Samuel Bond Haskell, the 37-year-old son of Emmy-winning producer Sam Haskell, was found dead by apparent suicide in his cell at the Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown Los Angeles at about 4:20 a.m. on Saturday, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Law-enforcement sources said Haskell left a note before taking his life. He had been under moderate monitoring for self-harm but was not on full suicide watch. Haskell was awaiting a preliminary hearing scheduled for Monday and faced three counts of murder with a special-circumstance allegation that could have brought a sentence of life without parole. Prosecutors allege that in November 2023 he killed and dismembered his wife, Mei Li Haskell, and her parents, Yanxiang Wang and Gaoshan Li, inside the family’s Tarzana home. A passer-by later discovered Mei Li Haskell’s beheaded torso in a dumpster in Encino; the remains of her parents have not been recovered. Investigators say Haskell paid day laborers US$500 to remove heavy plastic bags containing body parts, purchased saw blades and other materials used in the dismemberment, and was captured on video discarding a trash bag. A .357 revolver, a blood-stained military knife matching the DNA of all three victims, and passports for the couple and their three children were recovered from a rented SUV. Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman called the jailhouse death “one last cruel act” that denied the victims’ relatives a chance to confront the accused in court. The Sheriff’s Department and the county medical examiner are investigating Haskell’s death, which is among more than two dozen inmate fatalities recorded in the county’s custody so far this year.