NEED TO KNOW
- Shawn Ashmore and his wife Dana are speaking out about their friend Mei Li Haskell, who was allegedly killed alongside her parents by her husband Sam Haskell IV in 2023
- The couple’s statement comes after Sam, who was charged with three counts of murder, died by suicide in jail prior to a conviction being made
- Shawn and Dana remembered Mei Li as someone who was “so generous, so kind” and “so loving”
The Rookie star Shawn Ashmore and his wife Dana are paying tribute to their friend Mei Li Haskell.
The couple shared a statement commemorating Mei Li, after it was reported that the person accused of murdering her and her parents in 2023 — her husband Sam Haskell IV — died by suicide in jail.
“Our hearts are heavy, but we feel some small sense of peace knowing there is finally a bit of closure,” the couple said in a statement to TMZ. “We are mourning the loss of an extraordinary mother, someone who poured her entire heart into her three boys and never stopped putting them first.”
The X-Men star and his wife said they were able to speak openly about their friend now as the case came to an end with Sam’s death. They had previously been working with authorities as a representative of Mei Li’s, according to TMZ.
Mei Li Haskell and her husband Sam Haskell IV.
Los Angeles Police Department/AP; Samuel Haskell/TikTok
The couple told the outlet that they became friends with Mei Li about three years ago, after their children and her children became friends while attending the same school in Los Angeles. They described her as a mother who was extremely caring and present in the lives of her children.
They also noted in their statement to TMZ that she was a great friend who loved pickleball and Pokémon cards, and once even gifted a children’s cooking set from China to the couple’s kids — one which the couple remembers to this day.
“She was so generous, so kind, so loving. She’s someone that never deserved this,” Dana told TMZ.
Sam IV, who was the son of Hollywood executive Sam Haskell III, was charged with three counts of murder in connection with the November 2023 deaths of Mei Li, 37, and her parents Gaoshan Li, 72, and Yanxiang Wang, 64.
Authorities had alleged that Sam IV had hired four day laborers on Nov. 7, 2023 to dispose of several large trash bags, which one of the laborers said contained body parts.
That same day, Sam IV was observed allegedly disposing of another trash bag that was later found to have a human torso in it, prosecutors said. The partial remains were later identified through DNA as belonging to his wife, Mei Li.
Sam Haskell IV was accused of the murder of his wife and in-laws.
SAM HASKELL/Tiktok
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Sam IV had pleaded not guilty to the charges and was being held without bail. He faced a maximum of life in prison without the possibility of parole had he been convicted as charged.
Following Sam IV’s suicide, his attorney Joseph Weimortz said in a statement to PEOPLE: “The Haskell family grieves every single life lost in this case. They now respectfully request to be able to mourn in private and welcome your prayers.”
Sam IV and Mei Li had three sons.
