Los Angeles surveillance video shows man dumping large bag where headless body found
Security cameras at an Encino strip mall appear to show the moments a man dropped off a large object in a dumpster where a homeless man later found a headless woman's body.
EXCLUSIVE: LOS ANGELES – A white SUV pulls into an Encino, California, parking lot, a man gets out and opens the trunk, and then struggles to place a large object in a dumpster -- which appears to be the same dumpster where police later recovered a headless body, surveillance video provided to Fox News Digital shows.
He appears to stumble with the object, which is wrapped in plastic, and he drops it in.
An LAPD spokesman said he was not aware of the video, but that wouldn't mean investigators had not reviewed it.
The provider of the video said it had been turned over to police before police made an arrest and that a witness in the parking lot took a picture of the SUV's license plate, which was also given to police.
SUSPECT IN LOS ANGELES TORSO DUMPSTER CASE IS HOLLYWOOD SCION WHOSE WIFE, IN-LAWS ARE MISSING
Surveillance video appears to show a man dropping a large, heavy object into a dumpster in Encino, California, where police later recovered a womans headless torso. (Fox News Digital)
Police have said that evidence at the scene led them to the home of 35-year-old Sam Haskell IV, about 3.5 miles away. He is the son of a Hollywood executive and an actress beauty queen, who police arrested on suspicion of murder after a homeless man made the grim find while searching through the dumpster around 6 a.m. Wednesday.
SEE IT: Los Angeles surveillance video shows man dumping large object where headless body found
Homicide detectives found additional evidence in the Coldstream Terrace home where he lived with his 37-year-old wife, Mei Haskell, her parents and their three children.
Mei Haskell in a January 2014 photograph shared by her husband Sam Haskell. Haskell was arrested this week in Los Angeles after police found a headless body, believed to belong to Mei, in a dumpster in Encino. (Sam Haskell/Instagram)
Surveillance cameras in a parking lot at the intersection of Rubio Avenue and Ventura Boulevard recorded the incident around 4 p.m. Tuesday, according to the source. That's the intersection where the LAPD said they found the woman's headless torso Wednesday shortly after 6 a.m.
"You can clearly see what he’s doing in broad daylight, and he struggles to get the black bags into the dumpster," the tipster told Fox News Digital.
A general view of the dumpster area off of Ventura Boulvard in Encino California, Friday, November 10, 2023, where Sam Haskell Jr. is alleged to have dumped his wife, Mei Haskell's torso on Tuesday. (Fox News Digital)
Mei and both of her parents, Goashan Li, 72, and Yanxiang Wang, 64, are now missing, according to the LAPD. No positive identification had been made in the body as of Friday, but investigators said they suspect it belongs to Mei Haskell.
Sam Haskell on a trip abroad in August 2013. Los Angeles police have arrested him after finding a headless body, believed to belong to his wife Mei Haskell, dumped in Encino this week. (Sam Haskell/Instagram)
Haskell's home is about 3.5 miles away from the dump site. Police arrested him at a mall in Canoga Park around 11:30 a.m. The couple's three children attended school Wednesday, according to authorities, but have now been placed in the care of child welfare agents.
The LAPD said a woman's headless torso was recovered from a dumpster near the intersection of Ventura Boulevard and Rubio Avenue early Wednesday morning. (Google Maps)
Police were also looking for a white Volkswagen Tiguan SUV, which was unaccounted for at the time of Sam Haskell's arrest, police said.
Mei Haskell, 37, is missing and presumed dead after Los Angeles police found a headless torso in Encino. Her parents are also missing. Her husband, Sam Haskell, is being held without bail at a county jail. (Sam Haskell/Instagram)
Her husband is being held without bond at a Los Angeles jail.
Anyone with information on the case is asked to call the LAPD at 213-486-6890.
Haskell's famous dad was a longtime A-list talent agent who represented stars like Dolly Parton and George Clooney before becoming an Emmy-winning producer. He received four Emmy nominations and a single win for teaming up with Parton on "Christmas on the Square."
GO HERE FOR MORE TRUE CRIME FROM FOX NEWS DIGITAL
Sam haskell, the 35-year-old scion of a Hollywood family known for TV Christmas movies, is in a Los Angeles jail after police found a headless woman's body in a dumpster. His wife and in-laws are missing. (KTTV, Sam Haskell/Instagram, LAPD)
He was also a longtime Miss America Organization CEO who was embroiled in a scandal after leaked emails showed him disparaging former winners.
His fall was chronicled in A&E's "Secrets of Miss America" miniseries in June, which included allegations of the elder Haskell sabotaging the career opportunities and romantic lives of pageant winners.
His son, meanwhile, used to maintain an Instagram account where he frequently posted about his Hollywood lifestyle under the hashtag #richkids.
The suspect Haskell's mother is the former beauty queen and actress Mary Donnelly Haskell, 1977's Miss Mississippi.
Fox News' Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
The hottest stories ripped from the headlines, from crime to courts, legal and scandal.
