Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Spoiled Hollywood Brat Suspect in 3 Murders After Female Torso Found in Dumpster

Transcript

Spoiled Hollywood Brat Suspect in 3 Murders After Female Torso Found in Dumpster · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

0:05
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Greece. Why are people in Hollywood
0:17
Speaker 1: with so much money and so many incredible blessings, Why
0:23
Speaker 1: are they all miserable? And why do we get the
0:28
Speaker 1: most gruesome crimes originating in one of the costiest zip
0:35
Speaker 1: codes in the country. Right now, we're trying to get
0:39
Speaker 1: to the bottom of three missing people and one woman's
0:45
Speaker 1: torso and a dumpster. I Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories.
0:50
Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us here at Crime Stories
0:52
Speaker 1: and on serious xem one eleven. Take a listen to this.
0:56
Speaker 2: Police say they got a call from one of Sam
0:58
Speaker 2: Haskell's neighbors who reported seeing suspicious bags outside the Tarzana
1:01
Speaker 2: home and the bags appear to have body parts in them.
1:05
Speaker 2: LAPD Detective E from Gutierrez, but I.
1:07
Speaker 3: Read call on the rima seventh at about five thirty
1:09
Speaker 3: pm involved the suspicious bag they possibly contained the human remains.
1:18
Speaker 3: When the officers responded, nothing was located.
1:20
Speaker 2: Even though nothing was located, an investigation was launched.
1:24
Speaker 1: This is what we know. The original call to police,
1:28
Speaker 1: we first thought was from neighbors, but now it appears
1:32
Speaker 1: to be from some construction workers in the area. What
1:38
Speaker 1: a twisted story. Listen the men.
1:41
Speaker 2: Try to report what they've seen to the police, but
1:43
Speaker 2: are turned away twice. The men went to the Highway
1:47
Speaker 2: of Patrol station first, but we're told they had to
1:49
Speaker 2: go to the Los Angeles Police Department. The LAPD Topanga
1:53
Speaker 2: station tells the men to go back outside and call
1:56
Speaker 2: nine one one from the courtyard.
1:58
Speaker 1: Oh okay, I've got an all star panel to make
2:01
Speaker 1: sense of what we know right now about three missing
2:05
Speaker 1: people and a woman's torso that has been found in
2:11
Speaker 1: a dumpster there in LA. But first two alexis Terrestrik
2:16
Speaker 1: joining me from this jurisdiction crime online dot Com investigative
2:20
Speaker 1: reporter Alexis thank you for being with us. So, I mean,
2:23
Speaker 1: bottom line, Alexis police and not one, but two locations
2:29
Speaker 1: send these citizens trying to report where they think is
2:33
Speaker 1: a bag of body parts on a wild goose chase,
2:36
Speaker 1: a scavenger hunt, so to speak.
2:38
Speaker 4: They do.
2:38
Speaker 5: They went, they had these trash bags. They thought, oh
2:41
Speaker 5: my gosh, this is not something normal. This is probably
2:44
Speaker 5: body parts.
2:45
Speaker 6: We think this is what it is.
2:46
Speaker 5: They go to a police station. The police say, well,
2:48
Speaker 5: where did you get these bags from? Oh, you got
2:49
Speaker 5: it from this house over there. You need to go
2:51
Speaker 5: to that jurisdiction, didn't look at the bags nothing at all,
2:54
Speaker 5: probably didn't even believe them. So they send it to
2:56
Speaker 5: the next place and they're like, yeah, you gotta call
2:58
Speaker 5: nine one one.
2:58
Speaker 1: You know, this is right out of a movie. Let
3:02
Speaker 1: me go to Chris mcdona joining me, director of the
3:04
Speaker 1: Cold Case Foundation, former homicide detective, host of a YouTube channel,
3:09
Speaker 1: the interview room where I found him. Chris mcdona, Uh,
3:14
Speaker 1: have you ever seen Home Alone? Okay? I know you
3:19
Speaker 1: know where I'm going where the mom calls. I believe
3:22
Speaker 1: this must have been Home Alone too, where she calls
3:25
Speaker 1: from Paris and she gets sent to one person, and
3:29
Speaker 1: then they knock on the wall and they send the
3:31
Speaker 1: phone to the next person, and back and forth and
3:34
Speaker 1: back and forth. She never gets the right police officer,
3:40
Speaker 1: and finally starts calling neighbors. I know that is a funny,
3:47
Speaker 1: a comical example of what we're talking about, but really,
3:51
Speaker 1: these people are trying to report a bag of human
3:57
Speaker 1: body parts and they get on a wild goose chase.
4:01
Speaker 1: I tell you what, if I were the police chief,
4:04
Speaker 1: which of course I'm not, I would totally clean a
4:07
Speaker 1: house over who chose not to take a report on
4:12
Speaker 1: a bag of body parts, Chris McDonough.
4:14
Speaker 7: And I can bet you manswer your half percent right.
4:16
Speaker 7: This is right out of a Hollywood horror movie. And
4:19
Speaker 7: that police chief Moore, Michael Moore, who's a LAPD chief.
4:24
Speaker 7: Now he's going to be questioning a lot of folks.
4:28
Speaker 1: Well, I hope he does more than question them. I mean,
4:31
Speaker 1: you get a call about body parts, you better go
4:34
Speaker 1: like grease lightning to investigate. And that delay cost the
4:39
Speaker 1: case a lot of time and possibly a lot of evidence.
4:43
Speaker 2: Let's move forward, listen, LAPD detective from Goudiera says. Early
4:47
Speaker 2: the next morning, police received another call about human remains.
4:51
Speaker 3: The caller was a homeless man that was digging through
4:54
Speaker 3: the dumpster to look for recyclables and discovered what he
4:57
Speaker 3: believed to be a human remains.
5:00
Speaker 2: All that was recovered was the Torso fine, there were
5:03
Speaker 2: clues in the bag just.
5:04
Speaker 3: From a visual inst mention. The stage of the decomposition
5:08
Speaker 3: were relatively early, so no more than a day or two.
