The 30-year-old woman who was rejected after auditioning for “American Idol’s” fifth season and who had professed her admiration for judge Paula Abdul was found dead in her car earlier this week in what appears to have been a suicide. Friends and family members of the late Paula Goodspeed have now come to her defense, saying she never stalked Abdul and that being rejected from the show did not throw her into disarray.

Paula Goodspeed first gained attention in a pre-audition interview with “American Idol” host Ryan Seacrest for the show’s fifth season, when she enthusiastically declared she was a big fan of Paula Abdul’s and showed life-sized drawings of the singer and actress which she said she had been portraying since she was a little girl.

Her subsequent performance of “Proud Mary” failed to impress the judges, who unanimously turned her away.

The woman was found dead in her car Tuesday night, in what appears to have been a suicide. Her vehicle was parked on the street a few blocks away from Paula Abdul’s Sherman Oaks home, the vanity license plate reading “ABL LV” and a photo of Abdul hanging from the rearview mirror.

Los Angeles police Capt. James Miller told People magazine Goodspeed had been causing a “disturbance” around Paula Abdul’s home for some time. No restraining order was ever issued against the woman.

Friends and family members of the deceased woman’s are now denying reports that Goodspeed ever stalked her idol. Charles McIntyre, Goodspeed’s only brother, told E! News Thursday that Goodspeed’s appreciation for Abdul was not as “excessive” as it appeared to be on television and that she had moved to California from her native Maine in order to pursue a singing career.

Being turned down on “American Idol” had not shattered her and McIntyre never knew her to be depressed or suicidal, he said.

Goodspeed’s mother had gone to the Sherriff’s Department to report her daughter missing and told officers she through Goodspeed may be suicidal, Capt. James Miller revealed to People Wednesday.

Paula Abdul was at the studio when the woman’s body was found and only learned of the sad event later, her rep said. She said in a statement she was “deeply shocked and saddened” by Goodspeed’s death.

As to the former “Idol” contestant’s previous claim that she had once had coffee with Abdul at a Starbucks, the singer/actress’ rep denied the story.

An autopsy is scheduled for today, the coroner’s office said and a final cause of death will be established once toxicology test results come in, a process which could take weeks.