Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / Real Life 'Hell's Kitchen': Gorgeous Restauranteur Disappears. What happened to Dawn Viens?

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Real Life 'Hell's Kitchen': Gorgeous Restauranteur Disappears. What happened to Dawn Viens? · Crime Stories with Nancy Grace

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Quote, I love my wife. I didn't cook my wife. Yes,
• 0:12
  Speaker 2: you heard me right. That is what David Vann said
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: in court in twenty thirteen. I loved my wife, he
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: said emphatically, I did not cook my wife. Okay, here
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: we go. Hello, I'm Nancy Grace.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: This guy, David Vann's convicted of murdering his wife, then
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: try to convince the judge at sentencing it didn't happen well.
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: In the last days, the very successful restaurant tour comes
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: clean in a bid for parole, and he says, oh, yeah, okay,
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: I did cook my wife. Okay, like that's going to
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: help him get parole. Seriously, I cooked my wife. Let
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: me walk free. Okay, where did this whole thing start?
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: On?
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: The suggestion that Dawn disappears after an argument, leaving with
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: nothing but her Louis Vuitton bag, a mystery text listen.
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: Finally, a friend named Monica comes to police with a repeal.
• 1:32
  Speaker 5: What does it say? It says, I'm okay, I'm in Florida.
• 1:36
  Speaker 5: I'm starting over Pixie.
• 1:39
  Speaker 6: Pixie, which is the nickname that David gave Dawn, you're.
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: Hearing our friends at Perfect Murder, so starting over, joining
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: me an all star panel. Larry Altman, crime reporter Daily
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Breeze at the time, now freelance journalist. He knows everything
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: about her disappearance from beginning to end. Joseph Scott Morgan,
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author Blood Beneath My Feet,
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: now the star of Poisonous Liaisons on True Crime Network.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Chris Buyer's former chief of Police John's Creek, twenty five
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: years as a police officer, now PI and poligrapher at
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: Chris Bayer's investigations in polygraph dot com. Renowned psychologists joining me.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: Doctor Debbie Joffey Ellis, adjunct Professor, Columbia University at Debbie
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: Joffeellis dot com. Veteran trial lawyer Darryl co and former
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: prosecutor joining me out of the Atlanta jurisdiction, and special
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: guests joining me. Down's brother joining me out of Burlington, Vermont.
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: Derek Pappen, Dawn's brother from Bradenton, Florida. David and her
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: sister Dana joining me from Gardena, California. To you, Dana,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: do you remember that moment? When you first heard that
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: Dawn had disappeared, that she took off on her own,
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: a so called start over.
• 3:03
  Speaker 7: Oh, I do very clearly.
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: Tell me.
• 3:05
  Speaker 7: I got a phone call at work from Karen Patterson,
• 3:09
  Speaker 7: a close friend of Don's, and I met up with
• 3:14
  Speaker 7: her and her husband and found out the information from them.
• 3:17
  Speaker 7: And it was a Sunday night, late on a Sunday night,
• 3:20
  Speaker 7: and I immediately went to the Lamina shriff station to
• 3:24
  Speaker 7: file a missing person's report because I just knew that
• 3:27
  Speaker 7: something was wrong.
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Now, that's interesting when you learned this from a friend
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: of your sisters, you went immediately to the Sheriff's office.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Why what made you feel that she had something to
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: faeries had happened?
• 3:44
  Speaker 7: I would call it a gut feeling. But also because
• 3:49
  Speaker 7: of the timeline, they didn't reach out right away, so
• 3:52
  Speaker 7: it had been almost three weeks since anybody had seen her,
• 3:56
  Speaker 7: and that just was something that was She wouldn't do,
• 4:00
  Speaker 7: you know, she would have been in touch with one
• 4:04
  Speaker 7: of my brothers, or my father or even our grandmother
• 4:08
  Speaker 7: at the time, and none of that had happened. And
• 4:11
  Speaker 7: my instinct told me that something was wrong and that
• 4:15
  Speaker 7: I needed to filo police report.
• 4:20
  Speaker 8: Immediately.
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: David, Dawn's brother. Do you recall when you first learned
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: your sister Dawn had disappeared?
• 4:29
  Speaker 8: So I do remember. So our mother passed away June
• 4:35
  Speaker 8: seventeenth that year when Dawn went missing, so July, August,
• 4:42
  Speaker 8: September seventeenth, she called me each of those days for
• 4:47
  Speaker 8: those months, and then it was October seventeenth, I didn't
• 4:54
  Speaker 8: hear from her, So I want to say it within
• 4:57
  Speaker 8: the next couple of days, I reached out and I
• 4:59
  Speaker 8: was getting no, no, no response at all. And that's
• 5:05
  Speaker 8: right around the time when Dana you know, called me
• 5:09
  Speaker 8: and said, you know, and told me the story. But yeah,
• 5:12
  Speaker 8: she was calling me every month on the seventeenth of
• 5:15
  Speaker 8: my mom's death anniversary and you know, just just checking in.
• 5:19
  Speaker 8: And when she didn't check in, I knew something was happening.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: Joining me now Derek Don's other brother joining me out
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: of Burlington. Dary, do you remember when you realized or
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: when you were first told, hey, dog's missing.
• 5:35
  Speaker 9: To quote what David said, it was basically the same
• 5:38
  Speaker 9: thing we talked after Mom passed away. I had a
• 5:42
  Speaker 9: son on July seventeenth, and we talked every time, and
• 5:47
  Speaker 9: it was probably right around that same time the first
• 5:50
  Speaker 9: week of October when we had chatted and she forgot
• 5:55
  Speaker 9: what I named my son, and I named him Cooper Brink,
• 5:58
  Speaker 9: and my mother's made a name was Brink, and then
• 6:02
  Speaker 9: it was you know, she just started crying. See that
• 6:04
  Speaker 9: I can't talk to you right now, And that was
• 6:06
  Speaker 9: the last time I talked to you, was probably the
• 6:08
  Speaker 9: first weeks of October.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: Larry Altman, crime reporter Daily Breeze at the time, now
• 6:14
  Speaker 2: freelance journalists. He knows everything about her disappearance from beginning
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: to end. You know, Larry, right there when we hear
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: the friend state she gets a text and down signs
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: at Pixie, which was a nickname given to her by
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: her husband, and a lot of people called her Pixie.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Why didn't they try it? Why didn't CODs triangulate it
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: right then and there?
• 6:38
  Speaker 10: You know, I don't know.
• 6:40
  Speaker 11: They didn't seem to be too concerned at the beginning.
• 6:45
  Speaker 11: I mean, that text was misspelled. The text from Don's
• 6:51
  Speaker 11: friend made no mention. The text to Donstan made no
• 6:57
  Speaker 11: mention of the fact that the friend had just been
• 6:59
  Speaker 11: diagnosed with cancer. I don't think at the beginning anyone
• 7:04
  Speaker 11: really took this seriously.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: Take a listen to our friends. Investigators speaking to other
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: of Don's co workers and acquaintances.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: Listen.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: As the investigation continues, cops talk to Don's friends.
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: Was she unhappy lately or.
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: Depressed more exhausted?
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: It's a tough business.
• 7:24
  Speaker 5: Did she ever mention like one to leave.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: Or leaving all the time?
• 7:29
  Speaker 6: Basically back up what David says. They're really sure that
• 7:33
  Speaker 6: she took off on her own, that she's somewhere with
• 7:36
  Speaker 6: a margarita on hand and enjoying herself, and she'll come
• 7:40
  Speaker 6: back when she's ready.
• 7:41
  Speaker 5: They run her.
• 7:41
  Speaker 12: Credit card, see there's any credit card history.
• 7:43
  Speaker 6: Investigators also check US customs to see if maybe Don
• 7:47
  Speaker 6: had taken a flight out of town.
