A group of day laborers told Los Angeles NBC affiliate NBC4 that Sam Haskell Jr. paid them $500 to haul trash bags that were full of body parts from his home. The son of an Emmy-winning producer, Haskell was arrested on suspicion of murder on Wednesday.

The workers said they were hired to carry away three trash bags from inside Haskell’s garage. Haskell initially told the men the bags contained rocks, but the men said it was immediately clear this wasn’t true.

One explained, “When we picked up the bags, we could tell they weren’t rocks.”

The men also described the bags as “soft and soggy.”

Once the workers were a block away, they pulled over to look inside the bags. An unidentified worker said, “I started seeing body parts, a belly button. I was astonished. Of course, I felt bad. We had been tricked.”

The men returned the money and the bags to Haskell and tried to alert authorities. They added that two law enforcement stations — a California Highway Patrol station and the LAPD Topanga Station — turned them away.

Haskell’s arrest came after a woman’s dismembered torso was found outside a dumpster in a parking lot in Encino. Haskell’s wife, Mei, and her parents Gaoshan Li and YanXiang Wong, are still missing. He is due in court on Monday.

Culled from The Wrap