Murdered wife of Hollywood agent’s son may have been alive when she was decapitated, autopsy shows
Murdered Hollywood mom Meil Li Haskell was likely bludgeoned, shot, and suffocated before being hacked up with power tools, according to gruesome new details from her autopsy — which could not rule out that she was still alive when she was decapitated.
The 37-year-old wife of Sam Haskell IV, the Hollywood executive’s son charged with murdering her and her still-missing parents, was decapitated with a “single sharp force” at the base of her neck, according to the autopsy report obtained by The Post.
An unspecified “sharp powered tool” appears to have been used to remove her head and arms because the bone at the amputation sites was “remarkably smooth,” the Los Angeles County Medical Examiners report noted.
Most disturbingly, the mom of three may have been alive when she was cut up.
“There was no definitive indication that the dismemberment occurred antemortem, however, the possibility that the head and neck removal was initiated prior to death cannot be entirely excluded,” the coroner wrote.
Although the victim’s toxicology reports indicated no signs of drugs in her system, coroners could not rule out that she was poisoned with an unknown substance.
Mei Li’s death was ruled a homicide with the likely cause of death being blunt force trauma to the head/neck, possible gunshot wounds to the head, or a sharp force injury.
She was also possibly suffocated, the autopsy noted.
“Given the circumstance of the case, which includes the deliberate concealment of the body by dismemberment and disposal, the cause of death is homicidal violence,” the autopsy report stated.
Mei Li’s husband, Sam Haskell IV, 35, has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder for allegedly killing and chopping up his wife and her parents, Goashan Li, 72, and Yanxiang Wang, 64, whose bodies have not been found.
Haskell was arrested on Nov. 8, after a homeless person found his wife’s headless torso wrapped in plastic in a dumpster near her home in Tarzana, Calif.
Haskell’s father, William Morris Agency executive vice president Samuel Haskell III, has represented a string of A-listers, including George Clooney, Dolly Parton, Whoopi Goldberg — and even King Charles’ brother Prince Edward.