• 7:49
  Speaker 5: There was no sign of Don anyway.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Wow, okay, right there. That was good police for Larry Autman.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: Larry on the case from the very beginning, checking to
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: see if she had taken a fly, checking the city
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: she had gone down to one of the islands, checking
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: her banking, her credit card history, but so far nothing.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: So the cops are on the right track.
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: Wouldn't you agree, Larry?
• 8:14
  Speaker 13: You know, I don't agree.
• 8:15
  Speaker 11: Actually, I would check in regularly with the police and
• 8:20
  Speaker 11: they would just tell me there was no signs of
• 8:24
  Speaker 11: foul play, and her name was in the system, and
• 8:29
  Speaker 11: you know, they were waiting for her to just turn
• 8:31
  Speaker 11: up somewhere. But I never really got the impression early
• 8:36
  Speaker 11: on that they were really digging into it. I think
• 8:40
  Speaker 11: that came later on. I just never felt at the
• 8:44
  Speaker 11: beginning that they were they were really all that active.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a really interesting point. J Scott Morgan. I
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: agree and disagree with Larry. I disagree in the sense
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: that they're looking at her credit cards, they're looking at
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: banking activity, they're looking to see if she left the jurisdiction,
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: or is any of her potential old haunts. So they're looking.
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: They're speaking to friends, they're speaking to the husband, they're
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: speaking to coworkers, and that's what they should be doing.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: So I disagree with Larry Autman on that, but I
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: agree with him.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: That I don't know how seriously they were taking it.
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 9:24
  Speaker 14: I don't know either, Nancy. And you know, when you're
• 9:27
  Speaker 14: talking about adults that just kind of vanish off the
• 9:30
  Speaker 14: face of the earth, the standard line that you will
• 9:33
  Speaker 14: get from police is, well, they're an adult, they have
• 9:36
  Speaker 14: you know, they can do whatever they want to do listen.
• 9:38
  Speaker 14: Even at the Medical Examiner's office, Nancy, we used to
• 9:41
  Speaker 14: get calls from people that would say, I'm missing my
• 9:45
  Speaker 14: husband or I'm missing my wife. I'm just calling them
• 9:49
  Speaker 14: Morgue to check if they're there. And you know, you
• 9:51
  Speaker 14: get so many of those calls after a period of time,
• 9:54
  Speaker 14: it kind of wears you down, and you're working on
• 9:57
  Speaker 14: other cases at that moment in time, stuff that you
• 10:00
  Speaker 14: have solid information on. So it's a very confusing position
• 10:03
  Speaker 14: to put investigators into.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: The pap and siblings Dereck, David, and Dana here to you. Dana,
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: did it sound like something Dawn would do just go
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: off to one of the elons and sit back and
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: have a margarita?
• 10:17
  Speaker 7: No, absolutely not.
• 10:18
  Speaker 15: Why do you say that, Because regardless of anything that
• 10:25
  Speaker 15: they were.
• 10:27
  Speaker 7: Attached together, they did everything together. She had never done
• 10:32
  Speaker 7: it before. It didn't make any sense at all. And
• 10:36
  Speaker 7: if she was going to run away, she was going
• 10:38
  Speaker 7: to run away with him, you know, it didn't make sense.
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: You know, that's an interesting point. And you're talking about
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: the husband, David, what about you? David pappend was don
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: the quote free spirited one in the family, the one
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: that would just leave and go on a vacation without
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: telling anybody and get it out of her system and
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: come back home, or she the responsible one. I mean
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: growing up, what was her character?
• 11:05
  Speaker 14: Don was growing up?
• 11:06
  Speaker 8: I would say that Don was a free spirit. I
• 11:10
  Speaker 8: would say that. But once she met David, like Dana said,
• 11:15
  Speaker 8: they were they There wasn't one without the other, and
• 11:21
  Speaker 8: very many circumstances. Yeah, he had we they were together
• 11:29
  Speaker 8: ninety percent of the time.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: And it sounds like they were really dedicated to making
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: this restaurant work and Derek Pappen the restaurant was working,
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: it was very popular.
