Hey y'all, this week on Pushing Up Lilies, I’m diving deep into a chilling case that sounds like it’s straight out of a Hollywood horror movie. Samuel Haskell IV, the son of a well-known Hollywood executive, has been accused of the brutal dismemberment of his wife and in-laws. It’s a dark, twisted story that leaves you questioning how someone could go to such extremes, and what leads to this level of violence within a family. We'll unpack the details of the crime, explore the psychological elements, and discuss how this shocking case unfolded. Join me as we dig into one of the most disturbing cases of betrayal and murder. You won’t want to miss this one! * Listener discretion is advised.
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0:06 Welcome to Pushing Up Lilies.
0:08 I'm your host, Julie Mattson.
0:10 Pushing Up Lilies is a weekly True crime podcast with spine tingling, unusual and terrifyingly true stories from my perspective as a forensic death investigator and a sexual assault nurse examiner.
0:24 Do I have some stories for you?
0:26 Are you ready?
0:31 Hey guys?
0:32 Happy Wednesday again.
0:33 Hope your week has been amazing.
0:35 I just got back from a trip to Fredericksburg and in Texas.
0:42 It is so beautiful there.
0:43 If you have not been, I highly recommend it.
0:47 I know that several years ago my husband and I went there just for a little weekend trip.
0:53 We rented a tree house, and it was amazing.
0:56 I think the couple, he was an architect, and she was an interior designer, and I guess they had this property, and they put their heads together and then built several tree houses on the property.
1:07 And so ours kind of overlooked this riverbank and it had a patio on it where you could go outside.
1:16 The mosquitoes were really bad, but there was no TV.
1:20 We had a little record player with some vinyl, and it was amazing.
1:26 I mean, we didn't spend a lot of time in the room.
1:29 We spent some time going to the wineries and did a little bit of shopping.
1:34 But I've also been there with my high school girlfriends, and we rented a really nice Airbnb with several bedrooms and a really cool outdoor area with a fire pit.
1:46 And it was just an amazing weekend.
1:48 And the owners of the Airbnb brought us a quiche.
1:52 It was delicious.
1:53 And I think, you know, they probably just wanted to check on us and maybe just meet us and make sure we weren't going to wreck their home, which was beautiful, by the way.
2:01 Anyway, it was such a kind gesture, and we appreciated it so much.
2:08 I will tell you that for some reason, my GPS took me on some back roads, and it made me really nervous because it was like 10 o'clock at night.
2:18 And there were deer everywhere.
2:21 This is by Lano, Texas, which there's a lot of deer hunting property there.
2:26 A lot of deer loose and there were literally deer everywhere.
2:32 It was like a 50 mile stretch of roadway.
2:34 I bet I counted 25 deer right before we got off that road.
2:39 There was a huge buck that just like took his little sweet time crossing the road, but he was huge.
2:47 Of course, I didn't want to wreck my vehicle.
2:49 I drove super slow because, I was so careful I didn't want to hit the deer either.
2:53 It wasn't just about me.
2:54 But I was so nervous during the day I saw a few out.
3:00 It brought me back close to the same direction.
3:04 I did go down that same roadway and I only saw a couple of little, tiny deer.
3:09 But man, it's just beautiful out there.
3:12 I'm ready to go back.
3:13 I want to spend a whole weekend, but I hope everyone is having a great back to school month.
3:22 I guess everybody's probably gone back by now.
3:24 I'm not sure.
3:25 I know in Texas it's been a couple of weeks, at least since we've all gone back.
3:30 I think in North Dakota they just went back last week.
3:33 I'm not 100% sure.
3:34 But I know the kids are, they get antsy.
3:37 Some of the schools here in Texas, not a lot of them, but some of them are doing the four-day school week, which gosh, I wish we could have done that when I was in school.
3:49 But I know that it's kind of hard on some of the parents, but I think the school is providing like really cheap daycare or services, you know, where the kids can actually stay on the Friday since, you know, parents work.
4:04 I thought that was really kind of cool.
4:06 I'm sure.
4:07 I wonder if the teachers really get to enjoy that fifth day off though.
4:12 I know that there's always so much behind the scenes work that y'all teachers put into it.
4:17 Kudos to y'all for Sure our weather here has been beautiful.
4:22 I always talk about the weather.
4:23 Like, I'm a meteorologist but it's really been nice.
4:27 We have been blessed with; we had a couple of days of rain last week.
4:31 It just was pretty much nonstop, but it was very light.
4:36 That was kind of nice because we definitely needed it.
4:39 But, like, gosh, I don't think we're going to see any more 100-degree days.
