The 35-year-old son of a Hollywood talent agent, whose clients included Dolly Parton, George Clooney, and a British prince, has been arrested in Los Angeles after a bloody torso, believed to be his wife’s, was found in a strip-mall dumpster.
Sam Haskell, booked on suspicion of murder, is also suspected of killing his wife’s missing parents, detectives revealed.
Capt Scot Williams of the LAPD’s robbery-homicide division stated that the torso, discovered in an Encino mall, appeared to be Haskell’s wife, Mei Haskell.
The grim discovery was made after workers at Haskell’s home reported human remains in his driveway on Tuesday, then vanished. The next day, an unhoused man found the female torso in a duffel bag in a nearby dumpster.
The Los Angeles Times reported that the suspect, Haskell, his wife Mei, and her parents, Yanxiang Wang and Gaoshen Li, lived in a single-story home in Tarzana, California, where detectives said they had found evidence consistent with killing and dismemberment.
The LAPD informed reporters that efforts to reach Mei Haskell or her parents on Wednesday had been unsuccessful. The suspect and his wife have three children, who are now safe with family members.
The suspect is the son of Sam Haskell, a former talent agent who represented A-list stars including Dolly Parton, George Clooney, Whoopi Goldberg, and Prince Edward.
The Times reported that in December 2008, Sam Haskell was arrested and charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. He pleaded no contest to battery and was placed on three years’ probation.
A neighbortold ABC 7 News that something seemed strange about Haskell. “Something seemed so weird. I thought maybe he was sick, or something was wrong,” the woman said. “All I said was, I kept saying to my family, something is wrong with him.”
