Mark Salling was far from broke before he killed himself – but his victims might have to sue to see any of that money.
According to documents obtained by TMZ, the 35-year-old had set up a corporation at the beginning of his run on the hit TV show ‘Glee’ in 2009 as a way to collect his money.
As of December 2017, the value of this business was reported to be $1.971 million. His father is listed as the manager.
Salling’s body was discovered at 9am near a riverbed in Sunland on Tuesday morning by police who were in the area on an unrelated matter.
He had been dead for hours by the time he was found and was likely already dead when his distraught relatives called 911 to report him missing at 3am after not hearing from him or seeing him since 11.30pm the previous night.
The actor was awaiting sentencing on child pornography charges at the time of his death.
Mark Salling had set up a corporation at the beginning of his run on the hit TV show ‘Glee’ in 2009 as a way to collect his money and it’s currently worth $1.9million and his father is listed as manager (Pictured, Salling with his parents Condy Sue and John )
The actor was awaiting sentencing on child pornography charges at the time of his death and his victims will likely have to sue his estate to see any of it (Pictured, Salling’s house)
Under Salling’s plea deal, the former ‘Glee’ star (left and right) had agreed to pay victims $50,000 each in restitution. But the judge hadn’t signed off on the sentencing before he killed himself
Under Salling’s plea deal, the former ‘Glee’ star had agreed to pay victims $50,000 each in restitution. In order to impose such a penalty, the judge must first sentence the defendant.
However, the judge was unable to do so, not signing off because the sentencing was set for March.
Salling was six weeks away from being sentenced for child pornography possession when he died and had attempted suicide multiple times before.
The victims will likely have to sue Salling’s estate for damages they suffered from his transgressions if they hope to see any of that money.
The actor’s worried family called 911 to report him missing six hours before his body was found. They told police he was suicidal and depressed (Pictured, Salling with his mother in March 2016)
It was recently revealed that Salling’s family knew the actor was suicidal and told police in Los Angeles as much when they reported him missing six hours before his body was found.
The aftermath of that phone call was revealed on Tuesday in an audio of the police dispatch which was issued afterwards.
A recording of it was obtained and published by The Blast after Salling’s death.
On Wednesday, flowers were seen being delivered to Salling’s home.
A worker from the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office was also pictured arriving at the home carrying a brown envelope.
In the recording, a law enforcement officer is heard repeating the description of Salling that he received.
He started by describing the ‘black long sleeve shirt and black pants’ that Salling was wearing, then said: ‘Suffers from depression and is suicidal.’
His pornography collection is among the worst the nation has seen.
In total, he owned more than 50,000 images and 600 videos which showed girls, some of whom were as young as three, being raped, both vaginally and orally, by adult men.
Salling had tried to conceal them by masking his IP address and storing them on an encrypted harddrive.
They were revealed to police by an ex-girlfriend who he showed them to. She was rightfully sickened and notified authorities.
In his plea deal, the extent of his collection was described in harrowing detail.
‘In total, defendant’s collection consisted of approximately 25,000 still images of child pornography, 600 videos of child pornography and approximately 29,000 images of child erotica.
‘One depicts a little girl approximately 3-5 years old. She is naked and straddling an adult male while the man’s penis penetrates her vagina.’
‘They were highly organized by file name and folder structure. For example one series was named as follows. ‘Girl’s name’, 2y, girl’s name, 3y.
‘He also possessed on his laptop a document called ‘jazzguide’ which is a manual that instructs adult men how to have vaginal and anal intercourse with little girls who are aged between three and six years old,’ it reads.
An employee from the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office was pictured arriving with a brown envelope. The coroner’s report has not been released
Flowers were delivered to Salling’s home on Wednesday morning, a day after his death
The coroner is yet to officially confirm Salling’s cause of death or release any documents which is likely to reveal how long he had been dead before he was found
Salling attempted suicide in the past at least once, slashing his wrists in August 2017 before pleading guilty to child pornography possession.
Salling’s relatives said there had been ‘several’ suicide attempts which were documented before his death.
One was in August last year when he slashed his wrists. For weeks afterwards, he stepped out wearing long sleeves to cover his arms.
Despite his conviction, Salling’s family had not turned against him despite the evidence against him but his conviction broke his mother’s heart, according to friends.
‘His mom was his biggest defender. She didn’t want to believe any of it.
Salling’s body was found in Sundland, California, on Tuesday at 9am by police who were in the area. They spotted his car and matched it to the missing person’s report his parents had filed earlier. When they stepped down towards the riverbed, they found his corpse
The actor’s body was found in a dried up river bed, through a wooded area close to a little league baseball field in Los Angeles, California on Tuesday. Pictured, police tape ropes of the scene where Salling was found
Salling’s black Nissan Infiniti was parked at the side of the road, near the riverbed where he was found. Police found the vehicle by chance while they were in the area on an unrelated matter. They ran checks on the plates before finding his body nearby
Salling had not been seen or heard from since 11.30pm on Monday night
‘When she saw the evidence, her heart was broken,’ one friend, who did not want to be named, told US Weekly.
When Salling was arrested in 2015, his parents posted 10 per cent of his $20,000 bond, the friend said.
The family released a statement through Salling’s lawyer Michael J. Proctor after news of his death on Tuesday emerged.
‘I can confirm that 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 family appreciates the support they have been receiving and asks for their privacy to be respected,’ he said.
Salling had accepted a plea deal which would have seen him jailed for between four and seven years.
As part of that deal, he was also required to pay his victims $50,000 each to the children who were seen being abused in the material he possessed.
Authorities were tipped off by one of Salling’s ex-girlfriends and he was arrested in December 2015 (pictured ducking down in the passenger seat of a car as he leaves jail after being arrested for possession of child pornography)
Salling was photographed wearing the same clothes he wore for weeks back in October, while he was out buying cigarettes and soda at his local 7-11 store. The photographs were taken after an apparent suicide attempt
Former Glee star Mark Salling is pictured outside court in December where he pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography. It was the last time he was seen in public
His suicide robs them of that money. Now, their only hope of receiving the money is by suing his estate.
It is not clear how many children were shown in the tens of thousands of pictures and videos which Salling possessed.
Friends say Salling was in a ‘dark place’ and never recovered from his Glee co-star Cory Monteith’s 2013 death.
Monteith died from an accidental drug overdose and had heroin and alcohol in his system when he died.
Though he did not explicitly try to kill himself, Salling was said to have been hurt that he turned to drugs to combat whatever issues he was facing rather than ask for help.
‘Mark took Cory’s death extremely hard and never got over it
‘He was so heartbroken and hurt by Cory’s death and that he didn’t ask for help and he was vocal about those feelings,’ a source told US Weekly on Tuesday.
If you are concerned about any issues involving suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 1-800-273-8255.
Salling found fame on the hit teen singing shoe Glee (Pictured, left to right: Max Adler as Dave (center) and Salling as Puck on Glee in March 2015)