Murdered mom Mei Haskell wanted to divorce husband: friends

Murdered mom Mei Haskell reportedly told friends for years that she wanted to divorce the husband now charged with chopping her up — but feared his powerful Hollywood agent dad would ensure she lost custody of their three kids.

Friends told the Daily Mail that the 27-year-old mom had for at least four years discussed her wishes to leave abusive Samuel Haskell IV, whom they described as “weird” and with the “same creepy vibe” as serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer.

“Mei first brought up a divorce when I was getting one in 2019,” a friend only identified as Jenny told the outlet.

“I told her she could do it, but she just felt like she couldn’t risk losing her boys,” she said of their sons aged 6, 8 and 12.

“She was afraid that her husband would take away the kids with the help of his very rich and influential father,” Jenny said of her friend who “felt trapped.”

“She said it wasn’t happening — that there was no way she could get a divorce.”

The friend believes Mei’s divorce desire may be behind her grisly murder, which her husband — the son of former William Morris Agency executive vice president Samuel Haskell III — is now charged with, along with those of her still-missing parents.

“Maybe she brought it up again, and then he snapped,” Jenny said, while claiming Mei told her her husband had been physically abusive.

“She told me that he had hurt her. He had hit her.”

Jenny also claimed Mei told her that her husband did not get along with her mother, YanXiang Wang, 64, and her father Gaoshan Li, 72, who moved into their Tarzana home about five years ago to help look after the couple’s three children.

“She said he was rude to them and ignored them. That they made him feel angry,” Jenny claimed.

“They couldn’t speak English, but he made no effort to interact with them.”

Authorities believe Haskell chopped up his wife in his home and then hired day laborers to dispose of three garbage bags full of the odious evidence, which prosecutors say weighed about 50 pounds each.

The workers returned the bags and their $500 payment after they opened them and saw their grizzly contents — not believing his claims that they were full of rocks.

“I started seeing body parts, a belly button,” one of the workers told NBC4 in Spanish.

He was arrested after a woman’s torso was found in a dumpster at a mall about five miles from their home.

Police are still searching for the remains of Wang and Li, even as Haskell is charged with their slayings.

Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman had said there was evidence he had slaughtered them in their home, adding, “I don’t need a body to charge a murder.”

Friends have described Haskell as being “paranoid” prior to his arrest, and said he once pulled a machete on a childhood friend.

“Looking back now, he obviously liked knives or sharp things,” the friend told Fox News Digital.

Mei’s friends also described Haskell as “weird.”

“He would make these sudden moves with his arms and just blurt things out,” one friend told the Mail.

“When I first met him, I immediately thought of Jeffrey Dahmer — that same creepy vibe,” the friend said. “He would walk really fast with his head down, rarely look up and never make eye contact.”

Haskell was previously charged with two counts of assault with a deadly weapon. He pleaded no contest to battery and was placed on three years’ probation in 2010, according to the Los Angeles Times.

He has now pleaded not guilty to three special circumstances murder counts and is being held without bail.

His and Mei’s three sons, meanwhile, are in the custody of his married parents.

His Hollywood exec dad has yet to comment on the case, and has not responded to messages.