Name: Dawn Marie Viens
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: October 19, 2009
Location Last Seen: Lomita, Los Angeles County, California
Date of Birth: March 16, 1970
Age: 39 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 110 lbs.
Hair Color: Auburn
Eye Color: Brown
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Tattoo of a yellow butterfly on right hip, tattoo of a star on ankle
Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Available
DNA: Available
Clothing: Unknown
Jewelry: Diamond stud earrings and a gold wedding band.
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Dawn was last seen on October 19, 2009.
In 2012, Dawn's husband was convicted of second-degree murder. He confessed to detectives to boiling Dawn in a large drum over four nights on his kitchen stove, disposing of her flesh in his restaurant's grease pit, throwing her bones in the dumpster, and placing her skull in his mother's attic. The skull was not found.
In 2021, Dawn's husband was denied parole. During the hearing, he backpedaled on his earlier confession. He now claimed to have wrapped clear packing tape around Dawn's arms and mouth, took two sleeping pills, and went to bed. When he woke up, Dawn was dead. He wrapped her body in three clear plastic trash bags, put it in an antique cedar trunk, loaded it into his SUV, and threw it into a trash bin outside his restaurant.
Dawn's body has yet to be found.
Agency Name: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department
Agency Contact Person: Det. Tamar Abraham
Agency Phone Number: 323-890-5500
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: 009-04249-1711-400
NamUs Case Number: 14229
NCIC Case Number: Unknown
NamUs
California Department of Justice
Daily Breeze - Jun. 9, 2021
Added: 4/11/2017; Last Updated: 7/18/22 - By: hb
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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