John Hundley, the father of singer and American Idol alum Mandisa, says there are “no signs” of self-harm amid the ongoing investigation into his daughter’s death.
“I believe firmly that the detective believes and knows that she did not [harm herself],” Hundley told Fox News. “They talked about the scars, any type of bruises that may have been on her body. They looked for signs that she may have harmed herself, and there were no signs to indicate that she did anything to harm herself.”
As Breitbart News reported, Mandisa Lynn Hundley, a Grammy Award-winning artist known mononymously as Mandisa, was found dead in her Tennessee home on April 18 at the age of 47. The singer’s cause of death remains unknown.
Franklin Police Department Public Information manager Max Wintz, meanwhile, told Fox News the investigation into Mandisa’s death is still ongoing.
Friends and family reportedly gathered at Brentwood Baptist Church in Nashville over the weekend to celebrate Mandisa’s life.
“Here’s what I think happened,” Hundley said during the ceremony. “Mandisa fell down in her bedroom. They found her on the floor. If you look from the rear of her bed, she was laying on the left side. It’s clear that’s where she was laying, there was a couple of big rugs there and some clothes.”
“On the right side of the bed, front, was this nightstand. I found her phone on the right side of the bed. There was no way for Mandisa to get around the bed, go out there and get a phone to call for help,” he added.
Hundley continued:
She did not harm herself. As she said, Mandisa loved the Lord and the Lord loved Mandisa. So there’s one thing you may not have known. She told me some time ago that she had gotten COVID-19, and she had been weak trying to get over that. But she was trying to press through. We talked so much on Easter morning, but I thought she was going to this conference, and so I had not called her recently but I’ve talked to her a lot. May she rest in peace now.
Mandisa’s father told Fox News his comments received mix reaction, but that he doesn’t think he’s saying anything that his daughter wouldn’t have wanted said.
“Some people criticize me for talking,” Hundley said. “They said I should be grieving more. I am. The first few nights, I’ll tell you, it was hard. I couldn’t sleep. Last night was the first night that I’ve gotten six or five hours of sleep. I’ve been grieving.”
“I believe that she’s happy, and I’m trying to be happy like she would be,” he added. “I have forced myself to be happy and not cry. I made the wrong statement at the homegoing service.”
“I said, ‘I know men aren’t supposed to cry.’ I know that that’s a belief that some people have,” Hundley said. “I don’t know if men are not supposed to cry because I cry all the time.”
You can follow Alana Mastrangelo on Facebook and X/Twitter at @ARmastrangelo, and on Instagram.
