Chef Comes Clean About Boiling His Wife At Their South Bay Restaurant

LOMITA, CA — In a bid for parole, a South Bay restaurateur convicted of murdering his wife in 2013 has come clean about cooking her at their South Bay eatery, according to reports.

Nearly 12 years ago, Los Angeles chef David Viens claimed he was suffering from hallucinations after taking painkillers, causing him to falsely admit to detectives he had boiled his wife Dawn's body, poured her liquid remains down a grease trap and threw her bones in the garbage. All these years later, he's admitting it was true.

A judge sentenced Viens to 15 years to life in prison on March 22, 2013.

Veins appeared at a parole hearing on Sept. 26, coming clean that he had indeed cooked his wife in an attempt to convince a California Parole Board Panel that he is taking responsibility, is remorseful and worthy of early release, according to The Daily Breeze.

“I extend my deepest apologies to all of my victims who have been and continue to suffer because of my selfish and destructive actions, especially to my wife, Dawn,” Viens told the panel. “I apologize sincerely for murdering Dawn and then callously lying about it. I wish that I could reverse the pain I have caused and bring her back to you.”

The Parole Board denied Viens' bid for early release and said he could try again in three years.

Viens' gruesome story is known as one of the most shocking crimes in South Bay history and has been featured on many true-crime programs including CBS's "48 Hours" and Oxygen's "The Real Murders of Los Angeles.”

After killing Dawn in 2009, Viens spent four days in the kitchen of his now-shuttered restaurant the Thyme Contemporary Cafe cooking her body "until it was done." Viens told the parole panel that he got the idea to boil the body from something he had seen on TV.

Dawn's family and friends filed a missing person's report within weeks of her disappearance and sought help from the media as Viens continued on as normal.

As police began to close in on him, Viens confessed to his new girlfriend what he did and jumped in his car and drove to a cliff in Rancho Palos Verdes. Despite his girlfriend's attempts to stop him, Viens jumped off the cliff and fell 80 feet, but survived.

Read more from the Daily Breeze: Imprisoned South Bay restaurateur comes clean in bid for parole: He cooked his wife’s body