Jury Hears LA-area Chef Say on Tape He Cooked Wife

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A Los Angeles-area chef is on trial for allegedly killing his wife and cooking her body in boiling water.

David Viens tells investigators in a recorded statement that he stuffed his wife's body in a 55-gallon drum of boiling water and kept it submerged with weights.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Viens told police, "I just slowly cooked it and I ended up cooking her for four days."

On the recording played in court, Viens is asked what happened on Oct. 18, 2009, the night his wife Dawn disappeared. Viens says "For some reason I just got violent."

Thirty-nine-year-old Dawn Viens' body was never found.

Her husband is attending his murder trial in a wheelchair, after leaping off an 80-foot cliff when he learned he was a suspect in his wife's disappearance.

Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. Material may not be redistributed.