Man dies in jail before trial for killing wife, her parents
July 15 (UPI) -- A 37-year-old California man accused of murdering and dismembering his wife and her parents has died by suicide while in police custody, according to state prosecutors and authorities.
Samuel Haskell was found dead in his cell on Saturday, Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement Monday, which was the same day that Haskell was scheduled to appear in court for a preliminary hearing.
"Instead of standing before a judge and answering for the crimes he's been charged with, the defendant managed to escape justice," Hochman said.
"This is one last cruel act by someone who did the most horrific things for reasons we will never entirely know."
Haskell is the son of Emmy-winning film producer and agent Sam Haskell III.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said in a statement that detectives responded to the Twin Towers Correctional Facility to at about 4:20 a.m. PST Saturday to investigate Haskell's death.
"The cause of death will be determined by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office," it said.
Haskell died while facing life in prison without the possibility of parole on three counts of murder for the November 2023 deaths of his 37-year-old wife, Mei Li Haskell, her mother, Yanxiang Wang, 64, and her stepfather, Gaoshan Li, 71.
He was arrested Nov. 8 and accused of killing them two days earlier at the Tarzana, Calif., home they all shared.
According to the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office, the day after his family was killed, he paid day laborers $500 to remove heavy black trash bags from the home. The crime was discovered when the workers opened the bags on leaving the house and saw human body parts.
"The workers returned the bags and money to Haskell, took pictures of the defendant, the bags and the front of the residence, then alerted police," the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office said, adding that when officers arrived to perform a welfare check, neither Haskell nor the bags were to be found.
That same day, Haskell was seen in surveillance video transferring black bags from a Tesla registered to his wife to a rented SUV, authorities said.
At 6 a.m. on Nov. 8, 2023, a person searching through a dumpster in Encino found a trash bag containing the beheaded torso of Mei inside.
Haskell was arrested that same day while driving the rented SUV, inside of which police found a loaded .357 revolver, 32 rounds of ammunition, a blood-stained military-style knife, a headlamp, a firearm sight and passports for himself, his wife and their three children.
The district attorney's office said a DNA analysis of the blood on the knife matched all three victims.
A search of the home uncovered eight trash bags filled with bloody bedding, a large machine saw, a machete, and canes belonging to Yanxiang Wang and Gaoshan Li.
Law enforcement searched Haskell's phone and learned that he was having an affair with a 27-year-old woman, whom he had asked on Nov. 2 to accompany him on a trip to Japan.
The bodies of Yanxiang Wang and Gaoshan Li have not been found.
Haskell was being held on $2 million bail.
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