5:11
Speaker 1: Okay. I'm glad that an untrained cop can look in
5:17
Speaker 1: and tell me the level of decomposition. But actually he
5:20
Speaker 1: may be right, you know. Let me go to choice
5:22
Speaker 1: Layton High Profile Criminal Defense attorney joining us out of
5:25
Speaker 1: this jurisdiction LA. You know, if there were anywhere else,
5:30
Speaker 1: I would just assume they were the same body parts,
5:33
Speaker 1: But in LA they could be entirely a different set
5:38
Speaker 1: of body parts. But logically speaking, Troice Layton, do you
5:43
Speaker 1: think they could then add two plus two equals these
5:48
Speaker 1: are the same set of body parts as we got
5:50
Speaker 1: reported yesterday.
5:52
Speaker 8: Well the corner and medical examiner, which are the same
5:55
Speaker 8: here in Los Angeles, They're going to start having to
6:00
Speaker 8: heast these things back together. So the body parts that
6:03
Speaker 8: were recovered by these construction workers and whatever was found
6:06
Speaker 8: by this homeless person, it's not going to take very
6:10
Speaker 8: long for them to decide if that's the same body part.
6:13
Speaker 8: And the Robbery Homicide Division of LAPD, which is the
6:16
Speaker 8: most elite squad in the LAPD, is going to be
6:21
Speaker 8: investigating and try and put two and two together.
6:25
Speaker 1: Doctor Michelle Duprey joining me. Forensic pathologists, medical examiner, former detective,
6:30
Speaker 1: author of Money, Mischief and Murder, The Murdoch Saga the
6:35
Speaker 1: rest of the story on Amazon, and she literally wrote
6:39
Speaker 1: the book The Homicide Investigation Field Guide. Doctor Duprix. We're
6:43
Speaker 1: all talking about bags of body parts, but to this
6:48
Speaker 1: victim or victim's family, the discussion of body parts, that
6:56
Speaker 1: is their loved one, that is their daughter, their sister,
7:00
Speaker 1: or their mom, their dad, their grandpa. That we're talking
7:05
Speaker 1: about body parts, body parts.
7:09
Speaker 6: You're absolutely right, Nancy, these are somebody's family. They are
7:14
Speaker 6: you know, I'm obviously very upset about this, and it's
7:18
Speaker 6: a tragic thing to find.
7:20
Speaker 1: No, it's not just the shock ultimately learning that you
7:25
Speaker 1: have lost someone you love, possibly that you love more
7:28
Speaker 1: than anything else in the world, but then finding out
7:31
Speaker 1: that they are a crime victim, a murder victim, and
7:35
Speaker 1: then to find out that they have been dismembered, that
7:39
Speaker 1: their dead body has been defiled in such a horrible,
7:44
Speaker 1: horrible way. To doctor Gary Pricato, clinical psychologist, author of
7:49
Speaker 1: The New Evil, Understanding the Emergence of Modern Violent Crime.
7:54
Speaker 1: Now that is a read, Doctor Pracato. That's a lot
8:00
Speaker 1: for one person to take in. I mean, I remember
8:03
Speaker 1: when my fiance was murdered. At first I just assumed
8:07
Speaker 1: that there had been a car crash, and then I
8:09
Speaker 1: found out he was murdered, and frankly, I don't remember
8:13
Speaker 1: a whole lot after that. But to then learn that
8:17
Speaker 1: someone dismembered the person you love more than anything else
8:24
Speaker 1: in the world. I don't know. How do you make
8:26
Speaker 1: a comeback after that?
8:27
Speaker 9: Extremely difficult because a person would have to make some
8:30
Speaker 9: kind of meaning out of what it is that happened
8:34
Speaker 9: in their life, some kind of existential or spiritual meaning,
8:38
Speaker 9: and to try to go out in the world and
8:40
Speaker 9: battle that kind of darkness so that other people don't
8:43
Speaker 9: have to experience it. And people that I've worked with
8:46
Speaker 9: who have been victims of violent crime, it seems to
8:48
Speaker 9: be the only way that they're able to make any
8:52
Speaker 9: sense of purpose out of it. But of course my
8:57
Speaker 9: heart goes out to the family of this poor woman.
9:00
Speaker 1: Guys, what is happening? One set of remains found or
9:04
Speaker 1: spotted outside of home. Police finally get there after sending
9:11
Speaker 1: the civilian informant on a wild goose chase. When they
9:15
Speaker 1: get there, no more remains. It's gone. They don't execute
9:19
Speaker 1: a search warrant. They do nothing climbing. They don't have
9:22
Speaker 1: enough evidence to execute a search warrant in the home.
9:27
Speaker 1: The next day it's reported that there is a female
9:31
Speaker 1: torso found in a dumpster. Let's pick it up right there.
9:35
Speaker 1: Take a listen to our friends at crime Online.
9:37
Speaker 2: The LAPD says that when they processed the scene where
9:40
Speaker 2: the torso in the bank were found in a dumpster,
9:42
Speaker 2: the investigation provided detectives with information that led them to
9:46
Speaker 2: the residence of Samuel Haskell. Police are still not saying
9:50
Speaker 2: what they found that led the investigators to the Haskell residents.
9:53
Speaker 2: Detective Ephram Gutierrez told ABC seven that officers made entry
9:57
Speaker 2: at the house and discovered evidence of a crime, including
10:00
Speaker 2: some blood evidence and other items that they are not
10:02
Speaker 2: releasing to the public. The children have been located and
10:06
Speaker 2: are being cared for by family members. However, Haskell's wife
10:09
Speaker 2: and in laws have not been located.
10:12
Speaker 1: Wow so processing the torso, something about that bag in
10:19
Speaker 1: which the torso was placed, apparently in a plastic bag
10:23
Speaker 1: inside a black Duffel bag, led them to the home
10:28
Speaker 1: of Sam Haskell the Fourth who is that listen.
10:35
Speaker 2: Sam Haskell the Fourth is the son of Sam Haskell
10:38
Speaker 2: the Third, an Emmy Award winning producer who was a
10:40
Speaker 2: high profile agent with Hollywood's William Morris Talent agency, where
10:44
Speaker 2: he represented a list stars like George Clooney, Would be Goldberg,
10:47
Speaker 2: Dolly Pardon, and many others. Haskell the Fourth list himself
10:51
Speaker 2: as a director and posted several clips online of low
10:54
Speaker 2: budget videos he wrote in films. Former Real Housewives of
10:57
Speaker 2: Beverly hillstar Brandy Glanville appears in one of the clips
11:00
Speaker 2: for a movie which appears to be a high school
11:03
Speaker 2: teen drama. Sam Haskell the Fourth lives in a six
11:06
Speaker 2: bedroom home in Tarzana with his wife may Lee Haskell,
11:09
Speaker 2: their three young sons, and Maylee's parents, Gaishun Lee seventy
11:14
Speaker 2: two and sixty four year old Yang Zhai Wang.
