Going West: True Crime - Mei Li Haskell // 364

Episode Date: December 12, 2023

In November of 2023, partial human remains were found in a Los Angeles dumpster, and quickly connected to the recent disappearance of a 37-year-old woman and her parents. Within the same day, and arrest was made, and hauntingly disturbing details from neighbors and friends were given to the media. This is the story of Mei Li Haskell, and her parents, Yanxiang Yang and Gaoshan Li. BONUS EPISODES Apple Subscriptions: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/going-west-true-crime/id1448151398 Patreon: patreon.com/goingwestpodcast  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on True Crime fans? I'm your host Tee. And I'm your host Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello everybody, hope you're having a good week thus far. Today's case happened very recently, just a few miles from where Heath and I live and we saw this come up as a citizen app notification just a few weeks ago, which we will discuss later and we have been following it ever since. I mean this

story is so disturbing and unreal and it's unfolding right before our eyes. So thank you so much everybody for tuning in today. Also remember, if you guys want to see photos from this case and all the other cases that we've covered thus far on this show, head on over to our socials. We're on Instagram at GoingWestPodcast, Twitter at GoingWestPod,

and we're also on Facebook. We have a regular page, and we have a discussion group where you can talk about the cases. Yeah, especially if you were in the LA area, it's important to look at the photos associated with today's case in case you know anything. So please go check that out again,

thanks for tuning in. And let's dive into this one. All right, guys, this is episode 364 of Going West. So let's get into it. In November of 2023, partial human remains were found in a Los Angeles dumpster, which were quickly connected to the recent disappearance of a 37-year-old woman and her parents. Within the same day, an arrest was made, and hauntingly disturbing details from neighbors and friends were given to the media. This is the story of Mali Haskell and her parents, Yang Xiang Wang, while information about her

birth father isn't available, and she spent most of her life living there in China until she decided to make the move to the United States as a young adult. Unfortunately, shockingly little information is available about her upbringing and actually, her entire life because the two people who could probably paint that image best are currently missing and presumed murdered as we will get into. And since May doesn't have any online presence at all, the only information about her that we have is from the mouths of her friends and her uncle. But still, there isn't very much.

What we do know is that this year she turned 37, meaning she was born sometime in 1986, and back when she was in her 20s in the mid-2000s, she moved from China over to California as an international student to begin studying accounting at sea sun, also known as California State University Northridge, located in the Valley of Los Angeles. And because out of state or out of country for that matter, students have to pay a lot more for state colleges than, you know, those who already are residents of the state, she did receive some help for tuition from

her family so that she could make this dream of moving to the US a reality. So in order to help her pay for this, her mother, Yang Zheng and her stepfather, Gao Shan Li, sold their house in China. And off may went on what was supposed to be an exciting adventure abroad. But when may begin her classes at CSUN, she met a young man just a couple years younger than her, named Sam Haskell Jr., who was studying at CSUN. Within just a couple years,

the two would welcome their first child together and then they'd get married. And as the years pass, they would have two more children making three boys total. Samuel Bond Haskell IV, also known as Sam Jr., was born on April 3, 1988 to marry and Sam Haskell alongside his sister Mary Lane Haskell. Now his father, who's an Alabama-born man, moved to Los Angeles at the age of 23 in 1978

to pursue a career in entertainment, which is what a lot of people do and this is exactly what he did. Now he started working at William Morris Agency, the talent agency also known as WME, and became an agent for people like George Clooney and Woopy Goldberg, before making his way to becoming a senior vice president for the company just 12 years later. And then 9 years after this, becoming the worldwide head of television, so this man was on top. Now, during all of this, just a few years after moving to Los Angeles, he married his

college sweetheart Mary Donnelly, and together they had Sam and Mary Lane. And actually Mary was crowned Miss Mississippi in 1977, and then years later her husband Sam became the CEO of the Miss America organization. However, he resigned after a scandal that he was involved in was exposed from 2014 and 2015. So basically what happened to Sam Haskell's senior was accused of slut shaming, fat shaming, and name calling numerous former Miss America contestants after a bunch of email exchanges were released between him and some board members

as well as a pageant writer. So yikes. After this, Sam Haskell's senior has also produced, you know, numerous projects for Netflix, including some Dolly Parton movies and specials, and he's also been big into philanthropy for many, many years. His wife Mary is an actress known for her roles and shows like Days of Our Lives in 7th Heaven, and their daughter Mary Lane has also acted.

