Ex-Islander David Viens allegedly has confessed to killing wife Dawn Viens, not seen since October 2009, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
“He implicated himself in her killing,” Lt. David Coleman said of the husband.
The alleged confession came a week after David Viens, 47, attempted suicide, which followed the discovery of blood splatter in the bedroom of the California home he had shared with his wife, who was 39 at the time she disappeared.
Detectives questioned the husband at the County Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where he was recovering after leaping 100 feet from a cliff.
At the time of the questioning, a coroner’s team, employing excavation equipment, was searching for Dawn Viens’ remains at the Thyme Contemporary Cafe in Lomita, Calif. Until Dawn Viens disappeared, the couple was operating the restaurant together.
More recently, David Viens and a girlfriend were operating the restaurant, which was closed and remodeled after his wife was reported missing.
A sheriff’s department spokesman said the husband first confessed to his girlfriend that he killed his wife after a forensics team found blood in his former home.
However, he did not reveal to her or to authorities what he did with her remains.
While still hospitalized, David Viens, who previously had told authorities he kicked his wife out because she refused to get treatment for a drug addiction, was arrested on suspicion of murder.
On March 3, he was charged with one count of murder.
Several years ago, the Viens lived in Holmes Beach about 200 feet from Anna Maria Elementary School and operated the Beach City Market in Bradenton Beach.
In 2005, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office led a raid at the market and home, arresting David Viens on suspicion of marijuana possession with intent to sell or distribute within 1,000 feet of a school, possession of opium and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. He also was arrested on suspicion of trafficking marijuana.
An arrest report filed at the Manatee County Judicial Center stated that MCSO investigators executing a search warrant at the Viens’ 49th Street residence found a 10-pound bag of marijuana, smaller bags of marijuana and hashish and a shotgun.
On April 5, 2005, the state filed notice that the charges were dropped. Viens was, at the time, facing a federal charge of conspiracy to distribute and possess marijuana. He pleaded guilty to that charge in 2007.
Viens also was prosecuted and convicted in Vermont in 1983 under a federal narcotics law.