11:31
Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace back to Alexis Tereshchuk joining
11:36
Speaker 1: us crime Aline dot com investigative reporter so. Sam Haskell
11:40
Speaker 1: the Fourth is a son of a high powered talent
11:45
Speaker 1: agent who was known as a quote good guy of Hollywood.
11:51
Speaker 1: The Dad Haskell three was the CEO. I believe the
11:59
Speaker 1: Miss America pageant for many, many years. Has I think
12:05
Speaker 1: still working with Dolly Parton in her Magnolia productions. I
12:11
Speaker 1: mean the dad is renowned. In fact, I think he
12:15
Speaker 1: was the world wide head of TV work for William Morris.
12:26
Speaker 1: Do I have that right? Haskell three the father?
12:29
Speaker 5: He it was, but he wasn't the head of the pageants.
12:33
Speaker 1: He was.
12:34
Speaker 5: He separated from the pageant organization about a year ago.
12:37
Speaker 1: Over just be regarding some emails, but correct. Then that
12:40
Speaker 1: leads me to the son Haskell four. Now, from what
12:45
Speaker 1: I understand, this guy Haskell four has directed a few things,
12:51
Speaker 1: including working with Tiger and Machine Gun Kelly, but he
12:57
Speaker 1: never reached the level of his father's thing. Is that right?
13:01
Speaker 6: Correct?
13:01
Speaker 5: Not in any way, shape or form. And he mostly
13:04
Speaker 5: put things on social media where he would do videos,
13:07
Speaker 5: you know, on TikTok.
13:08
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, I'm so glad you said that. Let's
13:13
Speaker 1: take a listen to Sam Haskell four, the fourth on
13:17
Speaker 1: social media his TikTok This is our cut fourteenth.
13:21
Speaker 10: Like my resume says unhappy, bitter, resentful. Now I'm consistently
13:29
Speaker 10: never going to stop drinking. Shouts out to the waiter
13:32
Speaker 10: at the restaurant above, nor drums for just like completely
13:35
Speaker 10: burning out of my filet, Like what kind of a
13:39
Speaker 10: monster are you?
13:40
Speaker 5: Homie?
13:40
Speaker 1: What what Sydney? Can I hear that again?
13:44
Speaker 10: Like my resume says unhappy, bitter, resentful. Now, I'm consistently
13:52
Speaker 10: never going to stop drinking.
13:54
Speaker 1: Shout out to the.
13:54
Speaker 10: Waiter at the restaurant above, nor drums for just like
13:57
Speaker 10: completely burning of my filet. Like, what kind of a
14:02
Speaker 10: monster are you?
14:03
Speaker 11: Homie?
14:03
Speaker 1: Okay, this guy, Sam Haskell the fourth is living in
14:10
Speaker 1: a nearly three million dollars home in Tarzana, which is
14:18
Speaker 1: a really beautiful area around LA. He's got an enclosed
14:23
Speaker 1: backyard I've seen it myself, with a gorgeous pool, a
14:28
Speaker 1: play area for his children, the works. It's a sixth
14:34
Speaker 1: bedroom home, and he is whining that he's unhappy, bitter
14:38
Speaker 1: and resentful, he's never going to stop drinking. Thanks for sharing,
14:43
Speaker 1: and complaining that the waiter at the restaurant on top
14:48
Speaker 1: of North Stroms. I guess it's at the Tapanga Mall.
14:50
Speaker 1: I'm not sure. North Troms, which is a really expensive
14:54
Speaker 1: department store, burned his filet mignon. Okay, Alexis, tell me
15:02
Speaker 1: about this area, because I've seen it and it's really beautiful.
15:07
Speaker 4: It is.
15:07
Speaker 5: It's Tarzana is part of Los Angeles County. It's a
15:12
Speaker 5: little bit away from downtown. It's in the valley. But
15:15
Speaker 5: so it's beautiful, lush, green homes, very spaced out, not
15:19
Speaker 5: right on top of each other at all, you know,
15:22
Speaker 5: tree lined streets, really good schools around there, nice areas
15:26
Speaker 5: for your kids to play, nice you know, restaurants and
15:29
Speaker 5: malls where you could take your kids, parks, you know
15:32
Speaker 5: the dumpster. Everything is right near a park. Just a
15:35
Speaker 5: lovely area that for somebody who doesn't seem to work,
15:40
Speaker 5: you would think probably maybe his parents bought this very
15:43
Speaker 5: expensive home for him and they just moved there in
15:47
Speaker 5: December of twenty twenty, So in the middle of the
15:49
Speaker 5: pandemic they moved.
15:50
Speaker 1: And joining me right now is a special guest. It
15:53
Speaker 1: is l been of me. Thank you for being with us.
15:57
Speaker 1: We're all trying to figure out what exacts actte is happening.
16:02
Speaker 1: You are a friend and neighbor of May and Sam
16:07
Speaker 1: Haskell the fourth. What can you tell us about them?
16:10
Speaker 6: So they moved to.
16:12
Speaker 4: The neighborhood, like you said, in December twenty twenty January
16:15
Speaker 4: twenty twenty one, during the pandemic, and from the beginning
16:21
Speaker 4: I did think that they were. It struck me that
16:23
Speaker 4: they were very different Sam and May. He was She's
16:29
Speaker 4: extremely outgoing. Right when she moved in here, she came
16:33
Speaker 4: around and she introduced herself and she wanted to make
16:37
Speaker 4: plans with us and the kids. And he was not
16:45
Speaker 4: like that. He would you know, say hello if I
16:49
Speaker 4: saw him on the street, maybe kind of like nod
16:51
Speaker 4: his head. He would smile, So he was outwardly friendly.
16:55
Speaker 4: But in the I guess three years that he lived
16:58
Speaker 4: next to us, I never actually had a conversation with him,
17:02
Speaker 4: But with Mate, it was very different. I had many,
17:05
Speaker 4: many long conversations with her, took many long walks, and
17:12
Speaker 4: I can't say the same for him.