• 11:40
  Speaker 9: Yeah, it absolutely was. They The teamwork that they had
• 11:45
  Speaker 9: together was outstanding and definitely it was a great couple.
• 11:50
  Speaker 9: And like David said, they were always together, even through
• 11:53
  Speaker 9: the bad times, through the good times. To you anytime,
• 11:56
  Speaker 9: they always seemed to work things out. If there were
• 12:00
  Speaker 9: times and the good times, Don would never go to
• 12:03
  Speaker 9: an island unless he was with her.
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: Crime stories with Nancy Greece.
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: In the last days, a confession reverberates across the country.
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: A Lomita restauranteur in a let me just say pathetic,
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: forty five minute attempt to postpone his sentencing and reopen
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: his case without a lawyer insisted he had been suffering
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: from hallucinations caused by painkillers when he told detectives he
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: boiled his wife's body and poured the liquefied remains down
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: a grease trap, then lost her bones into a Dixie
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: dumpster a trash ben. At that time, he says I
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: loved her. Twelve years later, he appears in front of
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: a California Parole board panel and says he's remorseful and
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: therefore he should get early release. So the Ends comes
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: to court now twelve years later and says, Okay, yes,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: I did kill my wife. Then I panicked and I
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: boiled her body. Okay, I've read the transcript and what
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: I've learned is very, very disturbing. He said, quote I
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: thought about suicide. Why do they think about suicide? Yet
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: they kill somebody else? And the sun was starting to
• 13:59
  Speaker 2: go down a panic attack, and he says he's talking
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: out loud to himself. He goes, you have to do something,
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: you have to do something. Then I thought of what
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: I had seen on TV, and I decided to boil
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: my wife's body. Okay, how does this beautiful woman dawn
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: and no remains?
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Know nothing where did.
• 14:28
  Speaker 2: The whole thing start? Larry Altman, Crime Reporter or Daily
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Breeze at the time, you know, Larry, right there when
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: we hear the friends state she gets a text and
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: down signs at Pixie, which was a nickname given to
• 14:44
  Speaker 2: her by her husband, and a lot of people called
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: her Pixie. Why didn't they try it?
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: Why didn't CODs triangulate it right then and there?
• 14:52
  Speaker 8: You know, I don't know.
• 14:53
  Speaker 11: They didn't seem to be too concerned at the beginning.
• 14:59
  Speaker 11: I mean, text was misspelled. The text from Don's friend
• 15:06
  Speaker 11: made no mention. The text to Dons then made no
• 15:11
  Speaker 11: mention of the fact that the friends had just been
• 15:13
  Speaker 11: diagnosed with cancer. I don't think at the beginning anyone
• 15:18
  Speaker 11: really took this seriously.
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: Take a listen to our friends, investigators speaking to other
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: of Don's co workers and acquaintances. Listen.
• 15:29
  Speaker 6: Friends basically back up what David says. They're really sure
• 15:34
  Speaker 6: that she took off on her own, that she's somewhere
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: with a margarita on hand and enjoying herself, and she'll
• 15:41
  Speaker 6: come back when she's ready.
• 15:43
  Speaker 4: If Don really has taken a trip somewhere, then police
• 15:46
  Speaker 4: should be able to track her.
• 15:48
  Speaker 12: They run her credit card, see there's any credit card history.
• 15:50
  Speaker 6: Investigators also check US customs to see if maybe Don
• 15:54
  Speaker 6: had taken a flight out of town.
• 15:55
  Speaker 5: There was no sign of Don anyway.
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: Wow, okay, right there. That was good police for Larry Altman.
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Larry on the case from the very beginning, checking to
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: see if she had taken a fly, checking the sea
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: she'd gone down to one of the islands, checking her banking,
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: her credit card history.
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: But so far nothing.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: So the cops are on the right track, wouldn't you agree, Larry?
• 16:21
  Speaker 8: You know, I don't agree.
