Shocker in the Dawn Viens Missing Person's Case

by Cathy Scott

As promised by Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Dave Coleman in 2011, detectives planned to talk at length with David Viens, who has long been suspected of killing his missing wife, Dawn.

Investigators did more than that. They interviewed David Viens' daughter, from an earlier relationship, about the goings-on immediately after Dawn disappeared in 2009 from the quaint village of Lomita, California.

In 2011, investigators jack-hammered and tore down interior walls of the Thyme Café, owned by Dawn and David Viens. Deputies also used a cadaver-sniffing dog.

They were on the right track. This week, the sheriff's department announced a shocking revelation gleaned from interviews with the daughter and the confession of her father. It is this: David Viens told police he "slow cooked" his wife's body for four days in a brand-new cooker he'd purchased for the cafe. He then hid her skull and jaw in his mother's attic.

David had been having an affair with a younger woman and, a week after Dawn's disappearance, witnesses saw him tossing out Dawn's clothing. Then he moved his new girlfriend into his home. On top of that, the girlfriend took over Dawn's duties at the cafe.

Dawn, who was in her late 30s, was last seen by friends on October 18, 2009 leaving her the cafe.

Not long after her disappearance, however, as law enforcement zeroed in on David, as a deputy tailed him while driving on Pacific Coast Highway, David stopped his car, ran to the cliff and jumped 80 feet to the beach below. He survived but suffered multiple fractured bones and internal injuries. After he recovered, he confessed to police and he was indicted for murder.

Meanwhile, in exchange for the daughter's damning statements about her father David and to secure her eventual testimony in court, the daughter reportedly was given immunity from prosecution. She told deputies that the day after Dawn disappeared, David Viens gave her Dawn's cell phone and asked her to pose as Dawn and send text messages to Dawn's friends and family saying she needed time for herself and would be out of town for a few days. As days turned into weeks, David became the main person of interest.

These kinds of details, albeit some of them grisly, have the makings for a true crime story. In fact, the Dawn Viens story is my next true crime book (I started the manuscript late last year). You can't make this stuff up.

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Who Killed Dawn Viens?

by Cathy Scott

This week, investigators, working with a crew of firefighters and coroner's office personnel, used jackhammers to dig up the concrete floor and tear down the interior walls of the Thyme Café, owned by Dawn and David Viens. They also used a cadaver-sniffing dogs. They were looking for Dawn.

Unfortunately, they didn’t find her–not yet, anyway. Dawn, in her late 30s, was reported missing 16 months ago after she was last seen at the restaurant in the quaint village of Lomita, California. It’s the latest turn of events in a case that has left her distraught family and friends searching, to no avail, for her body. Police, on March 3, filed a murder charge against her 47-year-old husband David.

Earlier in the week, David, after learning he was a suspect in his wife's disappearance and as a way, apparently, to evade police, dove off of an 80-foot cliff.

That day, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies had received information that Viens had been driving near the rugged Pacific coastline. Fearing he might attempt suicide, a patrol unit was dispatched, found him and began following his car. When Viens spotted the black-and-white in his rear-view mirror, he sped toward a lighthouse parking lot, parked and jumped out of the car. Also there was Kathy Galvan, Viens’ live-in girlfriend. Deputies witnessed the pair wrestling with each other, intervened, and that’s when Viens broke free and jumped off the cliff to the beach below.

But David had not plunged to his death. He was life-flighted, in a helicopter, to a local hospital. Doctors, following surgery to repair massive internal injuries and broken bones, put him in a medicinally induced coma to keep swelling of his brain to a minimum. He was in intensive care and classified as in critical conditon.

After the jump, Sheriff's Lt. Dave Coleman described surviving such a jump as “amazing.”

"That was a pretty steep cliff, and he landed squarely on the rocks below,” the lieutenant told AOL News. “The area is steps away from the Trump National Golf Course.”

Then, Coleman told AOL News, “We intend to talk to him in the hospital. He has carried a tremendous amount of guilt for some time because he knows he killed her. He will be arrested and charged with Dawn's murder."

And that’s exactly what they did. Once Viens was lifted from the coma, authorities once again interviewed him. Then the case was sent to the district attorney’s office, and, on March 3, the charge of murder was handed down against David Viens for the death of his wife.

Concerned family and friends had reported Dawn missing about three weeks after she was seen, for the last time, at the couple's restaurant in the quaint village city of Lomita. The couple had previously owned Basil & Rosemary's, also in Lomita, but it went out of business. After her disappearance, David remodeled the restaurant, prompting sheriff's deputies to search there for Dawn's body.

In 2005, Viens was arrested in Florida and ultimately served prison time for drug trafficking, according to the Daily Breeze. At the time, Dawn described her husband to authorities as a "middle dealer" and, "due to the dealing," the couple were able to enjoy a comfortable lifestyle. 

Just after David’s failed attempt at suicide, a handmade note was posted on the cafe's front door, along with flowers left there, that read, “RIP Dawn Viens.”

Indeed. It is a sad but compelling case. And so it is that I am letting the cat out of the bag and reporting here that the Dawn Viens story is my next true crime book, which will be my ninth nonfiction book. It has all the elements, and my agent agrees.

