CMT News

A judge in Fort Myers, Fla., has issued an order to take Mindy McCready's 5-year-old son Zander into custody after the singer failed to comply with a deadline of Thursday (Dec. 1) at 5 p.m. to return him to her mother's home in Southwest Florida. The court order was signed late Thursday afternoon in a Lee County court, the News-Press newspaper in Fort Myers reports.

A spokesperson for the Florida Department of Children and Families told the newspaper law enforcement authorities are trying to locate the child.

"As quickly as folks can find the child, we'll just as quickly return the child," the spokesperson said. "Then we will make arrangements to bring child home in the least traumatic and least stressful way."

McCready, 36, is in a custody battle with her mother, Gayle Inge, for the child.

The singer allegedly took him from Florida earlier this week and returned to Nashville. She told The Associated Press she now cannot return to Cape Coral because she's seven months pregnant with twins. The twins' father is a Nashville-based music producer.

McCready, a Florida native, charted a No. 1 country single in 1996 with "Guys Do It All the Time." Her legal troubles began in 2004 when she was arrested for fraudulently procuring a prescription painkiller. She later dealt with a series of substance abuse and domestic abuse issues.

In 2010, she released a new album, I'm Still Here, and was featured on VH1's Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew.