Shocking new details from an autopsy report showed California mother Mei Li Haskell may have been shot in the head, strangled and suffered blunt force trauma before her dismembered body was dumped in a dumpster.
Coroners described the violent and gruesome ways the 37-year-old mother of three suffered before her headless and armless torso was found wrapped in a plastic garbage bag on Nov. 8, 2023, near her home in Tarzana, California.
“The bone margins at the amputation sites were remarkably smooth,” according to the report obtained by DailyMail.com. “This suggests that a sharp power tool was likely used to perform these amputations.”
Coroners said Mei Li was dismembered with a ‘single sharp force’ at the base of her neck, with half of her thigh still intact and connected to the torso.
“There was no definitive indication that the dismemberment took place before death, but the possibility that the head and neck removal began before death cannot be completely ruled out.”
The LA County Department of Medical Examiner report found Mei Li Haskell, 37, was dismembered with ‘single sharp force’
The 37-year-old mother’s remains were wrapped in a plastic bag and found by a passer-by digging through a rubbish bin not far from where the Haskells lived
The bag containing Mei Li’s headless torso was found stuffed in a duffel bag and dumped in this dumpster behind Ventura Boulevard and Rubio Avenue, near a family-style restaurant, a hair salon and two banks
While toxicology reports showed no evidence of narcotics in the tested remains, officials from the LA County Department of Medical Examiners said they also cannot rule out whether the 37-year-old mother was poisoned with an unidentified substance.
The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide and the probable cause as blunt force trauma to the head/neck, possible gunshot wounds to the head/neck or blunt force trauma.
They also said that Mei Li might have suffocated.
“Given the circumstances of the case, which include deliberate concealment of the body by dismemberment and disposal, the cause of death is homicide,” coroners wrote in the report.
Mei Li’s husband, Samuel Haskell IV, has been charged with her murder as well as the deaths of her parents, mother Yanxiang Wang, 64, and father Gaoshan Li, 72.
LA Police Department sources told DailyMail.com that the parents’ remains have still not been found.
Samuel Haskell IV, son of a famous Hollywood super agent, appears in a Downtown Los Angeles court
Samuel Haskell IV has been charged with her murder as well as the deaths of her parents, mother Yanxiang Wang, 64, and father Gaoshan Li, 72.
Samuel Haskell – who is the son of a Hollywood super agent who has represented stars such as George Clooney, Dolly Parton and Whoopi Goldberg – remains in a Downtown LA jail on a ‘no bail’ bond.
The heavily tattooed Haskell, who was on the prison’s suicide watch, appeared shirtless at a Dec. 8 hearing after Velcro straps on a special gown he was wearing came loose.
Prosecutors allege Haskell hired four day laborers a day after the murders and paid $500 to remove black trash bags from his home.
Power agent Samuel Haskell III, the defendant’s father, touts himself as ‘the nice guy in Hollywood’ on his website, but several former Miss America contestants came forward on an A&E docuseries and accused him of ‘playing God’, while cultivating a toxic culture of hatred against women in the organization
Mei Li Haskell dabbled in modeling but coached foreign students on their university applications to top universities in America. Her friends said she was a ‘devoted mother’ to her three young sons.
A worker said Haskell told them the bags were filled with rocks before later saying the body parts were ‘Halloween props,’ according to local NBC4 News.
“When we picked up the bags, we could see they weren’t rocks,” the worker said, noting the bags were “soft and soaked.”
The man added that he and his colleagues looked into the bags and saw ‘body parts, a navel’. The men said they then returned the bags and money to Haskell’s home.
They quickly went to report what they found to the LA Police Department, but were initially turned away, according to the LA Times.
Neighbors said Sam Haskell was ‘weird’ and had a fascination with swords
Haskell then allegedly placed the plastic bags in his white Tesla and drove to a dumpster in Encino, where he was caught on camera disposing of the remains.
Haskell is scheduled to appear in court on March 26 for a pretrial hearing.
Mei Li, who sometimes modeled, had her own company called Haskell Consulting Group, according to records obtained by DailyMail.com.
Through her small business, the mother coached and helped foreign students with their college applications to the Ivy League and other top universities in the United States
Her husband, who has gone by the stage name ‘Samuel Bassinger’ since at least 2013, had worked as an editor for stars such as rappers Tyga and Machine Gun Kelly as recently as three years ago, according to his X account, formerly known as Twitter.
Neighbors said Samuel was ‘strange’ and had a fascination with martial arts and samurai swords.
The couple’s three young children live with the family, but their Tarzana home remains untouched, a friend of Mei Li told DailyMail.com.