Samuel Haskell, a 35-year-old man from Tarzana, Los Angeles, was arrested in connection with the discovery of a dismembered torso of a woman in Encino on Wednesday, November 8, 2023. The torso was found in a dumpster in a strip mall.
Haskell was taken into custody by Los Angeles Police Department officers at the Topanga Mall. Police said that two vehicles connected to Haskell are also missing and are being sought — a white Volkswagen Tiguan, license 9ANC890; and a white 2014 Nissan Pathfinder, license 7FRM190.
The three children of Samuel and Mei Haskell have been found safe and are being cared for by family members.
Haskell’s husband, 35-year-old Samuel Haskell, was arrested after the torso was found Wednesday morning in a parking lot near the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and Rubio Avenue. He was being held on $2 million bail.
The grim discovery led police investigators to a home in the 4100 block of Coldstream Terrace, where the Haskells live with their three children and Mei Li Haskell’s parents.
“Myself and another person who is actually Mei’s friend were the first people that they told, that they did find parts of a body inside the house,” said Elle Benami, referring to what police said after searching the Haskells’ home. Authorities have made no official announcement about what was discovered after the home was searched.
Benami told ABC7 that Mei Li Haskell “really helped me keep my sanity” during stay-at-home orders at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Our kids were kind of going crazy, being cooped up at home, having Zoom classes,” she said.
“So her boys and my kids would play here in the front yard or backyard.” Benami described her friend as a “very sweet, generous person, very social. She loved to throw parties — I’d say some of the best parties I’ve been to.”
During those parties, Samuel Haskell “would come in and was smiling and kind of friendly, but not outgoing,” according to the neighbor. “He would sit in the corner and after about 20 minutes, disappear — go to his room, maybe go on a walk.”
Eyewitness News has learned that Haskell is the son of Sam Haskell Sr., who resigned as CEO of the Miss America organization after a 2017 email scandal. The elder Haskell was once a celebrity agent and also founded Magnolia Hill Productions, which has produced various Dolly Parton specials.
After Mei Li and her parents vanished and her husband was arrested, the Haskells’ three young boys were placed in the care of the county Department of Children and Family Services.
Benami talked about the difficulty of explaining the situation to her children, given the likelihood that the Haskell children would not live in the Tarzana home again.
“To think that my next-door neighbor — a few feet away from my kids’ room — that something like that transpired there is insane to me,” she said.
