14 DAY TRIAL // Mark Balelo, one of the stars on the reality show “Storage Wars,” has killed himself. His body was found inside his car at his auction house, reports online indicate.
Though, for the time being, more details of the tragedy have not been released to the press, TMZ points out that there could be a connection between Balelo’s desperate act and a prior drug arrest.
He was busted over the weekend on drug charges.
“‘Storage Wars’ star Mark Balelo killed himself today by carbon monoxide poisoning. Multiple sources close to Balelo tell us he was found dead in his car, which was parked and running in the garage at his auction house in Simi Valley, CA,” TMZ reports.
He had been arrested on Saturday and, upon release, had showed signs he might have been depressed, the report goes on to mention.
“We're told when Balelo got out of jail he was distraught, and asked his fiancée to come over because he was afraid he might hurt himself. We're told they met at his office on Sunday, they talked for a few hours, he took a 4 hour nap – and when he woke up seemed better,” TMZ says.
On Sunday evening, the fiancée left Balelo and went home. On Monday morning, an employee found him unresponsive in the car in the garage.
An autopsy will be conducted to determine the cause of death, and a police investigation is underway.
Balelo appeared on several episodes of the new season of “Storage Wars.”
Late last year, as we also reported at the time, the show was hit with a lawsuit from David Hester, who also appeared on it at one point and who was saying that it was 100% fake, scripted.
In court documents, he claimed that he had been let go from the show after he confronted producers about this, asking them to stay true to the fans, to stop deceiving them. Instead, he got fired, he said.