Chef Who Murdered His Wife Boiled Her Remains ‘For Four Days’

Do you remember that story about David Viens, the California chef who allegedly murdered his wife and cooked her remains? Take out the “allegedly” part and you have the latest update to the most nightmare-fueled chef crime story ever.

The LA Times reports that during his murder trial, where he initially pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife, Dawn Viens, prosecutors played a tape recording of a confession he gave to sheriffs investigating his wife’s disappearance. After an argument with her, during which he bound her hands and duct-taped her mouth shut, he woke up to find her dead from choking on her own vomit.

According to the recording, Viens said he stuffed his wife’s body into a barrel of boiling water and kept it there. “I just slowly cooked it and I ended up cooking her for four days,” he told a sergeant.

He then mixed her remains with other kitchen waste and disposed of the body.

Though he gave similar confessions to his daughter and ex-girlfriend, Viens still has pled not guilty to murder charges, and in fact threw himself off a cliff when he learned that he was being investigated for his wife’s disappearance. (He survived the suicide attempt and is currently in a wheelchair.)

Here’s a link to the National Zoo’s Baby Panda-Cam to help you feel better after reading this story.

[LA Times via Gawker]

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