Taylor Hill / Contributor
Kellie Pickler ‘Distraught’ Following Sudden Death of Husband Kyle Jacobs: ‘Living a Nightmare’
The details surrounding songwriter Kyle Jacobs’ death are heartbreaking.
On the morning of February 17, country music singer Kellie Pickler awoke in their Nashville home but “did not see her husband and began looking for him,” a report from the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department reveals.
“After she and her personal assistant were unable to open the door to the upstairs bedroom-office, the assistant telephoned 911.” Inside was 49-year-old Kyle’s lifeless body. An autopsy report later confirmed he’d died by suicide from an “intraoral shotgun wound.”
Now, nine months later, Kyle’s life and death are still being probed. On December 1, it emerged that his parents, Reed, 71, and Sharon, 70, filed court documents seeking data from both the AT&T Subpoena Center and Apple’s law enforcement division going back to January 1, 2021.
They want their son’s phone records, email and text messages, electronic footprints from cellphone tower pings, “all iCloud data,” including photos and videos, contacts associated with his email accounts and more.
“Of course, Kellie is distraught. She feels like she’s living a nightmare,” an insider tells In Touch exclusively of the singer, 37, who finally broke her silence about Kyle’s death in August, calling this “the darkest time in my life.”
The autopsy report also revealed that Kellie’s husband of 12 years — who’d written songs for artists including Garth Brooks, Trace Adkins, Tim McGraw and Kelly Clarkson — had no drugs in his system at the time of his death, but he had a history of “pseudoseizures, gastrointestinal bleeding, elevated liver enzymes and chronic alcohol use.”
The subpoenas, says the insider, “could unearth more information about Kyle that no one ever knew.”
Conspicuously Absent
In August, Kellie — a fan favorite on season 5 of American Idol in 2006 — did not appear to take part in a three-hour celebration of Kyle’s life that was attended by hundreds and livestreamed. (Days earlier, she said she was “planning an intimate memorial for my husband” in the fall.)
The same month, she declined to serve as the administrator of his estate, paving the way for his parents to take control. The subpoenas they’ve requested are intended “to present evidence in a probate matter,” court docs note, but details were not shared.
The move may be “to ensure that Kyle’s estate receives all funds the estate is entitled to, pursuant to various contracts, copyrights and royalties related to his songwriting or copyrights,” says attorney Goldie Schon, a family law specialist in Woodland Hills, California, who is not representing the parties. “You never know what you are going to find unless you ask.”
Perhaps, says the insider, there will finally be closure after probate is done. But until then, “the nightmare just continues for Kellie.”
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