Mark Salling's Body Reportedly Found by Chance

Authorities reportedly found Mark Salling's body by chance Tuesday when they stumbled upon his car near a wooded area in the Sunland-Tujunga neighborhood of Los Angeles. TMZ reports authorities, in the area for unrelated reasons, ran the car's plates and discovered the owner had been reported missing. During a subsequent search of the area, the former Glee actor was found hanging from a tree, law enforcement sources say. He was pronounced dead at 9am, per People. Photos from the scene show police tape surrounding several young trees at the edge of a creek. Sources say no suicide note has been found.

"It's tragic and I'm brokenhearted," Jane Lynch, who also appeared on Glee, tells TMZ. "It's a painful loss, again," adds writer, director, and producer Paris Barclay, who worked on Glee. On Twitter, Barclay shared a photo of himself with Salling and Cory Monteith, the Glee star who died of an overdose in 2013, per CNN. "Two young actors, lost too soon," he wrote. After pleading guilty to child pornography charges, Salling was expected to be sentenced in March to four to seven years in prison. His time in prison was to be followed by registration as a sex offender and 20 years of supervised release. (More Mark Salling stories.)