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Amanda Bynes' Parents "Truly Believed She Was Doing Well," but Saw Signs of Trouble Before Her Second DUI Arrest

Now, Lynn and Rick Bynes are "monitoring" what their 28-year-old daughter is up to through others, a source exclusively tells E! News

By Natalie Finn, Claudia Rosenbaum Oct 02, 2014 1:25 AMTags
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Amanda Bynes' family hoped for the best, but they ultimately saw signs of trouble ahead.

A source close to the actress' family exclusively tells E! News that her parents really thought, before their daughter was arrested early Sunday morning, that she was doing well in her new circumstances, roughly a year after her umpteenth run-in with the law resulted in her involuntary hospitalization and close to six months in treatment.

"They truly believed Amanda was doing well based on the first and second semesters' grades, which were stellar," says the source.

Bynes, 28, had completed her first year at the Irvine, Calif., location of the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising and was living closer to campus. 

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But since her troubles last summer, her estate had been in a conservatorship overseen by her parents, Rick and Lynn.

The conservatorship expired on Sept. 10 and, according to our insider, the Bynes family sensed something was different almost immediately.

"The first signs of problems came days after the conservatorship ended," the source says, adding that Rick and Lynn were never informed of any of the reported troubles that Amanda might have been having at school. 

As for the possibility that her parents could once again take charge of her legal and medical affairs, the source tells E! News, "Once [the conservatorship] has ended, it's a 'hard expire.' That means the process has to start again. Well, the process cannot start again with just a DUI. It's going to require a 5150- [psych hold] type situation again. She is not there yet."

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And what of their relationship now? Rick Bynes told an X17online cameraman yesterday that he and his wife did not know where Amanda was and said "you know what we know."

As of now, "her parents are keeping close tabs on her through various people," our source says. :They are monitoring her whereabouts, her spending and her driving as best as they can. Essentially she was able to mask her poor grades and downward spiral from them. They wanted to believe she was being honest and getting better."

Bynes just got her license back in April after it was suspended for a year and a half following a litany of driving woes. She had been looking healthy and happy in photos taken at school and while out and about.

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In early April, mom Lynn said that her daughter had "no mental illness whatsoever" and was "very sorry for all the hurtful tweets, statements and actions that occurred while she was under the influence of marijuana."

Amanda was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence, her second DUI bust in 29 months, at 3 a.m. on Sunday after being pulled over by California Highway Patrol. An officer suspected that she was "under the influence of a controlled substance" and took her into custody at the LAPD's Van Nuys Station, according to authorities. Bynes, who is on probation in connection with her previous DUI, was released at 12:44 p.m. later that day and a court date has been set for Oct. 23.

A CHP spokesperson later confirmed to E! News that officers suspected that Amanda was "under the influence of a stimulant."