• 16:22
  Speaker 11: Actually, I would check in regularly with the police and
• 16:28
  Speaker 11: they would just tell me there was no signs of
• 16:31
  Speaker 11: foul play, and her name was in the system, and
• 16:36
  Speaker 11: you know, they were waiting for her to just turn
• 16:38
  Speaker 11: up somewhere. But I never really got the impression early
• 16:43
  Speaker 11: on that they were really digging into it. I think
• 16:47
  Speaker 11: that came later on. I just never felt at the
• 16:51
  Speaker 11: beginning that they were they were really all that active.
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a really interesting point, just Scott Morgan, I agree,
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: and I disagree with Larry. I disagree in the sense
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: that they're looking at her credit cards, they're looking at
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: banking activity, they're looking to see if she left the
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: jurisdiction or is any of her potential old haunts. So
• 17:15
  Speaker 2: they're looking, They're speaking to friends, they're speaking to the husband,
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: they're speaking to coworkers, and that's what they should be doing.
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: So I disagree with Larry Autman on that, but I
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: agree with him that I don't know how seriously they
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: were taking it.
• 17:31
  Speaker 14: Yeah, I don't know either, Nancy. And you know, when
• 17:34
  Speaker 14: you're talking about adults that just kind of vanish off
• 17:37
  Speaker 14: the face of the earth. The standard line that you
• 17:40
  Speaker 14: will get from police is, well, they're an adult, they
• 17:43
  Speaker 14: have you know, they can do whatever they want to do. Listen,
• 17:45
  Speaker 14: even at the Medical Examiner's office, Nancy, we used to
• 17:49
  Speaker 14: get calls from people that would say, I'm missing my
• 17:52
  Speaker 14: husband or I'm missing my wife. I'm just calling them
• 17:56
  Speaker 14: Morgue to check if they're there, And you know, you
• 17:58
  Speaker 14: get so many of those after a period of time,
• 18:02
  Speaker 14: it kind of wears you down, and you're working on
• 18:04
  Speaker 14: other cases at that moment in tom stuff that you
• 18:07
  Speaker 14: have solid information on. So it's a very confusing position
• 18:11
  Speaker 14: to put investigators.
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: Into the Papen siblings Dereck, David and Dana here to
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: you Dana, did it sound like something Dawn would do
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: just go off to one of the elons and sit
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: back and have a margarita.
• 18:24
  Speaker 11: No, absolutely not.
• 18:25
  Speaker 15: Why do you say that, Because regardless of anything that
• 18:31
  Speaker 15: they were.
• 18:33
  Speaker 7: Attached together, they did everything together. She had never done
• 18:38
  Speaker 7: it before. It didn't make any sense at all. And
• 18:42
  Speaker 7: if she was going to run away, she was going
• 18:44
  Speaker 7: to run away with him. You know, it didn't make sense.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: You know, that's an interesting point. And you're talking about
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: the husband, David, what about you, David pappend was Don
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: the quote free spirited one in the family, the one
• 18:59
  Speaker 2: that would just leave and go on a vacation without
• 19:02
  Speaker 2: telling anybody and get it out of her system and
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: come back home, or she the responsible one?
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: I mean growing up? What was her character?
• 19:10
  Speaker 8: Don was growing up? I would say that Don was
• 19:14
  Speaker 8: a free spirit. I would say that. But once she
• 19:19
  Speaker 8: met David, like Dana said, they were they there wasn't
• 19:25
  Speaker 8: one without the other. And very many circumstances, yeah, he had.
• 19:33
  Speaker 8: They were together ninety nine percent of the.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Time, and it sounds like they were really dedicated to
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: making this restaurant work, and Derek Pappen the restaurant was working.
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: It was very popular.
• 19:46
  Speaker 9: Yeah, it absolutely was. The teamwork that they had together
• 19:51
  Speaker 9: was outstanding and definitely it was a great couple. And
• 19:55
  Speaker 9: like David said, they were always together. He would do
• 19:59
  Speaker 9: the bad times through the good times to any time.
