LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Authorities have arrested a person of interest on Wednesday, November 8, after a woman's dismembered torso was discovered in a dumpster in Los Angeles.
According to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), the body parts of the victim were found by a homeless person in a parking lot near Ventura Boulevard and Rubio Avenue Wednesday morning, November 8, NBC Los Angeles reports.
What did the authorities say?
“When the officers responded they discovered a dismembered female wrapped in a plastic bag. It was just outside the dumpster, they confirmed that it was human remains,” LAPD Detective Efren Gutierrez said in a press conference, according to the outlet.
Who is the victim?
Authorities said that the body was so dismembered that they found it difficult to identify the person, as per the outlet. However, KTLA reported that they were able to determine that the dismembered body was murdered in the past few days.
“If a murder suspect is dismembering a body, it’s to delay identification,” Guttierez told KTLA while also noting that detectives were still working on identifying the body.
How did the authorities identify the suspect?
Detectives reviewed surveillance footage from the parking lot, which led them to a suspect, Samuel Haskell, who lived about five miles away in a home in Tarzana, per KABC-TV.
Gutierrez said, per NBC Los Angeles, that investigators searched the home where Haskell lived with his wife, Mei, and their three children. There, they allegedly discovered "blood evidence and other items."
Samuel Haskell's neighbor makes a staggering claim
A neighbor had also reported the day prior, at around 7.30 pm, they had reportedly seen body parts in a bag outside the house. However, when the police arrived at the house, the bags were gone, KTLA reported.
Where is the Samuel Haskell now?
Haskell, 35, was arrested and taken into custody at a mall in Topanga on suspicion of murder, per the outlet. Gutierrez said they are still searching for his wife, along with her mother, YanXiang Wang, 64, and father, Gaoshan Li, 72, who are all missing. Wang and Li also lived at the home, according to KTLA and KABC-TV.
According to the reports from multiple outlets, the police picked up the couple’s three children from school on Wednesday, November 8, and placed them into custody of the county Department of Children and Family Services.
Haskell is being held at the Valley Jail in Van Nuys on $2 million bail, according to KTLA.
