Los Angeles County District Attorney Press Release Re: Murder Suspect Samuel Haskell Jr. Suicide
July 14, 2025: Samuel Haskell Jr. Charged With 2023 Murders of Wife, In-Laws, Dies by Suicide Before Court Hearing
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Samuel Haskell Jr. was facing life in prison without the possibility of parole
LOS ANGELES – Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman announced today that 37-year-old Samuel Haskell Jr., who was accused of brutally murdering and dismembering his wife and her parents, killed himself over the weekend while in custody – days before he 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,” District Attorney Hochman said. “This is one last cruel act by someone who did the most horrific things for reasons we will never entirely know. A family that has been dealing with unimaginable loss now has been robbed of their chance to face him, hold him accountable for his barbaric actions, and openly share their grief and their cherished memories of their loved ones.”
Samuel Bond Haskell Jr. (dob 04/03/88) was found dead in his cell on July 12. He was charged with three counts of murder as well as the special circumstance allegation of multiple murders. Haskell was facing life in prison without the possibility of parole for his crimes and he was scheduled to appear in court today for a preliminary hearing.
Had the case proceeded to a preliminary hearing, the District Attorney’s Office would have presented the following evidence:
On or about Nov. 6, 2023, Haskell murdered and dismembered his 37-year-old wife, Mei Li Haskell, her mother, Yanxiang Wang, 64, and her stepfather, Gaoshan Li, 71, in the Tarzana home they all shared.
The following day, Haskell hired and paid $500 to several day laborers to take away heavy black plastic trash bags from his home in Tarzana. After driving away from the home, the workers opened one of the bags 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. When police responded to the home to conduct a welfare check, no one was there and the bags were gone.
Later the same afternoon, Haskell was recorded on video a short distance from his home driving into a parking lot, removing a large trash bag similar to the one returned by the day laborers from the trunk of his Tesla, and disposing of this bag into a trash dumpster in Encino before driving away.
Also on November 7, Haskell was captured on surveillance video transferring additional black plastic trash bags from his Tesla to a rented SUV in which he drove away, leaving the Tesla parked on the street. The car, registered to Mei Haskell, was later recovered by law enforcement at this location that was near an AirBnB in Tarzana where detectives discovered Haskell had been staying with his children after the murders. Investigators determined he rented the AirBnB in October for the time period between Nov. 6 to Nov. 18, 2023. The car contained blood that matched to victim Gaoshan Li’s genetic profile.
In the early morning hours of November 8, a person looking through the dumpster in Encino found the trash bag and inside of it a beheaded torso, which was later identified as belonging to Mei Li Haskell by the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner via kinship analysis. That person called 911 and Haskell was arrested the same day driving the SUV he rented on November 3, prior to the murders. He was armed with a folding knife. A Home Depot receipt dated Oct. 20, 2023, for the purchase of plywood, canopy, moisture barrier, coveralls, and diamond-saw blades was found in his wallet.
Inside the rented vehicle, Los Angeles police found a .357 loaded revolver inside a holster, 32 rounds of live ammunition, a blood-encrusted military-style knife, a headlamp and firearm sight and passports for himself, his wife Mei and their three children. DNA analysis of blood on the military knife matched to all three victims, while blood stains on the firearm matched the genetic profiles of Mei Li and Gaoshan Li. Haskell has been in custody since his arrest as he awaited his preliminary hearing.
Later on November 8, police recovered eight black plastic trash bags filled with bloody bedding, towels, a large machine saw, diamond-saw blades, a machete, a plywood board covered in blood, multiple pairs of disposable gloves and canes belonging to Yanxiang Wang and Gaoshan Li from the garage and backyard of the family home. In the garage, they also found another Home Depot receipt dated Oct. 6, 2023, for the purchase of disposable gloves, bolt cutters, a fiberglass drill, dust masks and a contractor’s apron. Forensic testing revealed that large amounts of blood evidence had been cleaned up throughout the home. Subsequent DNA testing of blood found on some of the items, including the saw, machete and plywood board, as well as areas inside the residence, matched the DNA of all three victims.
A search warrant was served on the defendant’s office where detectives found $67,000 in cash.
Additionally, law enforcement learned in reviewing the defendant’s cell phone extraction that Haskell Jr. had been having an affair with a 27-year-old woman who they interviewed. Haskell told her in October 2023 that his children would soon be living with his parents. On November 2, the defendant asked her to accompany him on a trip to Japan. Homicide detectives recovered a one-way ticket to Japan purchased by Haskell Jr. on Oct. 21, 2023. The following day, Haskell Jr. purchased a roundtrip ticket for his girlfriend to accompany him from Nov. 28 to Dec. 12, 2023.
The remains of Yanxiang Wang and Gaoshan Li have never been found.
Case 23CJCF00013 was prosecuted by Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman of the Major Crimes Division and was investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division.
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