner,” Williamson County public information officer Sharon Puckett tells Saving Country Music. “That is just the way we do business. Unless we have something confirmed, we’re not going to speculate. That’s just where we are.”
Williamson County is also were country legend Tom T. Hall died. Hall passed away on August 21st, 2021, but it wasn’t confirmed until months after that he had passed away from a self-inflicted gunshot wound as well. It can often take six weeks or longer for autopsy reports to be finalized due to toxicology and other tests.