But now, let's move on to Sam. So there are a lot of things out there about Sam Jr. And almost none of them are good. But let's read some of the comments. So first comes a comment from Reddit. This is not a confirmed source. So just, you know, take that with a great result. But it reads, quote, I went to middle school and high school with him in Calabasis. In seventh grade, when I first met him,

he was already a pathological liar with a blinking tick. He was always touching his privates over his pants in class. And never got in trouble because his parents were mega donors to the school until he was kicked out for raping another student in junior year. We all knew he was bad news. Now, I don't know how credible this all is, but I'm from CalBassist 2, which is a city neighborhood in LA.

I had a personal theory that he was from there for numerous reasons, but based on a lot of other comments and a newsletter I read from 2007 from the CalBassist school he attended, this is true. And I wouldn't be surprised if the rest is true as well, just based on other people's comments about him, especially because I read another comment on a different Reddit post from a different user

that said that he was forced to leave viewpoint, which is the private school in Calabasas that he attended after raping a girl. So two different people said this. And it didn't seem like they got it from each other because one of them said Calvassas and the other said viewpoint specifically. So it seems to me like these people actually did go to school with him. So another comment on this thread reads quote,

this dude ended up at New Road's High School in Santa Monica, another private school. And I only remember him being a strange-ass individual. So him being kicked out of school after these allegations came forward makes sense, but I couldn't find a record of them online. But it seems like he has been creepy and inappropriate for a very long time. So after high school, Sam Haskell, Jr. went on to attend C-SUN, again, California State University Northridge in Los Angeles, to study cinema and television arts, and that's where he met Mei Li, who was studying there at the same time.

Now another commenter on a different thread claimed to be his teacher there, saying, quote, He was a student of mine when I taught in the English Department at CSUN. He had a crush on me and used to follow me around campus in a very creepy stalker-like way. It made me so uncomfortable that he used to watch out for him, tried to see him before he saw me so I could walk quickly in the opposite direction and hide from him. A lot of strangers have also commented across different posts that he, quote, seemed gay, so someone commented that under this alleged teachers post asking

quote, are you Asian? Are you a guy? He seems so gay to me. And the alleged teacher replied quote, I'm a straight white female 18 years his senior. So again, take this all with a grain of salt again, we can't confirm anything that they're saying is true at this time, but it does seem to match up with the facts that we have. Now, after graduating from C-Sun in 2011, Sam went on to work in film, mostly with music videos it seems, working as a camera operator and then later, a video director for a company called Create Agency, which he's been doing since 2021. Now, for some reason, a few years ago, we started going by Samuel Basinger, maybe after his father's scandal,

so this is what the about section reads in his LinkedIn page, or on his LinkedIn page. Quote, my name is Samuel Basinger. I direct fashion editorials and music videos. I'm passionate about collaborating with other creators. I started working in this industry in 2011. I feel fortunate to have met many amazing and talented people over the years. Since then, I created my pop culture slash fashion

photo blog on Instagram at Tragic Streets with a Z, where I share all my passion projects and creative inspo. Let's connect. Thank you so much. And by the way, Tragic Streets is a part of his company SB Group, which has an office in Encino, which is right next to Tarzanah where he and his wife and kids

have been living. Although he worked with artists like Machine Gun Kelly, Taiga, Brenda Song, Peyton List, et cetera, it doesn't seem like this venture was really bringing him very much money, because in recent years, those close to them claim that May was the one that was paying for their home herself. But we are going to get into that here soon along with what happened, but first, we're going to talk about Sam's TikTok. So his username is At Tragedy Streets

again with a Z at the end, and his bio reads, quote, writer slash director, this is my comedy workshop. And the page is full of various videos since September 2022. Most of him talking while others are pretty videos of different cities that he's visited. So it kind of seems like he enjoyed making these videos acting like a stereotypical LA fuckboy, where he would talk about random things, clearly thinking that he's funny, but

