Cops have found a plastic bag with just a female torso inside tossed into a parking lot dumpster behind a family restaurant and nail salon.
The torso was found in Encino, California, early yesterday morning following a concerned call to police about human remains in a black plastic bag, according to the LA Police Department.
The bag was found stuffed into a duffel bag and tossed into a dumpster behind Ventura Boulevard and Rubio Avenue, near a family-style restaurant, a hair salon and two banks.
A homeless person found the torso when digging through dumpsters in the parking lot of the business plaza looking for recyclables around 6.15am yesterday.
The torso, which was the only body part in the bag, has not yet been identified, but officers confirmed the victim is female.
The torso was found in Encino, California , early yesterday morning following a concerned call to police about human remains in a black plastic bag, according to the LA Police Department
The bag was found stuffed into a duffel bag and tossed into a dumpster (pictured) behind Ventura Boulevard and Rubio Avenue, near a family-style restaurant, a hair salon and two banks
Police believe the body part wasn’t there for longer than a few days.
After reviewing CCTV footage of the area, police said they were pointed to a home in the 4100 block of Coldstream Terrace in Tarzana, about five miles from where the torso was dumped, according to the LA Times.
Samuel Haskell, who lives in the home, who has been taken into custody around 11am yesterday and is being held on $2 million bail, abc7 reports.
He has been charged with one count of murder.
Haskell’s wife, Mei Haskell, and her parents Yanxiang Wang and Gaoshen Li are missing, police said. All three were living in the Tarzana home with the suspect.
Police found evidence of a crime, including blood, at the apartment. They believe the torso belongs to Mei Haskell, but said partial remains are harder to positively identify.
‘If a murder suspect is dismembering a body, it’s to delay identification,’ LAPD homicide detective Efren Guttierez told KTLA.
Haskell’s wife, Mei Haskell (pictured), and her parents Yanxiang Wang and Gaoshen Li are missing, police said. All three were living in the Tarzana home with the suspect
The couple’s three children were located in school yesterday and handed over to the Department of Children and Family Services.
Police had previously investigated a call to the couple’s address, where witnesses said they had seen body parts in a bag outside the home.
But when officers got to the address, the bags were gone.
A local resident told abc7: ‘I think it was kind of weird to drive up and be blocked off along the boulevard and into the little center over here and to find out that there were body parts there … in Encino.’
Another added that crime has been on the rise in the city in the last few months.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the LA Police Department.