Crime Scenes

Lomita’s Killer Chef Once Joked About Cooking a Corpse

David Viens, once the chef and owner behind Lomita’s Thyme Contemporary Cafe, faced some damning testimony from his own daughter yesterday while on trial for the murder of his wife, Dawn Viens, who met her accused killer while working as waitress at the place. According to Contra Costa Times, Jacqueline Viens first dropped the dime on dear old dad after he confessed to the killing as the two drove home from the cafe following closing (and here we thought learning the birds-and-bees made for an awkward conversation).

Mr. Viens was later arrested and confessed to the crime following an attempt to take his own life by jumping head-first off of an 80-foot Palos Verdes’ cliff, a failed effort that leaves him in a wheelchair to this day. But almost as sickening as the way Viens allegedly offed his other half, apparently after an argument over the chef’s long working hours, is daughter Jacqueline’s statement that the two had once joked about the perfect method of disposing of a corpse.

The younger Viens testified in court this week, “He is a chef…He would joke about cooking a body.”

That statement becomes even more disturbing when considering that the body of Dawn Viens, whose disappearance lead to weeks of searches, rumors, and questions from neighbors and the restaurant’s regulars, was never found. The accused claims he dumped her corpse in back of the restaurant, but creepily also told police, “(Her body) will never be found” while police efforts to find her remains by tearing up the restaurant’s concrete also proved fruitless.

No one’s saying Viens may have cooked his wife (yet), but nonetheless, it’s one more reason to breathe easy if you avoided this cursed cafe altogether.

UPDATED: Prosecutor: Lomita chef David Viens told detectives he disposed of wife’s body [CCT]

Lomita’s Killer Chef Once Joked About Cooking a Corpse