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Jury Hears Tape Of Lomita Chef Saying He 'Cooked' His Wife

LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) — A Lomita chef on trial for his wife's murder told sheriff's investigators that they couldn't find his wife's body because he had slow-cooked it for days in boiling water until little was left but her skull.

The recorded interview with David Viens was played for jurors at his trial Tuesday.

The Los Angeles Times says Viens was interviewed as he lay in a hospital bed in March 2011 after leaping off an 80-foot cliff when he learned he was a suspect in the 2009 disappearance of his wife, 39-year-old Dawn Viens, whose body was never found.

Viens, the owner of Thyme Contemporary Cafe, said in the interview that he put her body in a 55-gallon drum of boiling water, keeping it submerged with weights and disposed of what remained along with other waste.

(TM and © Copyright 2012 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

 

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