Torso slay knife twist

‘Machete threat’

The Hollywood scion accused of chopping up his wife and her parents once pulled a machete on an estranged childhood friend who years later saw him acting “paranoid” weeks before cops found what they believe to be his wife’s dismembered torso in a dumpster, according to a report.

The anonymous woman described Sam Haskell IV to Fox Digital on Tuesday as “attractive, intelligent, and extremely socially awkward” and detailed how as a teenager, he once pulled a machete on her and her brother after Haskell was asked to stop calling her so much. He left her alone until they reconciled as adults after buying houses on the same street.

She noticed something seemed off when she last saw him and his children at a Los Angeles diner.

“Typically, when we run into each other, it’s a hug,” the woman said. “This time, he was backing away from me . . . He doesn’t want a hug, and he’s backing up, like I’m a threat or something like that,” she continued, without providing the date of the encounter.

“He seemed very paranoid, and then he sat in the far back of the restaurant away from everybody,” she said, adding that he waved her away. “So that was just weird, even for Sam.”

Haskell, 35, was arrested last week after a bottle scavenger found a woman’s torso in a Tarzana dumpster, about five miles from his home.

Police believe the body is that of his wife, Mei Haskell, 37, who had been reported missing along with her parents, Yanxiang Wang, 64, and Gaoshan Li, 72 — natives of China who lived with the Haskells and their three young children.

Authorities believe Haskell chopped up his wife in his home, and they are searching for the remains of Wang and Li.