On Friday morning G.R.L. group member Simone Battle was found hanging in a bedroom closet in her West Hollywood home and on Sunday L.A. County Coroner's Lt. Fred Corral confirmed that the 25-year old songstress' official cause of death was suicide by hanging. While some have speculated that Simone was severely depressed for quite sometime her father seemed truly shocked by his daughter's passing. He spoke out saying that he was confused by the thought of Simone deciding to end her own life.
Simone was first featured back in 2011 on the U.S. Version of The X Factor and she made it to 17th place under the mentoring of Simon Cowell. When director/choreographer Robin Antin decided to put together a new group to function as a reboot of her beloved Pussycat Dolls she chose Simone to be part of that new G.R.L. lineup. The ladies just released their self-titled Ep on July 29 and were playing gigs mostly overseas to support it. According to their social media accounts they were super-excited with the way things were unfolding for them as a group.
It seemed like Simone's career was on the rise and that the best was still yet to come for her. Many in the music industry responded to Simone's suicide over the weekend with rappers such as The Game taking to Twitter to send their condolences out to her friends and family. Many also used this as an opportunity to encourage those suffering in silence to reach out and talk to someone before it feels like there is absolutely no way out.
Do you think that Simone's band mates really knew what was going on with her or did she do a good job of simply keeping up appearances when necessary? Tell us your thoughts on Simone Battle's suicide in the comments below!