17:13
Speaker 1: Question, you spent time with May, and I know that
17:18
Speaker 1: May lived in the home with her parents, ages seventy
17:22
Speaker 1: two and sixty four. What was she like?
17:26
Speaker 4: I was just a very very sweet person. I very generous,
17:31
Speaker 4: very sweet, very caring, would kind of get excited about
17:36
Speaker 4: small things, kind of a bit in like a I guess,
17:40
Speaker 4: a childlike way, which was very endearing. She loved to
17:47
Speaker 4: be around people. She threw many parties. She was very dedicated,
17:50
Speaker 4: dedicated to her three boys and always threw them really
17:57
Speaker 4: amazing birthday parties, really went all out. She you know,
18:00
Speaker 4: three parties for Chinese New Year, and she always loved
18:08
Speaker 4: to make plans, make sure, you know, her boys have
18:11
Speaker 4: a lot of things planned out, and also took them
18:16
Speaker 4: to many extracurricular activities after school, from music to sports
18:23
Speaker 4: to you know, advanced maths, and so on.
18:27
Speaker 1: Okay, that is a mom that cares. I mean, I've
18:32
Speaker 1: been there, and I know the ages of her children
18:34
Speaker 1: are three boys, You're constantly in the road taking one
18:39
Speaker 1: to music or this one to gymnastics, or this one
18:42
Speaker 1: to soccer or whatever it is that they latch onto
18:46
Speaker 1: that they like. And I mean I'm that way with two.
18:49
Speaker 1: I can only imagine what it's like with three. What
18:52
Speaker 1: was her relationship with Haskell?
18:54
Speaker 4: For so, I will say that she never really discussed
18:57
Speaker 4: a relationship with him with me, but just from observing them,
19:03
Speaker 4: I would say that they weren't close. They didn't have
19:06
Speaker 4: anywhere near a close, you know, a close relationship. I
19:10
Speaker 4: would definitely not call it that. Never seen them be
19:12
Speaker 4: affectionate with each other. They never went on date nights.
19:17
Speaker 4: She never mentioned them going on a date. I never
19:19
Speaker 4: observed them going out anywhere together. They didn't go on
19:24
Speaker 4: vacations together. So she would go on vacation with her
19:27
Speaker 4: children and her parents, and he typically went on solo
19:31
Speaker 4: trips I think, typically to Japan. According to May, some
19:35
Speaker 4: of them were work related for filming. They both, for example,
19:41
Speaker 4: like to take walks in the neighborhood. I never saw
19:44
Speaker 4: them take a walk together.
19:45
Speaker 1: You know that's that's really interesting. Elle, And guys, you're
19:50
Speaker 1: hearing a friend and neighbor of May and Sam Haskell
19:55
Speaker 1: the fourth Troy Slayton. I'm just trying to imagine this
20:00
Speaker 1: where you go. I mean, maybe it's because of schedule,
20:04
Speaker 1: but I try really hard to make it so my
20:09
Speaker 1: husband and I can go on walks together or jog together.
20:13
Speaker 1: If I can't get him, I try to get one
20:15
Speaker 1: of the twins, just because that's forty minutes to an
20:19
Speaker 1: hour that you can not just walk, but you can
20:23
Speaker 1: talk to each other.
20:25
Speaker 8: Nancy, that's something very important. I love to take walks
20:28
Speaker 8: with my spouse here in beautiful Los Angeles. But he
20:33
Speaker 8: lived with his in laws too. And I'm not making
20:39
Speaker 8: any kind of excuse, but people sometimes in that situation
20:45
Speaker 8: feel trapped. They feel that there are no boundaries and
20:49
Speaker 8: starting to think about what some of the defenses might
20:52
Speaker 8: be psychologically for him.
20:55
Speaker 1: And they lived with his ant laws. Are you kidding me?
20:58
Speaker 1: I've got my ninety two year old mother with ay, okay,
21:01
Speaker 1: and you know who's the very sweetest to her. My husband.
21:05
Speaker 1: He feels trapped. He hasn't said, so.
21:07
Speaker 8: That's nice, but a lot of people suffer tremendous psychological
21:12
Speaker 8: stress from living with their in laws.
21:16
Speaker 1: Okay, well, I can't wait to see how that goes over.
21:19
Speaker 1: Was that you l about to say something?
21:21
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was going to say that May's parents they
21:25
Speaker 4: were I mean, of course, I don't know what went
21:28
Speaker 4: on inside their home, but from what I could see,
21:30
Speaker 4: they seem to be extremely helpful. Anytime I observed them
21:36
Speaker 4: with the children, they always both of them were actively,
21:41
Speaker 4: you know, chasing after them, helping. Her mom cooked a lot,
21:48
Speaker 4: I think, pretty much daily for them and for the
21:51
Speaker 4: kids when May for birthday parties. It was not Sam
21:55
Speaker 4: that helped in any way. Was her parents. Even though
21:59
Speaker 4: they didn't English, they were constantly actively helping. And you know,
22:07
Speaker 4: and her mom had suffered a stroke prior to COVID,
22:10
Speaker 4: and so she did use or she does use a
22:14
Speaker 4: chance to walk. That didn't stop her from being always
22:18
Speaker 4: on her feet and.
22:19
Speaker 1: Helping, you know, just thinking about the dynamic you're telling us.
22:22
Speaker 1: But I want to circle back very quickly to something
22:24
Speaker 1: Alexis Toreschuk was reporting earlier. I want to go back
22:29
Speaker 1: to these day laborers. They constructure workers take us to
22:35
Speaker 1: hour cut to from Dave.
22:36
Speaker 2: Mac twenty five miles west of downtown Los Angeles, in
22:40
Speaker 2: an area once owned by famed author Edgar Rice Burrows
22:43
Speaker 2: and named for his famous character Tarzan. Tarzana is in
22:47
Speaker 2: the San Fernando Valley and has become a popular place
22:50
Speaker 2: for celebrities and those in the entertainment world to go home.
22:54
Speaker 2: It's also where Sam Haskell paid a group of day
22:56
Speaker 2: laborers five hundred dollars to halloway three large trash bags
23:00
Speaker 2: that were in his garage. Speaking to NBC for Los Angeles,
23:03
Speaker 2: the workers said Haskell told them the bags were full
23:06
Speaker 2: of rocks, but the workers said when they picked up
23:08
Speaker 2: the bags they felt like there was meat inside. Realizing
23:12
Speaker 2: what they were carrying wasn't rocks, the workers pulled over
23:15
Speaker 2: about a block from Haskell's house to look inside the bag.
