UPDATE with more details: The Los Angeles Police Department has more details on the death of Mark Salling. According to ABC7 Eyewitness News, his body was discovered hanging in a river in a remote area in the Angeles National Forest.
The coroner’s office later confirmed that the actor committed suicide by hanging. The LAPD responded to a report at 3 AM that Salling had gone missing and after an investigation, they found Salling’s body on the 11900 block of Big Tujunga Road at 8:50 AM.
PREVIOUS: Mark Salling, the former Glee star who last month pleaded guilty to child pornography charges, was found dead today in Los Angeles, a law enforcement official has confirmed to Deadline. The actor was 35.
The source said the death is being investigated by authorities as a possible suicide, and the coroner’s office is waiting to inform his next of kin and family members. His body was found near his home in Sunland, in northern Los Angeles.
The news comes just more than a month after Salling pleaded guilty to a federal offense of possessing child pornography, and ahead of a scheduled March 7 date for his sentencing.
As part of a plea agreement, Salling admitted he possessed some 25,000 images of children engaged in sexual conduct. He faced a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison, but as part of the agreement was expected to spend 4 to 7 years in prison, followed by 20 years of supervised release and registry as a sex offender.
Salling made the plea deal after an investigation resulted in a vast collection of child pornography discovered on a laptop computer, a hard drive, and a USB flash drive. Salling had shown some of the images to a girlfriend, who reported him to the police. He was arrested in December 2015.
The news prompted reaction from some of Salling’s former colleagues, including Matthew Morrison, who posted an old photo of himself with Salling and the late Cory Monteith on Instagram; Glee director Paris Barclay; Glee vocal producer Tim Davis; and actor Iqbal Theba, who played Principal Figgins on the show:
Must Read Stories
Subscribe to Deadline Breaking News Alerts and keep your inbox happy.