Pixie With an I-E: The Murder of Dawn Viens

If you or someone you love is being hurt by a partner, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788

In October 2009, Dawn "Pixie" Viens vanished from Lomita, California. She was 39, the hostess at Thyme Contemporary Cafe, the restaurant she ran with her husband, chef David Viens. He told everyone she walked out after a fight. But her Jeep never left the lot, she never picked up the money she'd been saving with a friend, and a text from her phone spelled her own nickname wrong.

Ashley and Ricky tell Dawn's story, from her childhood in Burlington, Vermont, and her years on Anna Maria Island, Florida, to the friends and family who refused to accept that she just left. We cover the missing person case, the Daily Breeze reporting that kept her name in the news, David Viens's 2011 jump from a cliff in Rancho Palos Verdes, his hospital confession, the 2012 murder trial, and his parole hearings through 2026. Dawn's remains have never been found.

Content warning: domestic violence and descriptions of what was done to Dawn's body.

If you or someone you love is being hurt by a partner, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788

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Keywords: Dawn Viens, Dawn Papin Viens, David Viens, Lomita, Thyme Contemporary Cafe, chef who cooked his wife, Rancho Palos Verdes cliff

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