'America's Got Talent' winner Neal E. Boyd has passed away from heart failure

An opera singer who won America's Got Talent in 2008 has died from heart failure.

Neal E. Boyd, who appeared in season 3 of the US talent competition, passed away in Sikeston, Missouri home. He was 42.

According to E! News, the singer's mother found him unresponsive at her home on Sunday and called 911, who then pronounced him dead. The Scott County Coroner confirmed his time of death at 6:26pm.

The site reported that no autopsy was carried out as Boyd had long suffered from heart failure, kidney failure and liver disease. Ponder Funeral Home also confirmed to E! News that Boyd's body had already been cremated.

His passing comes just one year after another contestant, Dr Brandon Rogers, 29, was killed in a car accident weeks before his AGT audition was due to air on TV.

When news broke of Boyd's passing, British media personality Piers Morgan -- who at the time was a judge on the Boyd's season, along with Sharon Osbourne and David Hasselhoff -- expressed his sympathy on Twitter, as did celebrity gossip columnist Perez Hilton.

"Very sad to hear that Neal Boyd, Season 3 winner of ⁦@AGT⁩, has died at 42 from heart failure. Lovely guy with a wonderful voice. RIP," Morgan tweeted, while HIlton wrote, "Heart disease kills so many Americans. So sad. Rest peacefully, Neal E. Boyd."

One year following Boyd's AGT win -- where he stunned audiences with performances of 'Somewhere' from West Side Story and 'Nessun Dorma' -- Boyd released an album titled My American Dream, which debuted at number three on the Top Classical Albums chart.