By CHRISTINE PELISEK
In the well-manicured San Fernando Valley suburb of Tarzana, Mei Haskell, 37, was considered a cheerful and considerate addition to the community when she arrived with her family in 2020. Elle Benami—who lives next door to the six-bedroom home that Mei shared with husband Sam, their sons, ages 6, 8 and 12, and Mei’s mother and stepfather, who had moved from China to help with the boys—recalls asking Mei for advice when a water heater went out during a holiday weekend. “I asked her for recommendations for a plumber, and she insisted that we come over and use her shower,” Benami says. “She was a very social, outgoing, friendly person.”
“They spent time gardening,” a neighbor says of Gaoshan Li (top) and Yanxiang Wang. Insets: Sam Haskell IV; Mei Haskell. (VICTIMS) LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT/AP
But last fall, when Benami spotted Mei while driving and slowed down to say hello, her friend was visibly upset. “I made myself a mental note: ‘I need to go and check on Mei.’ ” Sadly, she never got the chance. On Nov. 8 police arrested Sam Haskell IV, 35, a filmmaker and the son of a well-known Hollywood producer, and charged him with the murder of Mei, as well as the murders of her mother, Yanxiang Wang, 64, and stepfather Gaoshan Li, 72. (Haskell’s sons, who were at school that day, were unharmed.) Authorities allege that Sam killed his wife and in-laws—who had last been seen on Nov. 6—at the family’s home, and then hired day laborers to dispose of heavy trash bags filled with rocks from his garage. But upon inspection, the laborers discovered body parts in the bags and returned them to Haskell, who claimed they contained Halloween props, according to authorities. Sam was allegedly seen on surveillance footage later that day hauling to a dumpster in nearby Encino a similar bag that investigators later discovered contained a human torso. A coroner determined that the remains belonged to Mei Haskell. Other biological evidence pointed to the family home as the scene of the killings and dismemberment. Sam Haskell has pleaded not guilty to three murder charges and, if convicted, could face a life sentence without the possibility of parole. No motive has been specified for his alleged crimes, and the bodies of his in-laws Li and Wang have yet to be recovered. Says Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman: “We are continuing to investigate these horrific murders in order to seek justice for Mei Haskell and her family.”
1. Mei Haskell with two sons in 2023. 2. After workers hired by her husband allegedly said there were body parts in a trash bag, a sanitation team removed garbage on Nov. 9. 3. The dumpster in Encino where Mei’s remains were found.
“You could see Sam came from privilege,” says his former trainer Troy Piedade. His father, Samuel Haskell III, is an Emmy winning TV producer and former vice president at the William Morris Agency. “He wanted to be like his dad and make movies,” says Piedade, who adds the pair didn’t always get along. “Sam was kind of resentful.”COUNTERCLOCKWISE FROM BOTTOM LEFT: DONALD KRAVITZ/GETTY IMAGES; MEGA(2)
Growing up in China, where she worked as a model in her teens, Mei longed for the classic American lifestyle and immigrated to Los Angeles in the mid 2000s. She was studying accounting at California State University, Northridge, and working as a waitress when she met Sam, a fellow student and the son of Hollywood executive Sam Haskell III, who produced TV specials for Dolly Parton and resigned as CEO of the Miss America Organization after sending sexist emails critical of former contestants in 2017. The couple were married after graduating and had three sons, Sam, James, and William.
Friends say they were an odd pairing. While Mei ran the household and owned a consulting business that helped foreign students navigate the American education system, Sam was an aspiring filmmaker and made frequent trips to Japan to tape TikTok videos. “He thought he was going to be the next Brian De Palma,” says Sam’s former personal trainer Troy Piedade.
When the gregarious Mei hosted parties at their home, Sam made only brief appearances, says a friend of Mei’s who wishes not to be identified. “He would just stand by himself somewhere, looking down or looking away, and then within a few minutes just disappear. Everyone who met him thought he was creepy.” Although Benami sometimes brought over her children, who enjoyed playing with the Haskells’ sons, she forbade them from going upstairs, where Sam kept a collection of guns and samurai-style swords from Japan.
‘IT’S SURREAL, LIKE SOMETHING YOU SEE ON TV’ — A FRIEND OF THE SUSPECT
On Nov. 7, the day after Mei and her parents went missing, Benami says, her husband “smelled rotting flesh” in the area of their yard near the Haskells’ property. Later that night her daughter texted her babysitter saying that she heard a boy yelling “hello” and “help” coming from the Haskell house, followed by the sound of a car door slamming and loud screeching. Police responding to a missing-persons 911 call entered the home to perform a welfare check on Nov. 8 and allegedly found blood splatter in a bedroom and a bathroom and bags of bloody bedsheets in the garage. After investigators identified Sam as the man dropping off a bag containing his wife’s torso, he was taken into custody while driving near a mall. He is being held without bail at an L.A. correctional facility.
Meanwhile friends of Mei are shocked and saddened by the loss of the devoted mom, who had dreams of one day opening a boba tea and sushi shop. “She was incredibly passionate about all aspects of life,” says her friend. Mei’s sons are now living with relatives on their father’s side of the family. “It’s just so sad,” says neighbor Annamarie Griffin. “All the stolen moments.”
With additional reporting by LIAM QUINN
FROM LEFT: BACKGRID; MYUNG J. CHUN/LOS ANGELES TIMES/GETTY IMAGE