Dismembered Body Found In Dumpster ID'd As Wife Of Murder Suspect

LOS ANGELES, CA — Dismembered body parts found in a dumpster in the San Fernando Valley were positively identified as that of Mei Haskell, authorities announced Monday, confirming what police already suspected.

Haskell's husband Samuel Bond Haskell, 35, of Tarzana, remains jailed awaiting trial for the murders of Mei Haskell and her parents 64-year-old Yanxiang Wang and 72-year-old Gaoshen Li. The bodies of Wang and Li have not been found since they disappeared along with their daughter in early November.

Mei Haskell and her parents were last seen alive on Nov. 6. The next day Haskell hired day laborers to dispose of bags of body parts, according to the district attorney's office.

The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner, which listed Mei Haskell's cause of death as "deferred."

"On November 7, Haskell allegedly hired four day-laborers to take away several heavy black plastic trash bags from his home in Tarzana. One of the laborers opened one of the bags and allegedly observed human body parts. They called 911 and reported the incident," prosecutors said in a prepared statement. "That same day, Haskell was allegedly observed and photographed a short distance from his home disposing a large trash bag into a dumpster in the 16000 block of Ventura Boulevard."

The day after that, a person who was looking through the same dumpster near Ventura Boulevard and Rubio Way in Encino found a torso in a trash bag and called 911.

Authorities have been waiting for the identification of the body parts found in the dumpster. Haskell, the son of Sam Haskell, a former executive vice president and worldwide head of television for William Morris, was arrested soon after the body was discovered.

Haskell appeared in a downtown courtroom on Dec. 8 to answer to three counts of murder in connection with the disappearance of his wife and in-laws, but his arraignment was postponed until Jan. 12.

Haskell was ordered to remain jailed without bail.

The victims lived in a Tarzana home in the 4100 block of Coldstream Terrace with Haskell. After their mother and grandparents were killed, the Hakell's children were found and were being cared for by family members, police said.

Police have not publicly identified a motive for the slayings nor the manner of death for the three victims.

Many of the public details about the macabre case came from the day laborers, who said they were hired to haul away body parts.

The workers told NBC4 they were paid $500 by Samuel Haskell to haul away three large trash bags from inside the garage at his home on the 4100 block of Coldstream Terrace.

The workers told NBC4 Haskell told them the bags were full of rocks, but once they picked up the bags, it felt like there was meat inside.

"When we picked up the bags, we could tell they weren't rocks," a worker who asked not want to be identified told NBC4 in Spanish.

The men described the bags to NBC4 as soft and soggy, each weighing about 50 pounds. They told NBC4 something didn't feel right, so they stopped their truck a block away to look inside the bags.

"I started seeing body parts, a belly button," the worker told NBC4. "I was astonished. Of course, I felt bad. We had been tricked."

The men told NBC4 they drove back to Haskell's home, left the bags on the driveway and returned the money.

The worker told NBC4 they told Haskell they didn't want to be involved, and Haskell tried to pass the body parts off as Halloween props.

The men told NBC4 they drove immediately to the police, but were turned away from two law enforcement stations when they tried to report what they saw.

They told NBC4 they initially went to the California Highway Patrol's West Valley Area office in Woodland Hills where they were directed to the Los Angeles Police Department, going to the Topanga Community Police Station, where they were told to leave and call 911 from the courtyard.

Haskell was arrested on suspicion of murder at the Westfield Topanga mall by LAPD officers following a search of his home. Police said the search was prompted by surveillance video evidence from Encino, where a homeless man searching for recyclables found a dismembered body in a plastic bag around 6:15 a.m. Wednesday near a trash bin at Ventura Boulevard and Rubio Way.

The Los Angeles Police Department officials have since announced an investigation into the department's response to the day laborers after they were repeatedly turned away.

The murder charges include a special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. If convicted as charged, Haskell would face a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole, prosecutors said.

City News Service contributed to this report.