23:19
Speaker 2: Opening the bags, the men knew they'd been tricked.
23:22
Speaker 1: And more listen.
23:23
Speaker 2: The men described the bags to NBC four as soft
23:26
Speaker 2: and soggy and each weighing about fifty pounds. A block
23:29
Speaker 2: away from Haskell's house, the workers opened up the bags
23:32
Speaker 2: and said they started seeing body parts, specifically a belly button.
23:37
Speaker 2: The men said they felt bad they'd been tricked, so
23:40
Speaker 2: they drove back to Haskell's house and left the bags
23:42
Speaker 2: in the driveway and gave Haskell his five hundred dollars back.
23:45
Speaker 2: Haskell played it off, telling the workers what they actually
23:48
Speaker 2: saw were Halloween props. Not believing Haskell, the men drove
23:52
Speaker 2: immediately to the police.
23:53
Speaker 1: Okay, Alexistereschak crime online dot Com investigative reporter joining us
23:58
Speaker 1: from LA what.
24:00
Speaker 5: So he hired this some men day laborers that you
24:03
Speaker 5: go to maybe home depot or somewhere like that. You say, hey, guys,
24:06
Speaker 5: I've got some heavy things in my house. These men
24:07
Speaker 5: are usually big, strong men, and they have trucks. They
24:10
Speaker 5: come to your house. So that's what they did. They
24:12
Speaker 5: took the bags and he said, oh, they're rocks. Well,
24:15
Speaker 5: rocks are really heavy and they don't move, but you
24:18
Speaker 5: can't squish them. But these bags were heavy and squishy,
24:21
Speaker 5: and the guys their description was it felt like meat.
24:25
Speaker 5: So they were, you know, like a huge hunk of meat,
24:28
Speaker 5: squishy but still a little solid. They looked in the bags,
24:32
Speaker 5: they saw what it was, and what they specifically described
24:35
Speaker 5: was they saw a belly button like the torso from
24:38
Speaker 5: you know, above your waist, below your chest, you're below
24:41
Speaker 5: your nets and that was horrific. So they took the
24:46
Speaker 5: bags back. The guy gave them their money. They gave
24:49
Speaker 5: them money back, and then they went to the police.
24:52
Speaker 5: They go to the first police station they can find.
24:54
Speaker 5: The police said, well, that's not actually our jurisdiction. One E,
24:57
Speaker 5: goo to this other police station or call nine one one.
25:00
Speaker 5: These guys come in with sure, it's a little bit
25:03
Speaker 5: of a wild story, but you should investigate this. This
25:05
Speaker 5: is really they're not telling you anything that is out
25:08
Speaker 5: of the Norman Los Angeles.
25:10
Speaker 1: Everything you're saying, I believe it's correct. But what's jumping
25:13
Speaker 1: out of me is changing his story. First, the bag
25:17
Speaker 1: is full of rocks. Yeah, Then he says, oh, those
25:20
Speaker 1: are just Halloween props. Even though it looks like human
25:23
Speaker 1: body parts, that's so human body and yeah. Then the
25:27
Speaker 1: next thing we know, a bag of human body parts
25:31
Speaker 1: turns up in a dumpster. But let me take it back.
25:35
Speaker 1: Joining me is a neighbor of May and Sam Haskell. Fourth, May,
25:42
Speaker 1: the mother of three little boys by Haskell ll question,
25:48
Speaker 1: what if anything did you hear the previous night?
25:53
Speaker 4: So I was not home the previous night, but yes,
25:57
Speaker 4: my daughter she actually texted to us that night, she
26:02
Speaker 4: heard what she thought was the youngest boy from their
26:06
Speaker 4: house or perhaps from the yard, shout hello, Hello, help,
26:11
Speaker 4: and then she heard a car door slam and loud screeching.
26:16
Speaker 4: I guess of the car drove off?
26:18
Speaker 1: Okay, hold on, did you saw that? Down? And tell
26:20
Speaker 1: me one more time?
26:22
Speaker 4: Okay, So my daughter texted us at around nine pm
26:26
Speaker 4: on Tuesday, the night before the torso was found, that
26:30
Speaker 4: she heard what she believed to be the high school's
26:34
Speaker 4: youngest boy coming to basically maybe from the house or
26:40
Speaker 4: from the yard, call out hello, hello, and then help.
26:47
Speaker 4: And then she heard a car door slam really hard
26:50
Speaker 4: and screeching sound, a loud screeching.
26:53
Speaker 1: As it drove off and joining me. Now is doctor Trace,
26:56
Speaker 1: sergeant search rescue, recovery expert at PhD In psychology, I
27:02
Speaker 1: focus on victimology, star of a podcast, The Seekers Quest.
27:08
Speaker 1: Doctor Sargent, thank you for being with us. You look
27:13
Speaker 1: specifically at predatory behavior. What do you make of someone
27:22
Speaker 1: that I only commits some murder but then dismembers the body?
27:26
Speaker 6: Well, Nancy, we look at several things, but I'd like
27:28
Speaker 6: to go back to Sam Hassel's The fourth comments and
27:34
Speaker 6: social media that in itself tells us a lot when
27:38
Speaker 6: we're looking at it from a criminal profile perspective, behavioral analysis,
27:42
Speaker 6: psychological analysis, and what is glaring to me is that
27:47
Speaker 6: he perceives himself as the victim. And I would not
27:53
Speaker 6: be surprised when this case and this story moves forward
27:58
Speaker 6: that he presents himself as the victim and maybe even
28:03
Speaker 6: go with far as blaming the circumstances that led to
28:07
Speaker 6: the death of his wife and probably his in laws
28:10
Speaker 6: that it was somehow their fault, not his fault. He
28:14
Speaker 6: will not take accountability or responsibility for his action.
28:18
Speaker 1: Do you agree with that, doctor Bracato.
28:20
Speaker 9: Well, I have a few things to say about this case,
28:23
Speaker 9: and I think in some ways I'm sort of uniquely
28:26
Speaker 9: suited to look at it because it touches on two
28:30
Speaker 9: areas that have been major ones for me in my research.
28:35
Speaker 9: First of all, dismemberment and mutilation need to be distinguished.
