Former America’s Got Talent contestant Skilyr Hicks has been found dead after a suspected drug overdose at the young age of 23.
Hicks was found in a Liberty, South Carolina home Monday — lying on a bathroom floor, surrounded by drugs and paraphernalia. Toxicology tests are currently being run to determine the exact cause of death.
Her mother, Jodi, revealed that her daughter struggled with depression and substance abuse. The house in Liberty where her body was discovered is about 40 miles east of Greer. Her mom says she does not know the homeowner.
But despite her passing, her mother believes “she will live on through her music.”
Hicks appeared on the eighth season of America’s Got Talent in 2013 at age the young age of 14, performing an original song, Brand New Day, about her recently deceased father.
The preteen received four “Yeses” from judges Mel B, Heidi Klum, Howie Mandel and Howard Stern – and went on to the next round before being eliminated.
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After her TV appearance, the singer began to get into trouble with the law.
In 2017 the singer was charged with domestic violence in Georgia after attacking her grandmother, aunt and sister following a night of heavy drinking.
When police took her BAC levels, she was at 0.126 – which is very high compared to the 0.08 and over level that is considered legal intoxication.
Her sister, Breelyn, who suffered scratches in the attack, said the state pressed charges against the musician, not the family.
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Hicks was arrested again in November 2018 for underage drinking and intoxication in Findlay, Ohio. The arrest was linked to an incident that occurred a month earlier for reasons unknown.
On the show, Hicks revealed how she was a self-taught musician who was grieving the loss of her father, who died a few years before her audition. She went on to reveal how she wrote her first original song at his funeral.
She credited music with helping her “let out all the emotion that was building inside.”
“I started playing after my dad passed away a few years ago,” she shared while on the show during her audition. “He made some bad decisions and I hadn’t seen him in a few years. The last time I saw him I remember driving away and he was crying.”