Mark Salling committed suicide before he was sentenced to years in prison
January 31, 2018
I hadn’t been following the Mark Salling case following his 2015 arrest. In December 2015, he was arrested on multiple counts of possessing child pornography. He tried to claim that it was all a misunderstanding, but the LAPD believed otherwise. Salling ended up pleading guilty to some of the charges last year, and he was awaiting sentencing. This week, as he was contemplating serious jail time, Salling committed suicide by hanging himself by the Los Angeles River.
Mark Salling has died in an apparent suicide weeks before being sentenced to prison for possession of child pornography. He was 35.
“I can confirm that Mark Salling passed away early this morning. 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,” his attorney Michael Proctor tells PEOPLE. “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.”
“He was found hanging from a tree in the area of the Los Angeles River in Sunland,” Coroner Assistant Chief Ed Winter tells PEOPLE. Salling was pronounced dead at the scene at 9 a.m. Tuesday and his body is at the coroner’s office. According to Winter, his relatives have been notified of the death and an autopsy is scheduled for the next few days.
An LAPD PIO told PEOPLE that officers responded to a death investigation at the 11900 block of Big Tujunga Cyn Road Tuesday morning at 8:50 a.m. but could not identify Salling. The Glee star pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography involving a prepubescent minor Oct. 4, 2017. After striking a plea deal in December, he was due to be sentenced in March and expected to serve four to seven years in prison.
“Mark is focused on accepting responsibility and attempting to atone for his conduct,” Proctor said in a statement to PEOPLE at the time.
Federal investigators say they found more than 25,000 images and 600 videos depicting child pornography on computers and thumb drives that belonged to Salling. The content depicted children as young as 3 years old being abused, according to court documents. Salling had to register as a sex offender and enter a treatment program; have no verbal or electronic contact with anyone under the age of 18; stay 100 feet away from schools, parks, public swimming pools, youth centers, playgrounds and arcades; and pay $50,000 in restitution to each victim, according to the documents.
Just after he struck the plea deal last October, Salling apparently attempted suicide by trying to cut his wrists. This was seen for what it was: a cry for help, only it doesn’t seem like many people wanted to help him at this point. Salling’s former Glee coworkers issued statements too – go here to read. They were trying to balance the fact that their coworker and one-time friend had killed himself with the fact that Salling was a very troubled and disturbed guy.
Photos courtesy of WENN.
