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Authorities say Sam Haskell murdered his wife, Mei Li Haskell, her mother, Yanxiang Wang, and her father, Gaoshan Li. (Screenshot of Sam Haskell: his Tiktok account @tragicstreetz; Images of Mei Haskell and her parents: Los Angeles Police Department; screenshot of the dumpster where a person found a dismembered female torso: KABC)
Prosecutors in Los Angeles County, California, have formally charged the son of a Hollywood power couple with killing his wife and her parents.
Samuel Bond Haskell, 35, was arrested back on Wednesday and held without bail on suspicion of murder. Local prosecutors announced Monday that he now faces three counts of murder and a special circumstance of multiple murders. Haskell is scheduled for arraignment to take place Dec. 8.
The incident publicly surfaced when a homeless person discovered a dismembered female torso at a strip mall dumpster Wednesday morning in the Encino neighborhood. Officers reportedly suspected these partial remains belonged to the defendant’s wife, Mei Li Haskell, 37. They now believe her father, Gaoshan Li, 72, and her mother, Yanxiang Wang, 64, to also be dead.
It turned out that last Tuesday, Nov. 7, Sam Haskell allegedly hired four day laborers to take away heavy black plastic trash bags from his home in the neighborhood of Tarzana. One of the laborers opened one of the bags, saw human body parts, and called 911, prosecutors said.
Requesting anonymity, a group of day laborers told KNBC that Haskell hired them to move trash bags. Paid $500, they took three large trash bags from the garage. They said that Haskell claimed these carried rocks, but they felt like there was meat in there. The bags were soft and soggy, each weighing in at about 50 pounds.
Becoming suspicious, they peered inside.
“I started seeing body parts, a belly button,” a worker reportedly said. “I was astonished. Of course, I felt bad. We had been tricked.”
They returned to the Haskell home, and gave back the bags and money. Haskell allegedly claimed these weren’t real body parts, but Halloween props.
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In any case, the laborers left. Los Angeles County prosecutors now say that Haskell was seen and photographed dumping a large trash bag at a dumpster — the same dumpster where the homeless person discovered the torso.
Police have said they did not initially find anything in response to a call regarding body parts at the home, but after finding the torso at the dumpster, they managed to get a search warrant for Haskell’s residence.
“Here in the house, once officers made entry, what was discovered was evidence of a crime, including some blood evidence and other items that I’m not going to provide at this point,” LAPD Detective Efren Gutierrez told Los Angeles ABC station KABC.
From there, authorities considered Mei Haskell and her parents to be missing.
Mei and Sam Haskell had three sons. The children were picked up from school on Wednesday and are currently in the custody of the Department of Children and Family Services.
The prosecutors’ charges on Monday take the case to its next step. If convicted, Sam Haskell, the son of a former talent agent of the same name, faces up to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“These shocking and gruesome crimes have sent shockwaves through our community,” Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón said. “We stand with the victims’ loved ones during this unimaginably difficult time and will do everything in our power to ensure justice is served. Our Major Crimes Division will work tirelessly to bring about a prosecution that reflects the severity of this devastating crime.”
Cops have said they are looking for two missing vehicles in connection to the case: a white VW Tiguan with license plate 9ANC890, and a white 2014 Nissan Pathfinder with license plate 7FRM190. An LAPD spokesman told Law&Crime on Tuesday that they’ve received no updates on this.