28:41
Speaker 9: I worked with doctor Ann Burgess, doctor Victor Patrica, Michael Stone,
28:46
Speaker 9: doctor Michael Stone, and we came up with definitions to
28:50
Speaker 9: distinguish those offenses. It's important for people to understand the dismemberment,
28:55
Speaker 9: according to our work, really means the destruction in a
29:00
Speaker 9: removal of a large part of the body, the torso,
29:02
Speaker 9: the arms, hand, helvis, legs, or feet, and any destruction
29:09
Speaker 9: or elimination of a smaller part thereof of any you know,
29:12
Speaker 9: it would be mutilation. And the reason it's important is
29:15
Speaker 9: there are differences in the psychology and motives of people
29:18
Speaker 9: according to which of those things they're doing. What it
29:22
Speaker 9: sounds like here. We don't know how much butchery there was,
29:25
Speaker 9: but this sounds like dismemberment offense. And with dismemberment, we
29:29
Speaker 9: found in our research that the vast majority offenders are
29:32
Speaker 9: doing that to get rid of body parts because of
29:36
Speaker 9: concern about capture. The outside you know, looking in makes
29:41
Speaker 9: it seem like it's some kind of bizarre, psychotic, crazy
29:44
Speaker 9: thing to do, but the reality is it's a pretty
29:47
Speaker 9: organized thing to do that's done by a person that's
29:50
Speaker 9: trying to clean up after they've eliminated people. Now, the
29:53
Speaker 9: other thing that I can kind of put some in
29:55
Speaker 9: a unique position here is I know that, you know,
29:58
Speaker 9: there's been a charge that this man has killed not
30:02
Speaker 9: only this woman but her parents, which would place him
30:06
Speaker 9: in the category of mass murder. When I was at
30:09
Speaker 9: Columbia Medical Center, I led the largest study ever done
30:12
Speaker 9: of mass murder. And what I can tell you is
30:15
Speaker 9: is that in order to know the motives of a
30:18
Speaker 9: person who commits mass murder, we have to know what
30:20
Speaker 9: was used to kill. If a gun is used, there's
30:24
Speaker 9: a very low likelihood that the person was seriously disturbed
30:27
Speaker 9: or mentally ill. If something else was used, like a knife,
30:31
Speaker 9: then we start thinking that this was an individual who
30:34
Speaker 9: was unwell in some way the statistics, it becomes much
30:39
Speaker 9: more probable that the person was disturbed.
30:41
Speaker 1: If they use a knife. Is that what you said?
30:44
Speaker 9: Yes, the use of a knife would be more of
30:46
Speaker 9: a giveaway that you're dealing with somebody that would be
30:48
Speaker 9: authentically odd interpersonally a little more kind of unwell. Right?
30:54
Speaker 1: Are you saying insane? Not insane, just odd? Odd?
30:59
Speaker 9: For example, the end of visual might be paranoid or
31:01
Speaker 9: a little bit aggressive.
31:02
Speaker 1: Are you talking about someone that kills and as members
31:05
Speaker 1: with a knife.
31:06
Speaker 9: Talking about someone who commits mass murder using a knife, Well.
31:09
Speaker 1: What doesn't it good without saying that they're odd?
31:12
Speaker 2: Well?
31:12
Speaker 1: Odd?
31:13
Speaker 9: And when I say odd, I don't mean odd because
31:15
Speaker 9: you've committed murder or anything like that. I mean odd
31:18
Speaker 9: that even at baseline, the person would say, peculiar things
31:22
Speaker 9: would be a little bit kind of odd to the
31:24
Speaker 9: average individual. Hot headed, a little paranoid, a little peculiar,
31:29
Speaker 9: And that matches what we're hearing and that weird recording
31:32
Speaker 9: from TikTok and some of these stories about the detachment
31:36
Speaker 9: and the coldness between the members of the family. Now,
31:41
Speaker 9: what's interesting about this is when we see these kinds
31:43
Speaker 9: of cases where you know, there's been this explosive potential
31:47
Speaker 9: killing of a family and then there's dismemberment, there's usually
31:52
Speaker 9: one of two reasons it happens. One is elimination murder,
31:56
Speaker 9: as I term it, which is where the idea is
31:58
Speaker 9: to simply get rid of them because they are an
32:00
Speaker 9: impediment to something like, for example, I want to have
32:04
Speaker 9: a new romance, or I am trying to get my
32:06
Speaker 9: hands on some money. The other that you see is
32:10
Speaker 9: some kind of domestic matter that causes an emotional disruption
32:14
Speaker 9: and somebody in an absolute rage kills someone and then
32:18
Speaker 9: has to kill everyone who has witnessed it in the family.
32:22
Speaker 9: So that what I would suppose, if it turns out
32:24
Speaker 9: that this is indeed a mass murder followed by dismemberment,
32:29
Speaker 9: was that there was some kind of hot headed, angry,
32:32
Speaker 9: odd person who became enraged or had a motive to
32:37
Speaker 9: get rid of these people did so and then attempted
32:40
Speaker 9: in a clumsy, weird way to hide it. And the
32:44
Speaker 9: reason it's so odd and the stories are ridiculous is
32:47
Speaker 9: often that the person is odd and lacks that kind
32:50
Speaker 9: of interpersonal empathy to kind of pick up that people
32:53
Speaker 9: would think these stories were weird.
32:55
Speaker 1: Let's go back to the Haskell's neighbor l benemy Elle question.
33:02
Speaker 1: I know you spent a good bit of time with may.
33:07
Speaker 1: Do you have any knowledge of Haskell having a fixation
33:10
Speaker 1: for on martial arts and kept samurai swords and crossbows
33:16
Speaker 1: in them?
33:16
Speaker 4: Yeah, so I did. I did notice that about him.
33:22
Speaker 4: I know that she mentioned that he would direct or
33:26
Speaker 4: produce martial arts related movies or videos, or that he
33:32
Speaker 4: would go on martial arts trips to Japan. I believe,
33:36
Speaker 4: and I don't know why I remember this, but I
33:38
Speaker 4: seem to recall that he may have a black belt
33:41
Speaker 4: or a couple of blood belts in different martial arts,
33:44
Speaker 4: and and then I did know about their having various
33:50
Speaker 4: weapons in the house, such as stores and samurai swords.