Definitely not a funny guy. Yeah, fell flat. So here's a few of those TikToks just to give you guys some reference Like my resume says unhappy bitter resentful And like really good at ordering off the menu on a scale from like one to crispine how unenthusiastic are you about Harry Styles' role in a Olivia Wilds movie. Yo, Shots out to fist bumping the sushi chef real quick at Nobu Malibu, like letting everybody in the restaurant know like you fools might be bay, but like, I'm famed.

Hey, what's up you guys? You're real quick. I just want to say shout out to the homies that Rushi needs to hold me down since day one consistently. Follow them ASAP. Peace! You want to ask if I want to glass wine? Like, you know, what? It's at the left like no, but also like Kind of down Here's a sick idea for a writer's workshop a Paul Wesley thriller and the premise is Paul has no idea whether or not the shit happening to him is real or not Yo real quick. What's good like what's up with Brad bitch trying to like Yo real quick what's good like what's up with Brad bitch trying to like Comfort Paul West these wife like even though they broke up, but still like I don't even know like let me know in the comments peace

Yeah, so first of all all I gotta say is that all of these videos are Extremely fucking cringe. He's driving in almost all of them too. All of his videos. And just that whole thing where he's just like, oh, shout's out to this person, shout's out to this person. It's like, in every video too, I mean, just to give you a visual for anybody who doesn't know what he looks like.

Yeah, well, you're listening to this. He has like long kind of golden hair that's in a ponytail. And he's like a less muscular Fabio. I'd like literally, yeah. I literally, yeah. I guess, yeah, I see where you're going with that. But it looks like he's kind of flare your nostrils and push out your lips.

Like that is like a duck face almost. Yeah, it looks like he, I'm only saying that to give you a visual. And that's how he's talking is with this almost straighten nose like pushed out mouth to kind of put on this this other like it seems like he's trying to cause play a douche but he's actually just a douche. But he is the douche. Yeah. Yeah. So definitely go check out those videos you'll be able to see exactly what we're talking about here. I'm gonna do

like a little compilation if you will where I'm just gonna put a few of them in a single video on our Instagram or in our social media, but you can also just go to his TikTok and scroll. I don't know, it's not relevant, like none of what he talks about is relevant. And I think like the bio is, this is my comedy workshop. Like I think he's just trying to be funny, but.

Well, it might be relevant in the way that there could be like these narcissistic tendencies or these like manipulative tendencies, you know, that you can kind of fain from those videos. Yeah, and just that like general sense of just offness. He definitely gives the ik indeed. So May's uncle Yan Qing, who is her mother's brother, also lives in Los Angeles now and felt that May wanted to get his approval on Sam when he arrived to California. But when she introduced them, he didn't really know how to feel. Yan Qing says that he felt Sam Haskell Jr. was strange, reserved, and on the quieter

side. But that he seemed like a good guy. No Toby Fair, they didn't speak often at all because May's uncle doesn't speak very much English, but from the encounters that they did have her uncle was just not impressed by this guy and just felt off about him. And speaking of her family, after May and Sam had three sons who are currently aged 6, 8 and 12, her parents moved from China to Los Angeles to help raise their sons, and they were living at their home in Tarzana when this case occurred.

Now even though her mom had a stroke a few years ago, making it hard for her to walk, she still would help with cleaning and cooking and looking after the kids, and this actually seemed to be a point of contention for Sam because sources claim that he didn't have a good relationship with her parents. According to May's friend Jenny Quote, May said Sam was rude to them and ignored them that they made him feel angry. They couldn't speak English, but he made no effort to interact with them. Now the Haskell's home is a pretty central part of the story, so let's talk about it.