4:43 I'm so thankful for that.
4:46 I love it.
4:47 Just like it is now like in the eighties, low nineties with no rain.
4:51 That's perfect.
4:53 It's been amazing.
4:55 I wanted to talk to y'all this week about a really interesting case.
5:00 And this happened in Los Angeles, California, Los Angeles PD arrested 35-year-old Samuel Bond Haskell, he was a junior or the fourth. But this was on November the eighth, I believe he was arrested.
5:23 And this is of 2023 after a homeless man made a gruesome discovery while sifting through a dumpster.
5:30 Just five miles from Haskell's home.
5:34 I think we've talked a little bit about the homeless in our area.
5:37 I'm wondering if the homeless population is heavy where you're living.
5:42 I know here we have a shelter for them and it's really close to our medical examiner’s office.
5:48 We've had a couple of people, you know, hit by cars because they get out on the road.
5:53 We've had some homeless people overdose on heroin at some of our homeless camps in this area.
6:00 I know some of the death investigators that I've talked to in different areas have said that the homeless population is really heavy where they're at.
6:10 It's definitely a problem.
6:12 But this was a homeless guy just, you know, sifting through this dumpster as he probably frequently did, looking for something to eat or something that he could find useful and found something rather gruesome.
6:29 Haskell is the son of a well-known Hollywood executive.
6:34 He is at the center of a disturbing triple homicide investigation after his wife's dismembered torso was found in this dumpster by this homeless man.
6:47 As we all know many times, I know that I've covered this.
6:51 But if somebody is dismembered, even though there is a body next to a head, I usually bring the person in as unidentified.
7:06 I mean, I know the head most likely belongs to the body, right?
7:10 Because it's like 3 ft from it.
7:12 But I bring the person in as unidentified, I make sure that they fingerprint the body, and it matches up to the head that I find.
7:23 I know that's stupid, or it sounds stupid, but it's just in case.
7:28 I mean, you never know just in case just to be on the safe side.
7:34 Of course, when we find somebody that's dismembered many times, they are not recognizable when we look at their face and a photo ID, we can't always tell that it's the same person based on their injuries.
7:47 Many times we will have them fingerprinted before we positively identify them.
7:54 We do this again, even if they are in what is believed to be their residence and the doors locked and there's no foul play suspected.
8:03 We just want to make sure it is that person.
8:06 It's happened before.
8:07 Not at our office where someone is brought in as somebody, they are not.
8:11 We definitely don't want that to happen would not be a good day for us and probably wouldn't have a job anymore.
8:17 Not a good idea.
8:18 It's better to be safe than sorry.
8:21 It's just a little bit of extra work for our fingerprint analyst and she definitely does not mind doing it. She's a rock star.
8:30 Anyway, the body was confirmed to be Mister Haskell's 37-year-old wife.
8:38 Mei and the couple also have had three Children aged 6, 8 and 12.
8:46 And luckily those Children were found safe at school, we all know how these cases turn out sometimes.
8:53 Luckily this all went down when they were at school, and he did not actually cause any harm to them.
9:00 Thank goodness, because that would have been, it's already a bad situation, but it would have made a bad situation much worse.
9:09 The remains of Mei's parents, Gaoshan Li, who was 72 and YanXiang Wang who was 64 have yet to be found.
9:21 This would be horrifying for me to kind of know that someone's been murdered and not be able to find their body, but they haven't been found yet, but they are missing.
9:34 Haskell has been charged with three counts of murder and he pled not guilty in a court appearance, and this was on January 12th of this year.
9:44 So 2024 again, Haskell is the son of Emmy winning Hollywood producer Sam Haskell senior and his mother was former Miss Mississippi, Mary Donnelly Haskell.
9:59 He followed in his father's footsteps as far as his career goes.
10:04 And he worked in the entertainment industry.
10:08 He was a director and producer, and he's worked with celebrities like Tyga and Machine gun Kelly.
10:16 He's very well known in the entertainment world as was his father.
10:21 He had expressed some frustration on social media because he wasn't quite able to achieve his father's level of success that did not make him happy.
10:34 And we've found that a lot where family members are extremely jealous if their siblings or parents or Children are more successful than they are.
10:46 It usually not usually, but it can cause a lot of problems within the family unit because of just jealousy issues.
10:55 You know, no one wants anyone to have more than they do, and everyone feels like they deserve a bigger piece of the pie without working for it.
11:03 That was kind of the situation here.
11:05 He had definitely expressed some frustration, and he did this on social media.
11:09 So everyone was aware of it.