33:54
Speaker 4: I believe acrossbow firearms, so that that's definitely something that
33:59
Speaker 4: they very top of mind for me as a mom
34:02
Speaker 4: of four living next door.
34:04
Speaker 1: Did her May's children tell your children about all the
34:09
Speaker 1: weapons to the point you did not want your children
34:13
Speaker 1: alone at their home upstairs?
34:15
Speaker 4: Yes, so they did mention that to my kids, several
34:20
Speaker 4: points about let's say a Semurai sword or pointing up
34:26
Speaker 4: to where supposedly a specific firearm was kept. So that
34:32
Speaker 4: made me very nervous about them going upstairs to one
34:36
Speaker 4: of the bedrooms. I did, of course, I trust me,
34:40
Speaker 4: and I did really like her three boys, so I
34:44
Speaker 4: was happy for them to play with my kids. I
34:46
Speaker 4: just didn't want there to be any accidents, because you know,
34:49
Speaker 4: you're sometimes hear about that on the news, so I
34:51
Speaker 4: wanted them to be somewhere where I didn't think, you know,
34:56
Speaker 4: a weapon might be pulled out to play with as
34:59
Speaker 4: a tool or whatever.
35:15
Speaker 1: Time stories with Nancy Grace, we are hearing various reports
35:20
Speaker 1: that Sam Haskell, the fourth age thirty five, was obsessed
35:25
Speaker 1: with weapons and directed videos very disturbing videos with men
35:33
Speaker 1: fighting with swords and samuraiz, posting them under the name
35:38
Speaker 1: the Instagram name Tragic Streets, with a Z on the end,
35:43
Speaker 1: and this is the guy complaining about the Norse troms
35:47
Speaker 1: upstairs restaurant scorching his filet, his filet mignon. Okay, in
35:54
Speaker 1: the last hours, Alexis Tereschuk, we now know the case
35:59
Speaker 1: has per rest. What's happening now?
36:01
Speaker 5: So he has been charged with murder for the three people,
36:05
Speaker 5: even though we don't have bodies for all three. The
36:10
Speaker 5: district attorney has charged him with murder and he has
36:13
Speaker 5: appeared in court. He was arrested last week, but because
36:18
Speaker 5: it was a Veterans Day weekend and a federal holiday,
36:21
Speaker 5: he did not appear in court until Monday. He has
36:23
Speaker 5: appeared in court. There is no bond, he cannot bond out.
36:26
Speaker 5: There's no amount of money that he can pay to
36:28
Speaker 5: get out of jail.
36:29
Speaker 1: Right now.
36:30
Speaker 5: He has not entered a plea. The arraignment has scheduled
36:34
Speaker 5: for December eighth, so he will be in jail with
36:36
Speaker 5: no way to get out between now and then.
36:38
Speaker 1: And I assume the search is still ongoing. In the
36:42
Speaker 1: outside chance her apparents may still be alive. But don't LAPD.
36:47
Speaker 1: Don't they believe that Torso is In fact?
36:50
Speaker 5: May they do believe it? Is her. There are also
36:52
Speaker 5: two other cars missing that were registered to the parents,
36:55
Speaker 5: which I think could be, you know, a distraction tactic.
37:01
Speaker 5: You know, they dump the car somewhere else and think, oh,
37:03
Speaker 5: the parents just left on their own, but it doesn't
37:05
Speaker 5: seem like that, but they do believe the torso belongs
37:07
Speaker 5: to her.
37:08
Speaker 1: Well, you know, I'm gonna circle bout to Troy Slayton
37:11
Speaker 1: on the fact that if Sam Haskell four has hidden
37:15
Speaker 1: the cars to make them appear to be stolen, that
37:18
Speaker 1: clearly shows he knows what he's doing and is taking
37:22
Speaker 1: measures to throw police off the trail. Doctor Michelle Dupree,
37:26
Speaker 1: how do we determine if that torso is in fact
37:30
Speaker 1: the mother of three may Haskell?
37:33
Speaker 6: Well, obviously the best way to do that is through DNA,
37:36
Speaker 6: which we should have plenty of. To compare it to
37:39
Speaker 6: when we have a torso and nothing else and we
37:43
Speaker 6: don't have a presumed victim, it's much much harder. In
37:46
Speaker 6: this case, however, we should be able to determine that
37:49
Speaker 6: relatively quickly.
37:50
Speaker 1: To Chris mcdonne and joining me, director Cole Case Foundation,
37:53
Speaker 1: former homicide detective and host of the Interview Room on YouTube,
37:59
Speaker 1: what do you blie they found in that home. They're
38:02
Speaker 1: not saying, so, Nancy, there's a couple of things.
38:05
Speaker 7: Two points from an investigative aspect. Number one is the
38:09
Speaker 7: HSS team is involved. Who those guys are called the
38:12
Speaker 7: Homicide Special Section and they only deal with high profile
38:17
Speaker 7: like dismemberments, that type of stuff, serial killing. They're out
38:20
Speaker 7: of robbery homicide downtown. The second to your question is,
38:25
Speaker 7: you know, the first question they're going to want to
38:28
Speaker 7: establish is, you know, did this individual have the mental
38:31
Speaker 7: capacity to know what they were doing. So they went
38:34
Speaker 7: back into that house and they probably used you know,
38:38
Speaker 7: various type of alternate light sources, blue star, you know,
38:43
Speaker 7: room and all that type of stuff, And what they
38:47
Speaker 7: wanted to do was establish if in fact there's any
38:49
Speaker 7: blood evidence and or any other forensic evidence that immediately
38:54
Speaker 7: can establish how many people are potentially involved in this.
38:59
Speaker 7: And then they can take DNA swab. Let's say, hypothetically
39:02
Speaker 7: they plown some blood and they can put it through
39:05
Speaker 7: a machine called Andy A and d I, and that
39:09
Speaker 7: is a rapid DNA machine, And what that does is
39:13
Speaker 7: just tells you you have three types of DNA here.
39:17
Speaker 7: So that's probably what they're operating under. You know, currently
39:21
Speaker 7: and that's why they charge him.