In December of 2020, so just three years before this story occurs, for $1.7 million. The Haskell couple, well it seems the home is under May's name alone, but a six bedroom, six bathroom, 4,000 square foot house featuring a massive pool and hot tub in their tree-covered backyard in Tarzan, California, which is located in the valley of Los Angeles. And we'll discuss the neighbors in a bit, but the neighborhood is very nice and suburban with, you know, houses on either side and across the street, so it is not remote or secluded in any way.

Like, anything you do in the driveway could be seen by multiple houses, and anything loud happening inside could probably be heard out on the street by anyone. And this is where Mei lived with her husband Sam, as well as their three sons, and Mei's parents, Yang Zheng and Gao Shan, where it seemed there was enough space for all of them to live this beautiful life together. Because it's in a perfect spot in the hills right under Moholun Drive, where you feel far removed from the bustling city life in this quaint affluent suburbia, but in minutes you're at all the shops and restaurants on Ventura Boulevard and then can pop right onto

the 101 Freeway and go anywhere in LA. But it was in this house on that quiet, picture-perfect street that something horrific would happen. On November 7, 2023, Mei's uncle Yang Qing realized that he hadn't heard from his sister Yang Zheng in a few days, and he started to get a bad feeling. Especially when he checked her WeChat profile, which is a Chinese instant messaging and social media app, and noticed that all of her photos and friends had been deleted. 10 years worth of posts, all suddenly gone. And it was one day later on November 8th that he would be told that his sister and brother-in-law were now missing, and his niece was found murdered.

Because that day, on Wednesday, November 8th, 2023, at about 6am, a homeless man was looking through some dumpster bins in the parking lot of a strip mall in Encino, searching for recyclable bottles and cans for refund, when he came across a large black trash bag. And in the trash bag was a woman's torso. So the police were called immediately to the scene where they assessed it, and luckily, they have surveillance footage that they could review to help them piece together exactly what happened here.

And this is the reason that we know about this case, because the day this happened, we got a notification from the citizen app about it, for those who don't know the citizen app, and it's like a personal safety network that gives alerts in your area for crimes and safety issues, like anything from a down power line to a break in at someone's house, to a car accident, and it tells you exactly where it happened,

as well as any basic updates about it, a break in at someone's house to a car accident and it tells you exactly where it happened as well as any basic updates about it. And you can comment and talk to other people in the community and even record a live video if you're at the scene. So Heath and I use this app all the time. We love this app. Yes, we do. But that morning on November 8th, because Heath and I live in the valley just a few miles

away from where this happened, we got notified, and here is what it said. Human body parts found in plastic bag. This was reported in the app a little bit later, at 7.41 am, and within the report it said quote, a 911 caller has reported an unconfirmed incident at Rubio Ave and Ventura Boulevard. Then, within that same minute, it reported, quote, police are responding to a situation at Rubio and Ventura. And then a few hours later around noon, it updated, quote, per a report from ABC7, human body parts were found in a plastic bag early Wednesday morning.

The discovery was first reported to police around 6.15 a.m. when a 911 caller said a plastic bag filled with body parts was in a dumpster behind a strip mall. The circumstances of said discovery remain unclear at this time. So it was crazy. I like I sent this to my mom and in a group chat with my two best friends who live in the same areas as us and we were like, uh, this is so creepy.

Yeah, because at first, you know, they didn't know who was responsible for this. So we're assuming that there is some sort of, you know, deranged killer that's out there just killing random people on the loose. Yeah, my mom was like, oh, I wonder if it's a, like drug related or something like nobody knew. And so when we've never seen a notification like that,

so it was really jarring. So then a few days later, when we saw in the news that someone was arrested for it, we were totally shocked because it happened so fast. Because that very same day, November 8th, that Wednesday, police had gathered enough evidence to arrest someone for the murder of this woman, whose torso exposed tattoos, helping identify her as 37-year-old Maley Haskell.

