Mark Salling, the former “Glee” star who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography late last year, died of an apparent suicide on Tuesday. He was 35.
A law enforcement official not authorized to speak publicly said Salling was found hanging in a riverbed area in the Tujunga neighborhood of Los Angeles. Ed Winter, assistant chief investigator for the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, said the death is being investigated as a suicide. The grisly discovery was made hours after police received a report that he was missing.
Salling’s attorney confirmed the actor’s death to Page Six on Tuesday.
“I can confirm that Mark Salling passed away early this morning,” said his lawyer, Michael J. Proctor. “Mark was a gentle and loving person, a person of great creativity, who was doing his best to atone for some serious mistakes and errors of judgment. He is survived by his mother and father, and his brother. The Salling family appreciates the support they have been receiving and asks for their privacy to be respected.”
The news comes just over a month after the actor pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, after reaching an agreement with Los Angeles prosecutors in October. He was to be sentenced in March and faced four to seven years in prison.
Salling was arrested on Dec. 29, 2015, after a search of his Los Angeles-area home three days prior turned up thousands of files of child pornography on his laptop, a thumbnail drive and an encrypted hard drive. A woman he had been dating tipped off authorities after he showed her the files.
As part of the plea agreement Salling reached in October, he would have had to register as a sex offender, enter a treatment program, have no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18 and stay away from schoolyards, parks, swimming pools, playgrounds and video arcades. He was also ordered to pay $50,000 in restitution to each victim of the child pornography he had downloaded who requested it.
TMZ broke the news of Salling’s death. The site previously reported that Salling tried to kill himself before reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors. He reportedly tried to slit his wrists in August, but panicked at the sight of his own blood.
With Post Wires