11:12 Haskell Senior, who is the father of this guy, was CEO of Miss America, the organization he had resigned in 2017 after emails leaked about him exchanging cruel and sexist comments about past contestants.
11:32 His mother and father had been married since 1982 and the two also share another son as far as Haskell Junior who was arrested and accused of murder him and his wife lived with their three Children and his wife's parents in the affluent L A neighborhood of Tarzana.
12:00 He had had a history of trouble with the law and was arrested on charges of assault with a weapon in 2008.
12:10 At which time he got three years’ probation.
12:14 Here we are again, somebody's been in trouble, got off easy and committed another crime.
12:22 Officers responded to the Haskell’s home in the 4100 block of Cold Stream terrace on November the 7th 2023 after construction workers called 911 because they thought they saw a human body wrapped in black bags.
12:40 Now, when officers arrived, it seemed that the bodies had been moved because there was no evidence there that there had ever been bags.
12:51 So there was no blood, there was no fluid, the bags were gone.
12:54 Basically, they were moved.
12:57 The workers were reportedly paid $500 to remove three full bags of rocks from the home.
13:07 Now, does he think that these guys are stupid.
13:10 Like people are going to know.
13:11 I mean, number one, what if the bag busts? Come on, if you're going to be a murderer, at least dispose of it yourself because these guys thought they saw a body and I'm sure he didn't triple or quadruple bag the body and then to pay somebody $500 to haul them off.
13:31 I mean, if somebody did that to me, I'd be ripping that bag open to see what was in it.
13:35 I know all y'all are probably like me.
13:37 I would not take his word for it that there were actually rocks in there and you know what a bag of rocks is going to feel like it's not quite the same when you pick up a bag that has a human body in it as it is when you pick up a bag that has rocks in it, these guys, of course, as they should called the police to try to report this and when the police arrived, the bags were nowhere to be found.
14:03 One worker claimed that he saw what looked like a belly button in the bag.
14:10 It looks like maybe he saw the torso and caught a glimpse of the belly button.
14:16 It probably ripped open, or he may have ripped it open.
14:19 Who knows?
14:20 Because that's when I would have done, I'd have been like, what's in here?
14:23 The men left those three bags in the driveway of the home; they gave Haskell his money back and then they drove to the police department.
14:33 He was well aware when they gave him the money back that they knew something was up and something was wrong.
14:40 And at that point, he removed the bag.
14:42 When the police arrived, they weren't there.
14:45 But the next day, so apparently Haskell decides I'm going to put him in this dumpster about five miles from my home.
14:53 The following day is when the homeless man found the torso in the dumpster.
15:00 And the dumpster was, you know, in a parking lot fairly close to their home in Tarzana.
15:07 It wasn't far, just a really weird coincidence and like I said, obviously, he knew that the construction workers knew what was going on.
15:16 Blood was found in the home.
15:19 And Mr. Haskell was arrested at a mall and charged with three counts of murder.
15:26 I just killed my family and I'm going to go shopping.
15:29 He was at the mall in December.
15:32 He was ordered to be held without bail at a hearing where he appeared to be wearing an anti-suicide smock and holding a small milk carton.
15:43 I don't know what the milk carton is about, but he has since entered a not guilty plea.
15:50 Now, when he appeared in court, he also did not have a shirt on.
15:55 And the reason for that was they feared that he would strangle himself because he had been put on suicide watch at LAPD’s Valley jail in Van Nuys, California.
16:08 You can't strangle yourself with a shirt if they don't let you wear one.
16:14 He basically had on, no shirt and this anti suicide smock and then was carrying this milk carton.
16:25 Now, Lee and Wang's remains still have not been found.
16:30 Two of the family's vehicles, a white Volkswagen Tiguan and a 2014 white Nissan pathfinder are also missing.
16:41 I don't believe to my knowledge that they have been found yet, I've looked up the case in multiple different places and I'm unable to find any evidence that those vehicles have been found.
16:53 One of Haskell's neighbors had become friends of Mei, his wife and said that she had gone to a party at the couple's house once and Haskell's demeanor was very odd.
17:07 He seemed a little bit off.
17:10 Now Mei's autopsy revealed that she could have been dismembered by a power tool.
17:16 How horrifying would that be?
17:19 The torso had a single sharp force injury at the base of the anterior neck?
17:26 So that's the front of the neck.
17:28 There was a sharp force injury and then the head, the majority of the neck and the majority of all four extremities were actually absent, but they're able to still look at the bone margins and those were really smooth.
17:50 Instead of it looking like someone kind of hacked and sawed it, it appeared more like a sharp power tool had been used sometimes it's hard to tell.
18:02 But in this case, there was no definitive indication that me was dismembered before death.