39:22
Speaker 1: With pre victims, even though as of right now the
39:27
Speaker 1: remains of the parents the in laws have not been found,
39:32
Speaker 1: Choice Layton, If Haskell four hid the cars, there's no
39:38
Speaker 1: way he's going to be able to succeed. He might
39:41
Speaker 1: make a claim of insanity, but by hiding the cars
39:45
Speaker 1: or taking countermeasures to throw police off his trail, that
39:50
Speaker 1: clearly shows he knows what he did was wrong. Of course,
39:54
Speaker 1: right now these are only allegations.
39:57
Speaker 11: Go ahead, Royce Layton, Nancy, prosecutors would a be lee
40:01
Speaker 11: like yourself would have used that as consciousness of guilt
40:05
Speaker 11: and taking steps to clear your tracks to create alternate
40:11
Speaker 11: versions of how this could have happened shows consciousness of guilt.
40:15
Speaker 8: And the fact that his arraignment was continued for several
40:21
Speaker 8: weeks is not unusual. That means his attorney gave up
40:25
Speaker 8: and waived his constitutional right to a speedy arraignment which
40:30
Speaker 8: starts the preliminary hearing and then trial process, so that
40:34
Speaker 8: way his attorney can start to do their own investigation
40:38
Speaker 8: and maybe try to come up with alternate versions of
40:42
Speaker 8: what happened. Maybe there was some sort of murder with
40:48
Speaker 8: other people involved. Maybe Haskell was involved. Maybe there was
40:52
Speaker 8: some other people involved as well.
40:55
Speaker 11: So the fact.
40:56
Speaker 8: That this has been put over is not unusual. And
41:01
Speaker 8: what is unusual is for our district attorney here in
41:05
Speaker 8: La Gascon to charge special circumstances murder.
41:10
Speaker 1: You know, I love the way. Have you ever considered
41:14
Speaker 1: creative writing because your theory that somebody else was involved?
41:19
Speaker 1: I love that theory.
41:20
Speaker 8: Well, I was an English literature major at UCLA, Nancy,
41:24
Speaker 8: maybe there's.
41:25
Speaker 1: A second career for you in that. I'm just trying
41:27
Speaker 1: to figure out. Also, why this judge that just had
41:34
Speaker 1: Haskell four in court is Judge Kimberly Baker Gillemet. She
41:39
Speaker 1: refused to allow his Sam Haskell the fourth face be seen.
41:46
Speaker 1: Why because his father is a multi millionaire. I haven't
41:51
Speaker 1: seen no. Then why that doesn't happen with anyone else.
41:54
Speaker 1: It's an open courtroom.
41:55
Speaker 8: It is an open courtroom, but the judge controls the
41:58
Speaker 8: court room.
41:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, So why is he getting special treatment because his
42:02
Speaker 1: dad is powerful?
42:03
Speaker 8: Why there may be investigative reasons? Why there could be
42:09
Speaker 8: there could be considerations for family or victims they're dead, Well,
42:14
Speaker 8: there are three children. There are three minor children that
42:17
Speaker 8: are still alive. And that he is the father of
42:21
Speaker 8: and so there are other considerations. There are other people
42:25
Speaker 8: involved and that could be affected, and they don't even
42:29
Speaker 8: have the bodies yet for for a potential place.
42:33
Speaker 1: The judge did a backflip to protect this guy. I mean,
42:37
Speaker 1: have you seen why is he getting special treatment? Because
42:41
Speaker 1: his father is a multi millionaire and he's a spoiled
42:45
Speaker 1: brat that complains about his filet Mignon. You know, I'm
42:48
Speaker 1: gonna go last to l Benemey, friend and neighbor of
42:54
Speaker 1: May and Haskell four. I'm just curious how you feel
43:01
Speaker 1: that he has to go Four is getting special treatment and
43:05
Speaker 1: we don't even know where May's head is. Just this
43:11
Speaker 1: is bass Ackwards.
43:12
Speaker 4: Right, I mean I understand what he just said now
43:16
Speaker 4: about maybe something related to his kids, but I'm sure
43:20
Speaker 4: by now his boys, uh you know what's going on? Yeah,
43:26
Speaker 4: I mean what of course everything now is it's just allegations.
43:31
Speaker 4: But what he is believed to have done is is
43:36
Speaker 4: completely outrageous, infuriating.
43:41
Speaker 6: That.
43:42
Speaker 4: I mean I still even a week later, and nearly
43:45
Speaker 4: a week later, I can't even believe that. I can't
43:47
Speaker 4: believe that that can be a reality. So yeah, I
43:52
Speaker 4: don't think he should get any special treatment. I don't
43:55
Speaker 4: think that he will.
43:56
Speaker 1: When you were around him, what was he like?
43:59
Speaker 4: El so I will you know, I will say that
44:03
Speaker 4: yes he did. He did come off as very eccentric
44:08
Speaker 4: and didn't have, you know, the same social graces that
44:11
Speaker 4: may had. He wasn't interpersonally, He didn't come off as
44:18
Speaker 4: just you know, a regular person. He he wouldn't you know,
44:24
Speaker 4: if I saw him on the street or in the car,
44:26
Speaker 4: he wouldn't necessarily avoid eye contact. He would just kind
44:29
Speaker 4: of not and smile and sort.
44:30
Speaker 6: Of stay hi.
44:32
Speaker 4: Or if if we walked past each other, say on
44:35
Speaker 4: the street, he he would say Hi, how are you?
44:37
Speaker 4: I'm great. So it was very I mean, a little
44:42
Speaker 4: bit fake, I guess because I never actually had a
44:44
Speaker 4: conversation with him, so I wouldn't say that we were friendly.
44:47
Speaker 4: But he was polite, I guess it's the word. And
44:51
Speaker 4: when I when I observed him in social situations, like
44:55
Speaker 4: I said at a party that that may through he
45:00
Speaker 4: he was really off to the side, kind of like
45:05
Speaker 4: I described, you know, saying hi, not ignoring anyone, but
45:08
Speaker 4: off to the side and disappearing a lot. You can
45:11
Speaker 4: kind of you could kind of tell that he just
45:14
Speaker 4: didn't want to be there, or didn't feel comfortable being
45:17
Speaker 4: around people, or maybe having people at his house. I'm
45:20
Speaker 4: not sure, but yeah, he was off to the side.
45:24
Speaker 4: I never saw him have a conversation with any single person.
45:27
Speaker 4: In fact, in the three years that he lived next
45:29
Speaker 4: to me, we.
45:31
Speaker 1: Wait as justice and false. Goodbye friend,