The shocking discovery of body parts in an Encino dumpster has led to three charges of murder against a local Tarzana resident.
In a terrible case of life imitating art, Sam Haskell IV, son of a Hollywood agent, and himself a director of low-budget slasher films, is accused of murdering and chopping up the bodies of his wife, mother-in-law and father-in-law.
Haskell was charged after a homeless man found a human torso in a bag thrown into a shopping mall dumpster at Ventura and Rubio Way. Surveillance video evidence led to a search of his home, where blood and other evidence was discovered. The couple’s three children were found safely at school and handed over to child protective services.
Haskell was arrested last Wednesday at Westfield Topanga by LAPD.
The story gets even more gruesome as a group of day laborers then reported that Haskell had hired them earlier in the week to dispose of “bags of rocks” from his garage in the 4100 block of Coldstream Terrace.
Once they picked up the bags they said it felt “like there was meat inside.” The men said the bags were soft and soggy, so they stopped to look inside. “I started seeing body parts, a belly button,” one worker told NBC4.
The workers returned the bags and the $500 Haskell had paid them, and then went straight to the police, but reportedly were turned away at a police station, where they were told to leave and call 911. In a recent press interview, Chief Moore stated that he has opened an internal investigation as to why the workers were turned away twice by local LAPD stations.
Haskell is being held without bail and his arraignment is set for December 8. If convicted he will face life in prison without the possibility of parole. DNA testing is currently being undertaken to determine the identity of the body parts. As of presstime, there has been no update on any concrete findings on the whereabouts of the missing family members.
Haskell has been in legal trouble before. He was arrested and charged with two counts of possessing a deadly weapon in 2008, pleaded no contest and did three years probation.
According to a neighbor, Haskell had an “obsession” with weapons, and had samurai swords, guns and crossbows displayed around the house.
