Mark Salling Dead Of Apparent Suicide Following Child Pornography Charge At 35

Former Glee star Mark Salling has committed suicide after pleading guilty in October to possession of child pornography. He was 35.

MARK SALLING DEAD OF APPARENT SUICIDE

According to law enforcement, Salling’s body was found hanging from a tree Tuesday morning. The actor’s family went to the LAPD at 3 a.m. Tuesday to report him missing. When police did a ‘welfare check’ on Salling, it led them to the baseball field by his home where his body was discovered.

“I can confirm that Mark Salling passed away early this morning,” the actor’s lawyer Michael Proctor told People. “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.”

Salling was tried last year for possessing more than 25,000 photos and 600 videos of minors. According to court documents, some of the content featured children as young as 3-years-old being abused. The actor pleaded guilty in October and his sentencing was set for March. He was expected to get 4 to 7 years in prison as part of his plea deal.

Salling was arrested in December 2015 after investigators seized his laptop, hard drive and USB flash drive and found the thousands of inappropriate images. He had to register as a sex offender and pay $50,000 in restitution to each individual victim of his crimes. In May 2016, Salling was named in a separate two-count indictment saying he had received porn from young girls. That trial was delayed in June when he sought new legal representation.

The actor cut his wrists back in August but his lawyers denied that it was a suicide attempt.