“Glee” star Mark Salling, who was awaiting sentencing on a possession of child pornography conviction, has died in an apparent suicide, according to People.com and several other news outlets.
Salling's attorney Michael Proctor told People, “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.
“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 Los Angeles Police Department did not identify Salling, according to People, but it said that officers responded to a death investigation at the 11900 block of Big Tujunga Cyn Road at 8:50 a.m. Tuesday.
Salling, 35, was found at the Los Angeles River in the Sunland section of Los Angeles, near his home, TMZ.com reported.
The actor reached a plea agreement with prosecutors in October in which he admitted he possessed images of prepubescent children. The agreement says a search warrant found more than 50,000 images of child porn on Salling's computer and a thumb drive.
He was due to be sentenced in March and expected to serve four to seven years in prison. He also had to register as a sex offender, pay restitution and abide by residency restrictions.
Salling, a native of Dallas, played bad boy Noah “Puck” Puckerman on the hit Fox show “Glee” from 2009-15.
He is the second person from the cast to die under suspicious circumstances. Cory Monteith, who played popular jock Finn Hudson, died in 2013 from a toxic combination of heroin and alcohol in a Vancouver hotel room.