And due to numerous elements of hard investigative work, 35-year-old Sam Haskell, Jr. was arrested for the crime. And that same day, police learned that both of Maley's parents, let's talk about how Sam Haskell Jr. was caught so quickly. But let's go back and discuss witness statements and video footage and just lay it all out for you guys. So, all three of the victims in this case, Mei Li, Yang Zheng and Gao Shen, were last seen on November 6th, though other reports claimed that Mei Li hadn't been seen since November 2nd.

On Tuesday, November 2nd, a neighbor saw Mei loading her sons into the car to bring them to school, but took note that she seemed somber while she was usually very upbeat and bubbly. And then, the night before Mei's partial remains were found in the Encino garbage on Tuesday, November 7, 2023. This same neighbor received some troubling information from her daughter. This neighbor, whose name is Elle, lives in one of those houses directly next to the Haskell home, and her daughter's room is on that far side facing the Haskells. And on that Tuesday night at around 9 p.m. the daughter thought that she

heard a child screaming, help, help, hello. Coming from the direction of the Haskell home. And shortly after these screams the daughter heard a car door slam and tires screeching as a car drove off. We want to note right now that the children are safe and currently in state custody, but it's unclear at this point if they witnessed or heard anything, and if these screams actually came from them or someone who just sounded like a child. But this is really interesting because hours before these screams were heard at 3.54pm, four day laborers arrived at the Haskell home to meet Sam about the pickup and disposal

of three large black garbage bags that Sam said were full of rocks. Now there is video footage from a neighbor of this pickup happening. It's distant, so you can see distantly that Sam is watching as the men carry the three large bags from his garage out to their truck. Within six minutes, the men drive off in their large truck until 15 minutes later, when they return to Sam Haskell's home with the bags. The men claimed that the bags didn't feel like they contained rocks in them, but instead, sorry for the next gruesome, very stomach-turning detail, that it felt like there was meat inside the bags, and that they were soft and soggy and weighed around 50 pounds each.

Now obviously to the trash workers, it matters what's inside because you might have to pay a different price and the trash is disposed of differently. Yeah, exactly. Like, Daphne and I have had, you know, junk removal from our house before, and you know, we've had some extra bags that contain like a regular kitchen trash, including food waste, and it does cost extra to haul away. Yeah, so the men wondered what was inside these bags, and were like, these don't feel like rocks. So, are we being tricked? You know, they wanted to just see what was inside. So, the men opened one of the bags, and immediately saw the belly button area of a human torso. Fearing it was real, they drove right back to the Haskell's Tarzanah home

and returned the $500 cash that Sam had paid them, which by the way is a lot of money for just three garbage bags. That's way more than it would cost, which is also suspicious. It seems like overpay there. Yeah, for sure. So, and they said that they didn't feel comfortable taking the bags away because of what they saw. So, Sam allegedly told the men that inside the bags were actually just Halloween decorations because Halloween was one week earlier.

But still, the men didn't feel comfortable. So they left the bags with Sam and went on their way again at 4.17pm. Left wondering what the hell was going on and if what they thought was in the bags was really in there. And because they had such a bad feeling, they went straight to the police with what they saw, unbeknownst to Sam. And then just five minutes later, Sam drove off in his Tesla. So this is really interesting because, you know, Sam gives them this whole story

that yeah, it's Halloween decorations, but these men are so convinced that it's real. I mean, you can tell, I feel like you would be able to tell the difference between human flesh and silicone or something like that. Well, and they can feel the bags. Right. So they know it's like, it's not hard plastic.

