American Idol found dead outside Paula Abdul's home

A contestant on hit US television show "American Idol" who was apparently infatuated with judge Paula Abdul had been found dead outside the singer's Los Angeles home.

Paula Goodspeed, 30, a Season 5 contestant, whose audition performance of "Proud Mary" was panned and mocked by the judges, probably died of a drug overdose. Los Angeles police Capt.

James Miller said: "Ms. Goodspeed's mother had gone to [the sheriff's department] to report her daughter missing, and advised them that she might be suicidal.

"The sheriffs determined that Ms. Goodspeed may be up in the vicinity by Paula Abdul's house. Our officers discovered her vehicle parked on the street, and found her inside. She was unresponsive to officers."

The car, parked a few doors down from Abdul's house, featured a license plate "ABL LV" and had a photo of Abdul hanging from the rear view mirror. A DMV check of the license showed that the car was registered to Goodspeed.

LAPD officer April Harding added: "This has been ruled an apparent suicide." Abdul was at the studio at the time the body was found and wasn't aware of it until she was told by the network, her rep says.

In a statement, the singer said: "I am deeply shocked and saddened at what transpired yesterday. My heart and prayers go out to her family." Goodspeed expressed her admiration and affection for Abdul to host Ryan Seacrest when she appeared on the reality show.

"I really like Paula Abdul a lot. She's really cool. I'm a really big fan, and I made life-sized drawings of Paula. I've been drawing ever since I was a little kid, and my first drawing was of Paula Abdul."

But after singing her rendition of Tina Turner's "Proud Mary," she was mocked by the show's judges, with Randy Jackson asking her: "It was terrible, what was that?" while Simon Cowell teased her about her braces and said: "I don't know how you can sing with all that metal in your mouth."