18:11 Really not sure.
18:12 But the possibility that the neck and head removal was initiated prior to death cannot be excluded.
18:21 They could have been removed before she passed away.
18:24 Basically, I mean, she would have passed away rather quickly afterwards.
18:28 But I guess the point here is they're saying that there's a very good possibility that she was still alive when he started using the power tool to remove the head and neck from the torso.
18:43 Also, according to the autopsy report, there were no injuries on the torso itself that would have contributed to the death.
18:55 There were no stab wounds, there were no gunshot wounds, likely the possibilities for the cause and manner of death would be blunt force trauma of the head and neck, gunshot wounds of the head and neck, sharp force injury of the head and neck and asphyxia or strangulation.
19:15 And again, when the head and a majority of the neck are missing, and there are no injuries on the torso per S E outside of just the arms and legs being gone and someone bleeding out, they couldn't visualize any other injuries that would actually kill her.
19:35 Because the head was not present, we're assuming that she had some sort of blunt force head injury, whether it be a gunshot wound or just blunt force trauma with an object, a sharp force injury from the neck and head being severed or him just choking her and then dismembering her body.
20:00 It's interesting that there weren't any injuries on the torso.
20:04 And then it's interesting that that was the only thing in the trash bags and that the head and the extremities were all missing.
20:13 There were no toxicological findings but poisoning with an unknown substance could not be excluded.
20:22 And the reason we say that is there are only specific medications that are tested for in routine toxicology tests, you can't possibly check for everything.
20:35 So unless they were to go to the home and in their investigation find something that they thought he may have poisoned her with, they don't know what to test for.
20:46 That's why many times toxicology doesn't show anything, something could be used that's not going to show up on the test according to the reports.
20:57 If she was poisoned with something, it did not show up on the standard toxicology test that they do again.
21:06 All the Children, all three of them, were found safe at school.
21:10 Thank God.
21:12 Now Mei reportedly wanted to divorce Haskell for nearly four years.
21:18 And as in many divorce cases, she put that off and was afraid to follow through with her wishes because she did not want Haskell to get custody of the Children, and she feared that he would persuade the court to give him custody.
21:38 I know that in many states, it's hard for the father to get custody from the mother.
21:44 But I've heard of some cases where it happens and it kind of surprises me, but she felt like he was going to somehow persuade the court to give him custody of those three kids.
21:59 And her fear of that just made her stay with him for four years.
22:04 I mean, could you imagine?
22:05 I mean, she was miserable.
22:07 She was just basically tolerating him, and you would think that it would be helpful to have her parents in the house kind of like a group, you know, to protect one another from him.
22:20 But it sounds like that wasn't enough.
22:22 Apparently in the home where they lived there was biological evidence from three different people.
22:32 Now, I don't know exactly the nature of that evidence.
22:35 I don't know if it was blood.
22:36 I mean, definitely Mei's parents' DNA is going to be there because they lived in the house as well.
22:42 I don't know what exactly was found and what they're calling biological evidence, but it almost sounds to me like they found blood that belonged to her parents.
22:55 Haskell was on video dumping these heavy black bags into the dumpster near his home.
23:03 And the reason Haskell was at this strip mall is because he apparently went to the strip mall and dumped another bag in that dumpster.
23:14 And the really sad thing about that is, you know, a lot of people that are put in dumpsters like this are taken to landfills.
23:22 They get buried quickly.
23:24 You know, the trash is emptied over and over into these places, and they get buried very quickly.
23:32 It makes it very hard to find a body, especially if it's dismembered and none of Mei's body parts or her torso would never have been recovered if this homeless man had not been digging through this dumpster.
23:50 Now, Paskell could face life in prison without the possibility of parole if he's convicted.
23:57 And then I later read that these day workers, he had hired to remove these bags of what he called rocks.
24:05 They knew that they weren't rocks.
24:08 They described the bags as soft and soggy and they weighed about 50 pounds, which could be right on track if her arms and legs and head were missing.
24:20 This was likely just a torso.
24:22 Now, I don't know if I'm the only one y'all, but this is so weird.
24:25 A lot of times when I see a bag of what looks like trash on the side of the road, I just want to stop and look at it.
24:31 I want to make sure that it's not a body.
24:34 I do this every day, but I don't know why I always think about that.
24:38 I'm just like, what is in there?
24:40 I mean, it'd be devastating if I found somebody, let's not lie or if I found an animal or something like that, it would be equally devastating.
24:48 But oh my God.
24:50 I mean, you know, you see something on the side of the road and you're like, what's in there.
24:53 It's almost like, I don't know, it's almost like finding a box that's taped up on the side of the road.