It felt soft. Like they said, which is why they open them in the first place. And that's what they see. But I'm really glad that these men didn't just like wave it off and say, oh, you know, it's no big deal. Maybe it was fake. Like, they knew in their minds that this was real and they needed to report it. I know. And at first I was kind of bummed when I heard, I mean, still,

it is still very unfortunate, but, you know, that they didn't call the police from where they were and say, Hey, we just got this job from this guy and look what's inside these. And let's open up the other ones and are you guys open up the other ones? Instead of returning them, because luckily, if this homeless man didn't find that bag, that one bag in the Encino dumpster, they all, it would have just been, yeah, this would have been a very different story. Yeah, so, but that's what's, you know,

not to get ahead of ourselves, but the other two bags haven't been found, so it is unfortunate that they didn't call the police before returning them, but at least they called the police. you know not to get ahead of ourselves but the other two bags haven't been found so it is unfortunate that they didn't call the police before returning them but at least they called the police yeah i do understand maybe they were freaked out they just really didn't know what to do in that moment i'll be a part of it they're like to work exactly and a lot of people you know don't really know what to do in situations like

that but uh... true yeah scary again at least they called the police. Now, it's unclear how many of these three bags Sam loaded into his Tesla, but we know that he loaded at least one of them because at 4.45 pm, so 23 minutes after leaving his house, there is surveillance footage of Sam having trouble unloading and hoisting a large black trash bag from the trunk of his Tesla into the very same dumpster that May's partial remains were found in.

And remember earlier when we said that Sam's business's office was in Encino? Well, this dumpster is within the same block of his office, and this dumpster can actually be seen from his very office unit. Now I checked how long it would take to do this trip from his house in Tarzana to the Encino parking lot on that day, leaving at the time he did, and it would have taken between 14 and 22 minutes, because it's about 6 miles or 9 kilometers away. Now typically it takes 14, so considering that he arrived 23 minutes after leaving his house, it makes you wonder if he drove there knowing exactly where he was going and it took 23

minutes, or if he stopped to think along the way, or if he stopped at a different dumpster before heading to the Encino one to drop a single bag off. Because the other two bags at this point, as Daphne mentioned, have not been accounted for. So that same day, police arrived at the Haskell home to question Sam about the trash bags that he had hired the day laborers to pick up.

And although it's unclear at this time what he told them, they didn't have enough to investigate him further so they had to leave. But they did show up that same day. They listened to these guys and they went to his house to see if they could get evidence that a crime had occurred. Right. So then, the next day, when May's partial remains were found, they went back to his home

to serve a search warrant. And inside the Haskell home, investigators uncovered, quote, blood and other evidence consistent with death and dismemberment inside. And here's a direct quote from LAPD Detective Efron Gutierrez about the home search. He said, quote, here in the house, once officers made entry, what was discovered was evidence of a crime, including some blood evidence and other items that I'm not going to provide at this point. And as of now, just over a month since all of this happened, this information is still not available as investigators aren't authorized to discuss a lot of it.

But we did also read in another source that police found evidence of blood from multiple sources, leading them to believe that along with May, her 64-year-old mother Yang Zhen and 72-year-old stepfather Gao Shen are also deceased, though their remains and a clear image of what happened to them have not been uncovered either. Attempts to contact all three of them after these discoveries were made failed, and again, they hadn't been seen in days. Two vehicles from the home were initially determined as missing, which included a white

Volkswagen Tiguan and a white 2014 Nissan Pathfinder, but they were recently discovered abandoned somewhere in the valley and are still being processed today for evidence. On the same day May's partial remains were found and the search warrant was served, which again was Wednesday, November 8, 2023. 35-year-old Samuel Haskell, Jr. was arrested on suspicions of murder in connection to the dismembered female torso at the Topanga mall in Kenoga Park also in the valley where police tracked him at 11.30 a.m. At that time his children were at school so we can assume that he took them there that morning and what we do know about the kids is that at first they were taken in

two state custody and then for a while they were with family We're assuming Sam's family, but we're not sure and we don't know where they are today. They're either with the state or with family, but they are all safe. And all that's been released about what Sam told police in his defense was that he was out of the house with his kids before the bags were found, maybe just trying to put himself elsewhere

to prove that he couldn't have dropped the bag in the dumpster, but as we know, there is literal video footage of him doing so. After the news broke, people flooded to the media with information about the Haskells, some of which we have discussed in this episode already, but the neighbors had a fair amount to say. The Haskell's next door neighbor, Elle, added, quote, "'Sam definitely had a fixation bordering on obsession for martial arts. There are also firearms and crossbows in their house. Their boys would tell my kids about the weapons which always worried me, so much so that I wouldn't let my kids alone upstairs in their home.

