California chef on trial for killing his wife told cops he slow-cooked her body for four days

The grisly detail emerged during the second week of the murder trial of David Viens, accused in the death of Dawn Viens in October 2009

David Viens is on trial for the murder of wife Dawn, who has been missing since 2009.


A California chef told police he slow-cooked his wife’s body for four days after accidentally killing her, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The grisly detail emerged Tuesday during the second week of the murder trial of David Viens, accused in the death of 39-year-old Dawn Viens in October 2009.

In two March 2011 interviews with authorities that were played for the jury on Tuesday, David Viens recounted how he caused the death of his wife and disposed of her remains. The interviews were conducted in a hospital because Viens had jumped off an 80-foot cliff when suspected by police in his wife’s disappearance.

David Viens, 49, said on the night of Oct. 18, 2009, he taped his wife’s mouth and bound her hands and feet to prevent her from “driving around wasted, whacked out on coke and drinking,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

“For some reason I just got violent,” Viens said, according to the paper.

He said he panicked when he woke up the next morning and found his wife dead. Viens told investigators he placed her body into a large drum of boiling water and used weights to keep it submerged, the newspaper reported.

“I just slowly cooked it and I ended up cooking her for four days,” he said, according to the paper.

“You cooked on Dawn’s body for four days?” responded Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Sgt. Richard Garcia.

“Before it was done,” Viens said. He didn’t say where he cooked the body, but Viens owned the Thyme Contemporary Cafe in Lomita, Calif., at the time.

The defendant did say he kept his wife’s skull. “That’s the only thing I didn’t want to get rid of in case I wanted to leave it somewhere,” he admitted, according to the Los Angeles Times.

He told police that the skull was in his mother’s attic in Torrance, but they did not find it there.

Viens’ daughter testified last week that her father joked about cooking his wife’s body to get rid of the evidence. A girlfriend of the defendant also testified last week, according to the paper.

Viens, who is attending the trial in a wheelchair, pleaded not guilty.