The son of an ex-Hollywood agent—charged with a woman’s murder after her dismembered torso was found in a dumpster Wednesday—apparently hired a group of workers to haul her body parts in trash bags from his Los Angeles area home.
“I started seeing body parts, a belly button,” one of the day laborers told NBC Los Angeles. “I was astonished. Of course, I felt bad. We had been tricked.”
The workers told the local TV station that the alleged killer, 35-year-old Samuel Haskell Jr., paid them $500 to remove three large trash bags from his house in Tarzana—where police say Haskell lived with his wife, Mei, who is believed to be his victim, and her parents, Gaoshan Li, 72, and YanXiang Wang, 64, who are also missing.
ADVERTISEMENT
When Haskell enlisted the crew on Tuesday, he told them the bags were filled with rocks; once they lifted the items, however, they said it seemed like meat was inside the 50-pound bags, which they described as soft and soggy.
“When we picked up the bags, we could tell they weren’t rocks,” the worker, who asked to remain anonymous, said in Spanish.
Concerned that something wasn’t right about the scrap removal, the men pulled their truck over about a block away from the Haskell residence and peered inside the bags.
They returned to Haskell’s home to dump the bags in the driveway and return the money, NBC reported, adding that, “The worker said they told Haskell they didn’t want to be involved, and Haskell tried to pass the body parts off as Halloween props.”
“God was watching over us,” the hired hand said, adding that the men feared for their lives.
The workers said they tried to report what they encountered to police but the California Highway Patrol directed them to the Los Angeles Police Department, which told them to leave and call 911 outside.
TMZ published surveillance video that showed Haskell flagging down a blue moving truck in front of his home. Minutes later, two men are captured on video moving what appears to be large, black trash bags.
Haskell, who is being held on $2 million bail, is the son of a former William Morris executive who represented actors including Ray Romano, Whoopi Goldberg and Martin Short, as well as singer Dolly Parton. His father, Haskell Sr., is also a former chairman of the board of the Miss America Organization, the Hollywood Reporter revealed.
The alleged killer may have dabbled in the entertainment industry, too.
The Messenger, a news website, reported that he appeared to run a company called Tragicstreetz using the alias Samuel Basshinger. (On LinkedIn, a profile for Basshinger declares, “I Direct Fashion Editorials and Music Videos. I am passionate about collaborating with other Creators” and plugs his “pop-culture / fashion photo blog on Instagram @tragicstreetz where I share all my passion projects and creative inspo.”)
Tragicstreetz’s website says that Basshinger has worked with rappers Machine Gun Kelly and Tyga, and actresses Peyton List and Olivia Holt and Cailin Russo.
Last year, Basshinger posted a 10-second TikTok video that announced, “My resume says unhappy, bitter, resentful, and really good at ordering off the menu.”
Indeed, many of Basshinger’s TikToks are his opinions while driving his car. Some videos show Basshinger going for walks, showing off outfits or his arms, or staring into the screen as music plays. “Trust fund whack job,” one commenter wrote on Saturday.
One friend of Mei told ABC7 that she invited the Haskells to a house party and didn’t have warm feelings about the husband.
“They came there… very nice, beautiful, but the husband… I was shocked,” the friend said. “Something seemed so off. Something seemed so weird. I kept saying to my family, ‘Something is wrong with her husband.’”
Police say the couple has three young children, who were safe at school at the time their mother is believed to have been murdered.