I know Mae didn't like having those things around the house, and she wanted him to get rid of them. He also had a samurai sword and a crossbow. I think he was a black belt, and he would go to Japan to do martial arts. And obviously this is just interesting information to note, but since the autopsy of Mei's partial remains have not been released, we don't know what weapon or weapons were used for the murders, but considering there was blood found in the house, we can imagine one of them was.

And then, there's the question of how and why this happened in the first place, so it seemed that May was having various issues with Sam, and had been wanting to divorce him for years, leading up to her death. Elle continued, quote, would I say they seem like a happy couple? No, but I definitely didn't expect anything like this. I never could have imagined what happened. May's uncle noted that although he didn't see May and Sam ever fight in front of him,

that his sister, May's mother, would sometimes vent to him about the fact that May was paying their mortgage all by herself, owning a consulting group to help foreign students apply to U.S. universities, and also having to work other jobs, and that Sam didn't offer to help at all, even after living in their Tarzanah home for three years. Her friend Jenny, who described Sam as having quote, the same creepy vibe as serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, shared with the media quote,

May 1st brought up divorce when I was getting one in 2019. I told her she could do it, but she just felt like she couldn't risk losing her boys, who again are 6, 8, and 12. She continued, quote, she was afraid that her husband would take away the kids with the help of his very rich and influential father. She felt trapped. She said it wasn't happening, that there was no way that she could get a divorce. Maybe she brought it up again and then he snapped. Jenny also explained that Maekin fighting in her that Sam had been abusive towards her in the past, stating quote, she told me that he had hurt her, that he had hit her.

Also in regards to Sam's violence and supposed obsession with weapons, his November 8th arrest wasn't the first time that he had been arrested. Because back in December of 2008, Sam was arrested on two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, to which he pleaded no contest, meaning that he wasn't outwardly expressing guilt, but was waving his right to a trial and accepting a conviction for those crimes. Yeah, and he was 20 years old at that time. Yes, and I know we're all curious about what exactly happened there, but that's about old at that time. And despite his interest in weapons and what he's being accused of doing now, his ex-fitness

trainer shared an Instagram DM from May 24, 2023, between he and Sam, where Sam messaged him, quote, Hey Big Bro, Forever Purge was a little different. Fools really be getting chopped up in Mexico for real. It's hard for me to enjoy a movie about it. I'm down with Purge 2 Anarchy. I still want to make a movie with you, bro. And the trainer also shared that during their sessions, they would often talk about horror movies because they both really enjoyed them, but yeah, Sam stated that he doesn't like gruesome

horror movies, so that's kind of interesting. Ellen and other neighbors highlighted the fact that Sam always seemed off, that he was never social like May was. Quote seemed weird, and just gave everyone a strange feeling when he was around. Some of them always thought that there was something, quote, wrong with him. But neighbors had great things to report about May, with one of them saying, quote, she was a very sweet, generous person, very social. She loved to throw parties.

I'd say some of the best parties I've been to. She added, quote, you couldn't ask for a better neighbor. May was an amazing mom, an amazing person, and an amazing daughter to her parents. She would often drop off little gifts. She once dropped off two huge crates of strawberries. When my water heater gave out, she insisted that we come to her place to take a shower.

Regarding May's parents, El said, quote, I know her parents, they lived here. They were often in the front yard. They actually had two chairs put out and they would sit there and wave. I couldn't communicate with them because they didn't speak English, but they were very warm, very sweet, very good with the kids. She even said the same about Sam's parents stating, quote, I have met his parents many times. They're very friendly. They're from Mississippi. They could never miss a single birthday party. After his arrest, Sam was and still is being held at the nearby

Van Eyes jail on Suicide Watch. His arrangement was scheduled for Friday, December 9, 2023, so just a few days before we're recording this episode, where he was supposed to enter a plea of guilty or not guilty regarding the three murder charges against him. But he didn't. He hired a new attorney, Los Angeles criminal lawyer Joseph Wymorets, just two days before the arrangement, and the lawyer needed more time to review the details of the case before entering a plea.

