Mandisa Cause of Death Revealed, But Autopsy Leaves One Question

Mandisa’s autopsy revealed the American Idol singer’s cause of death but left out a few details about her final days.

• Mandisa Hundley was found dead at her Nashville area home on April 18.
• Her father John Hundley later said he didn’t suspect she died from any self-inflicted injury.
• After finishing ninth on American Idol in 2006, Mandisa would enjoy a successful career as a contemporary Christian artist.

Related: American Idol Finalists Are Dying at an Alarming Rate

Mandisa’s Cause of Death

Several media outlets including People share that Mandisa died of complications of class III obesity and her death was natural.

WebMD lists the three classes of obesity, with class III as most severe. It’s defined as:

“A serious health condition that is diagnosed when someone has a BMI greater than 40, a BMI of greater than 35 with at least one serious obesity-related condition, or being more than 100 pounds over your recommended weight.”

A BMI between 18.5 and 25 is defined as healthy. Mandisa’s BMI was not part of the autopsy, completed and published on Tuesday (June 4).

When Did Mandisa Die?

It’s still unclear when Mandisa died.

John Hundley had told media his daughter had COVID-19 “some time ago” and was weak and recovering. However it’s not clear when he last talked to his daughter.

The autopsy shares that while her body was found alongside her bed, she was last known alive approximately three weeks ago. She was going through a period of inactivity on social media, with her final posts coming in late 2023. After her death, someone from her team confirmed:

In 2022, Mandisa released a memoir called Out of the Dark: My Journey Through the Shadows to Find God’s Joy. There she chronicled her mental health struggles and thoughts of suicide, which led to some speculation that she might have died by suicide.

Several friends referred to her struggle ending, but her father seemed sure that’s not how his daughter died. Per the Christian Post, he said this at the memorial on April 27.

“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.”

Billy Dukes is a Senior Editor and Executive Producer of Video Content at Taste of Country. He specializes in country music interviews, trend analysis and the Secret History of Country Music. Additionally, Billy covers Yellowstone, 1923 and related television shows through the Dutton Rules podcast. To date, he’s written more than 13,000 articles for Taste of Country and produced over 3,000 videos for the Taste of Country YouTube channel.