‘Glee’ star Mark Salling found dead in apparent suicide
January 30, 2018
Mark Salling, the former “Glee” star who pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography last year, has reportedly died of an apparent suicide. He was 35.
Salling’s body was found in the Los Angeles River in Sunland, near where he lived, according to TMZ.
His attorney confirmed Salling’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 LA County Coroner’s Office told us they “haven’t spoken to the next of kin yet” and declined to confirm his death.
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 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.