The Chef from Hell

Don’t smell what Viens is cooking

Jury hears recording of Los Angeles-area chef saying he boiled wife’s body for several days – The Washington Post.

California chef David Viens pleaded not guilty to the 2009 murder of his wife, Dawn. His defense even claimed he was under the influence of Ambien at the time and remembered nothing.

Then a 2011 recording was introduced into evidence.

The recording was made shortly after Viens jumped from an 80-foot cliff because he learned he was a suspect in his wife’s murder. Police interviewed him as he recovered in the hospital, and what they heard was quite shocking.

Apparently, Viens killed his wife and then boiled her corpse for four days to destroy everything but her skull. The sludge her body produced was mixed with other waste and dumped either in the trash or in the grease trap at Viens’ restaurant. And although Viens told police where he hid the skull, it was never found.

Viens was upset because he thought Dawn was stealing money from his restaurant. He confronted her one evening, got into a heated argument and decided to tie her up and tape her mouth.

Conveniently enough, he doesn’t remember anything else until he awoke four hours later and found his wife dead. And as I mentioned, Viens blames everything on Ambien.

Sounds like a load of you-know-what to me.

Lecter eyes his next meal (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As horrible as this story is, I would be lying if I didn’t say Viens’ methods surprised me a little. Talk about sticking to your skill set. I suppose his only other choice as a chef would have been to incorporate her body into food, which is even more disgusting. In “Silence of the Lambs,” the character of Hannibal Lecter was accused of doing something like this with a symphony musician he despised. Lecter made pate or something out of him and served it at a dinner party.Yuck!

What Viens did was sick and demented, so I hope he gets what’s coming to him. My only fear is that the lack of a body and the Ambien thing will get him off the hook. If this happens, though, I’m sure it will only be a matter of time before Viens is emboiled… I mean embroiled… in another scandal.

About these ads