24:59 Like, you just want to know what's in it.
25:01 These guys, I'm sure got a little bit curious when they went to pick it up and it was heavy and soft and soggy and obviously wasn't rocks, which is when they're going to see the body parts that they saw in there.
25:16 I really would like to know what he did with his wife's parents though.
25:22 Curious what the biological evidence was.
25:24 I'm sure it was blood, but apparently, he's not talking and still waiting for this to go to trial.
25:33 I hope that he fesses up and at least tells the police where her parents' bodies are because that's horrifying to have someone missing for that long.
25:44 I mean, I don't know, it would be, of course their daughters deceased, but those poor grandkids, they lost so much, you know, they lost their mom and both of her parents at the same time.
25:55 That has to be devastating for them.
25:58 We're going to kind of keep an eye on this story and see what goes down.
26:02 This guy is cruel.
26:04 He probably just didn't want a divorce and for some reason thought that he would never get caught again.
26:10 The husband is always the first suspect, or the wife is always the first suspect can't believe that anybody would ever think that they could possibly get away with this.
26:21 I've never seen it happen where the wife ends up dead and the husband had nothing to do with it.
26:28 But, you know, there are maybe some cases out there.
26:31 This is definitely not one of them.
26:34 We're going to follow this.
26:36 We're going to keep looking out for his hearing and find out exactly what happens.
26:41 I've got some great interviews coming up.
26:44 I have a lot of friends who are police officers and fellow death investigators who would love to tell y'all their stories again.
26:52 Be sure and get on my YouTube channel Brains, Body Bags and Bedside Manner.
26:57 We'll probably have video of those interviews there.
27:00 And if you join my Patreon, there is a paid membership where you can view those videos.
27:08 Some of them will be only for paid members.
27:11 We got to give our paid members something special.
27:13 Be sure and look at my Patreon account.
27:17I believe it's under my name Julie Mattson or Pushing Up Lilies.
27:21 So get you some good extra stuff, get you some swag.
27:25 And we will also be at the day of the Dead Festival here in Denton.
27:29 It's coming up in October.
27:32 We are trying to build a coffin for the coffin races.
27:37 If anyone has ideas on how to do that, I would love your input.
27:42 I'm trying to find some local people who would be willing to help me.
27:46 But it has to be no more than 12 ft long.
27:49 And that has to include the push bar.
27:51 There can be nothing to propel it.
27:54 We can't have nitrous, we can't have gas, we can't have anything, but it has to have brakes because the race is downhill and there are hay bells at the end of the hill just in case, just in case the brakes don't work, my brakes better work.
28:11 I think I'm going to be the driver, and I think my husband's going to be the pusher and you're only allowed to have one person in the car.
28:20 And again, this takes place in October, and we'll also have a Pushing Up Lilies booth and we'll be selling crime scene chalk, crime scene rugs.
28:31 We'll have pushing up Lilies T shirts and all kinds of great things for y'all.
28:36 Again, this is in Denton.
28:37 I think they moved it over by the Civic Center because the location where it's normally at is under construction.
28:45 So welcome to Texas.
28:47 I hope y'all have an amazing week.
28:50 I am personally ready for a break.
28:52 School is killing me.
28:54 I took my first test on Saturday for my advanced pharmacology class.
28:58 I do not know yet what I made.
29:01 I have another assignment that's due on Thursday night.
29:04 That looks like it might be kind of fun.
29:06 And then I believe I have another, another desk on Saturday.
29:10 It's an 11-week class.
29:11 I can do this to all my fellow nurses who have been where I’m at now.
29:18 Praise to y'all.
29:20 And again, any nurses who have a question about a career in forensic nursing, please don't hesitate to reach out to me.
29:28 I know I'm asked almost every day how I got my job and what my training and background is and I would love to share that with you if I could get like a group of nurses who are interested, maybe I could put all of us in a little chat group and then keep y'all updated on the trainings that will help you find a job in this career field because it is truly amazing, satisfying and you know, us, nurses little blood and guts never really bother us.
29:58 Anyway, y'all have an amazing week.
30:00 I look forward to talking to y'all next week and be sure and log into the website and the Patreon and the YouTube channel.
30:06 Thanks y'all.
30:07 Bye.
30:09 Thank you so much for joining me today on Pushing Up Lilies.
30:12 If you like this podcast and would like to share with others, please do me a quick favor and leave a review on Apple podcast.
30:20 This helps to make the podcast more visible to the public.
30:23 Thanks again for spending your time with me and be sure to visit me at PushingUpLilies.com for merchandise and past episodes.