David Viens had a restaurant in Lomita, California, and a wife, Dawn, 39, whom he accused of stealing money from the business.
In October 2009, she disappeared. No one ever found her remains because, as Viens himself confessed to police, he destroyed them: he placed her in a container holding nearly 200 liters of boiling water and cooked her for four days. “I let it cool, strained it, and then threw the remains in the trash”, he said. His version was that he had tied her hands and feet with duct tape while she was intoxicated, and that she died suffocating after vomiting with her mouth covered.
The prosecution did not believe him. In their view, the true cause of death was strangulation, which was why he needed four full days to dispose of the body. In 2011, before facing trial, Viens attempted to take his own life by jumping from a 25-meter cliff and was left disabled. He arrived at court in a wheelchair. In September 2012, a Los Angeles jury deliberated for five and a half hours before finding him guilty of second-degree murder.