So it was pushed back to January 12th, which is exactly one month from when this episode is released. But during his time in the courtroom on Friday, the Velcro straps of his gown somehow came undone, so he's just standing there shirtless essentially holding like a plastic bag with a small milk carton and snacks and his long hair and a low ponytail and this is, I mean that's just being so heavily talked about is that like shirtless Sam Haskell Jr. like everyone's talking about it but I guess it just fell down and who the fuck really cares I don't know I'm only mentioning it because I'm trying to mention everything, but I guess it fell down and it's like huge news that he was shirtless and court, but it was just a little error.

So although he was initially being held on a $2 million bail, meaning $200,000 bond would need to be paid before he could be released, his bail was recently removed altogether. Which is a really smart idea because his family definitely could have posted this, but they didn't attempt to and they have made no statements regarding his arrest yet. And that is everything that has been released thus far on the case, but it just makes you wonder how all of this unfolded. Like clearly Sam had unknown issues against May's parents, and May and Sam's relationship wasn't in a good place and hadn't been for a long time, obviously,

with May feeling generally unsafe around Sam. But the fact that Sam is being accused of killing three people, just begs the questions, how did this all begin? You know, who was killed first? Because killing three adults, allegedly in the same home, seems incredibly difficult to do. So some people are theorizing that Sam possibly killed May's parents first when they were alone in the house, and that when May found out, he killed her as well. That's definitely a possibility, but you know,

there's also the possibility of poison, and then the reason why they found blood evidence in the house is because of dismemberment. Right. You know what I'm saying? Like, there could be a lot of different things that happened here, but hopefully at some point, we will get those details, and yeah.

Yeah, I mean, how all this happened with no neighbors hearing it actually happen which makes you think that maybe a gun wasn't used you know and kid's not being around for it you know that so many questions but a few things we have to remember in the timeline is that uh... young ching who is maize uncle and yang jong's brother hadn't heard from young j Zheng in multiple days as of November 7th and everything on her social media profile had been deleted. So did Sam kill them first and for whatever reason delete all of her posts in case maybe

they included anything suspicious about him? But then we also have to remember as well that Sam was trying to dispose of multiple bags of remains on Tuesday, November 7, meaning at least May had to have been deceased by that afternoon when the men came to pick up the bags. But a scream wasn't heard until later that night at 9pm, so was the scream from one of the kids like did they see something and are there bags of remains that haven't been accounted for that Sam was able to successfully dispose of? A lot, a lot of massive questions here.

Yeah, so also knowing that Sam had a Tesla and knowing that Tesla's have a built in tracking device, thankfully. Hopefully, police are utilizing it to figure out where Sam went in the days surrounding the murders and then match that up with available surveillance footage on his roots. But we will definitely be following any new information and come out with an additional episode if we learn a lot more, which hopefully Sam will just confess so that the families can have clarity and seek justice to the fullest extent. If you have any information about the murders of Mei Li, Yang Zheng, and Gao Shan, please 890.

Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode and on Friday we'll have an all new case for you guys to dive into. Sorry, I know this case was pretty gruesome. It was really disturbing to research, but I mean, just absolutely crazy that this happened, so recently, near us, and just that this happened at all. It's a crazy story, especially the fact that it still feels like there are so many questions,

yet, like we don't see very often, and arrest has made so fast, like that was insane. So many questions and, you know, very, very little answers at this point in time, but... But we also know that police know a lot more than we do. They found a lot of evidence that hopefully we will see presented at some point. But again, we will keep you guys updated. Thank you so much for tuning in. Make sure you check out our socials if you want to see photos from this case.

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