If you knew Dawn or David, frequented one of their restaurants, or have any information about the couple, please feel free to contact me at: Cathy At CathyScott dot com.

Photo credit of Dawn Viens: LACrimeStoppers

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Mitrice Richardson's relationship to Mel Gibson

by Robin Sax

Is there any relationship between the death of Mitrice Richardson (left) and Mel Gibson’s rage-a-holic issues? Both cases happen to be assigned to the Lost Hills Branch of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department -- but that is not much of a connection (as hundreds of cases go through that department). However, the Mitrice Richardson case is impacting the Mel Gibson investigation.

Mitrice Richardson was the 24-year-old woman whose remains were recently found and confirmed. Mitrice was last seen leaving a Los Angeles County Sheriff's station in Malibu in the early morning hours of September 17, 2009 (after being arrested the evening before at the swanky Geoffreys of Malibu). She was arrested for allegedly skipping on her tab and showing signs of "strange and erratic behavior." The search for Mitrice was riddled with issues. Her family is angry; they believe that a young girl with apparent mental health concerns should not have been released in the dark desolate wilderness of Malibu. She should have been kept at the sheriff’s station until a relative could have picked her up; if she had been, she might still be with us today. The finding of Mitrice's body puts no closure on this case which has many more questions than answers.

There is a general feeling here in Los Angeles that something stinks in Lost Hills. While Sheriff Baca (right) insists there was no homicide, the suspicions abound: Why was Mitrice released alone in the middle of the night? Why did the sheriff’s officials deny the existence of a videotape for so many months? Are sheriff's deputies being investigated? Is this a racial issue (of disparate treatment for an African American woman)? What really happened here?

The Mitrice Richardson case, although prominently featured on the CNN Headline News's "Jane Velez-Mitchell" show, hasn't seen nearly as much national print or TV press as Mel Gibson’s most recent brush with the law. Sources close to the Mel Gibson investigation confirm my notion that “if this case was anyone else, that person would be arrested so fast your head would spin.” 

Well, duh! Any Mel Jones or Smith accused of domestic violence with the heap of corroboration or evidence (as in this case) would have been arrested already. There would be a mound of paperwork on the DA’s desk requesting charges for domestic violence, criminal threats, assault with a deadly weapon, child endangerment, and a few other felony charges.  A cop wouldn’t even think twice about this arrest. The minimal probable cause standard has been met and re-met over and over again here.

We haven’t seen too many changes in the justice system in the last 20 years. But one positive shift is that domestic violence is not treated lightly or brushed off in today's climate. In my experience, at least 85 percent of the time where there is felonious domestic violence conduct in a case, there is an arrest -- period. Given the high correlation of domestic batteries leading to domestic murders, no police station in a post-OJ era wants to risk blood on their hands. Most cops chose to follow the lead of the lobbyists and politicians by adopting the "no tolerance" rule for domestic violence. You hit, you injure, and you go to jail.

So if that’s the case, why hasn’t Mel been arrested yet? Part of the answer may be that Mel Gibson (left) is one of the most powerful actors around. But I have come to find out that the predominant reason is because of the Mitrice Richardson case. 

What happened with Mitrice Richardson (and we only found out recently that she is dead) has brought on so much bad local press for the Sheriff’s Department that it is paralyzed. The recent Friday, August 13, Los Angeles Times editorial "Failing Mitrice Richardson: A woman's tragic end in Malibu Canyon raises questions about Sheriff's Department practices" comes down very hard on the sheriff's department. How can the department now afford to act in Mel’s case and risk more intense scrutiny at this time? As a matter of fact, my sources tell me the department is so paralyzed it has pretty much allowed Blair Berk (Mel’s lawyer) to dictate the course of the entire investigation.

So, it's clear (as I said): the Mitrice  Richardson case is directly affecting the investigation -- and probably the prosecution -- of Mel Gibson. Although the Sheriff's Department says it plans to turn over Mel Gibson's domestic violence case to prosecutors "within the next two weeks" -- it remains to be seen. And hopefully, since no suspect has been identified in Mitrice's case, the effect that Mitrice Richardson has on the Sheriff's department won't spill over to the DA's office too.

It is interesting to note that we are talking about the same police department that arrested Mel Gibson for his DUI back in 2006 when he went on a racist, antisemitic, misogynistic rant for officers while resisting arrest. So how did Gibson get home that night? Reportedly, he got a ride home from the police. 

So, if it had been Mel  arrested that night in Geoffreys instead of Mitrice (and we can just imagine what range of "mental health" issues would have brought on Gibson's arrest),  they surely wouldn't have released Mel into the dark night without knowing exactly how he was getting home safe.  

The reality of this last fact is the crux of the whole issue: that is, when the eyes of the celebrity media monster are fixated on a case in the LA Sheriff's Department,  the department is going to act differently, or not act at all. Are they hoping the monster will just go away? I am sure Mitrice's family is feeling the same as I do ... hoping that justice will be served by prosecuting Mel, by getting to the bottom of what happened to Mitrice (right, on People magazine cover in 2009), and holding the police and criminals accountable. 

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