In this undated file photo, country singer Mindy McCready performs in Nashville, Tenn. A missing persons report has been filed for McCready and her 5-year-old son Zander. (AP)
Country singer Mindy McCready will head back to court Monday after Arkansas authorities found the singer and her five-year-old son hiding in a bedroom closet last week.
The boy was transferred to foster care in Arkansas Friday night after he was removed from the house. Late last month, McCready and the boy were reported missing after McCready allegedly removed him from her father's home in Florida.
McCready, who does not have custody of the boy, said she was not able to return to Florida because she is pregnant with twins.
A Florida judge signed an order Thursday telling authorities to take the boy into custody and return him. It's not yet clear whether the singer could face criminal charges.
McCready said earlier in the week that she would not bring her son back from Tennessee, where she has a home, despite violating the custody arrangement. She told the AP that her son had suffered abuse at her mother's house, a claim that Inge vehemently denies.
"I'm doing all this to protect Zander, not stay out of trouble," McCready wrote in an email to the AP on Thursday. "I don't think I should be in trouble for protecting my son in the first place."
Police finally tracked down McCready at an empty summer home in Heber Springs, Arkansas.
McCready was not arrested when authorities removed the boy, but she could be charged with criminal trespassing. While authorities did not believe the boy was in danger, the FBI still ciriculated flyers and called it a “parental abduction.”
The boy's father, Billy McKnight, told NBC's "Today" show Friday he spoke on the phone with McCready and their boy after the judge's Thursday deadline expired.
"He did sound healthy and OK. He wasn't crying or scared," McKnight said about their son.
"I think she believes she has a case and doesn't realize she's pushing her luck on this one," he said.
McCready and her mother have had a long custody battle over the boy, who was living with McCready's mother.
The singer had provided a series of emails to the AP with Lee County Judge James Seals' ruling to return the boy.
"Mom has violated the court's custody order and we are simply restoring the child back into our custody," the judge wrote. "Nothing more. Nothing less. The court makes no judgment about whether Mom will or will not competently care for the child while in her custody. It only wants the child back where the court placed him."
McCready found fame in the mid-1990s when she moved to Nashville at the age of 18, armed with only her karaoke tapes. Her first album, "Ten Thousand Angels," sold two million copies.
Her next four albums weren't as successful. Her personal troubles began encroaching on her professional success. According to her website, she suffers from severe depression.
McCready fought the release of a tape in which she reportedly talked about former Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees pitcher Roger Clemens, with whom she had an affair as a teenager.
In August, she filed a libel suit against her mother and the National Enquirer's parent company, American Media Inc., over a story published in the tabloid newspaper that quoted Inge.
And in 2008, McCready was admitted to a hospital after police said she cut her wrists and took several pills in a suicide attempt.
During the TV show "Celebrity Rehab 3" in 2010, McCready came off as a sympathetic figure, and host Dr. Drew Pinsky called her an angel in the season finale.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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