• 20:02
  Speaker 9: They always seem to work things out if there were
• 20:05
  Speaker 9: bad times and the good times. That Don would never
• 20:08
  Speaker 9: go to an island unless he was with her.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Take a listener friend Dave Matt crime online dot Com.
• 20:13
  Speaker 16: The investigation into don Vienne's disappearance began weeks after she
• 20:17
  Speaker 16: was last seen. Her sister, Dana Pappen and friends went
• 20:20
  Speaker 16: to the police on November eighteenth, two thousand and nine,
• 20:23
  Speaker 16: to report her missing. Police talk to Don's husband, David Vienn's.
• 20:27
  Speaker 16: He tells detectives that on October eighteenth, he argued with
• 20:30
  Speaker 16: his wife about her excessive drinking. He said that earlier
• 20:33
  Speaker 16: in the day they'd gone to eat at California Pizza Kitchen,
• 20:36
  Speaker 16: and that he dropped her off at home and returned
• 20:38
  Speaker 16: to work. When he got home from work that night,
• 20:40
  Speaker 16: Vanz tells police that Don wasn't home, says he takes
• 20:43
  Speaker 16: an ambience, goes to bed. He also says Don wasn't
• 20:46
  Speaker 16: home the next day and Viens tells police that he
• 20:49
  Speaker 16: texted and called her a number of times. Please to
• 20:51
  Speaker 16: ask why he didn't contact police. Vann says that maybe
• 20:54
  Speaker 16: a week or two after. He also says Don wasn't
• 20:57
  Speaker 16: home the next day, and Viens tells police that he
• 21:00
  Speaker 16: texted and called her a number of times. Please to
• 21:02
  Speaker 16: ask why he didn't contact police. Vienn says that he
• 21:06
  Speaker 16: talked to Don on the phone and that she came
• 21:08
  Speaker 16: home on October twenty fifth, begging him to leave Lomita
• 21:11
  Speaker 16: and run away to the mountains. David Viann's claims that
• 21:13
  Speaker 16: he told her to check into rehab in the next day.
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: She was gone, wow too, Dana, David and Derek Pappen. Dana,
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: do you believe cops did not take it seriously?
• 21:25
  Speaker 7: No, I believe they took it seriously. But when when
• 21:31
  Speaker 7: you don't know a person, you don't know their habits,
• 21:34
  Speaker 7: you can only go on the evidence you're given. And
• 21:37
  Speaker 7: coming from her husband, the person that's supposed to know
• 21:40
  Speaker 7: her best, and he's saying, well, I just talked to
• 21:42
  Speaker 7: her and she's mad and we had to fight, and
• 21:44
  Speaker 7: the you know, I don't blame them for not taking
• 21:52
  Speaker 7: it more seriously because they didn't have any evidence to
• 21:55
  Speaker 7: prove that anything was wrong.
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: What about it, David Pappen, I don't.
• 22:01
  Speaker 8: I don't think they did anything wrong. And around that
• 22:05
  Speaker 8: time I actually called him. I actually called David and
• 22:12
  Speaker 8: had an hour long conversation, and he assured me, he
• 22:17
  Speaker 8: kept calling me brother. You know, I would never I
• 22:21
  Speaker 8: would never do anything. You know, she just left, you know,
• 22:25
  Speaker 8: you know, you know me better than anyone, you know,
• 22:28
  Speaker 8: Da da da da da. And without any evidence, like
• 22:33
  Speaker 8: Dana said, there was really no no reason to think
• 22:36
  Speaker 8: something something had happened. She just left, which I told
• 22:40
  Speaker 8: her to do one hundred times.
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: Oh really, Derek pappened. Did do you believe the cops
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: were taking it seriously that she had disappeared? Did you
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: buy into she just took off?
• 22:52
  Speaker 9: No, I definitely didn't buying into this. She just just
• 22:54
  Speaker 9: took off and all that stuff. And I think, you know,
• 22:57
  Speaker 9: like Larry said, I think that.
• 22:58
  Speaker 10: You know that they didn't.
• 23:00
  Speaker 9: I think it was a big deal at first and
• 23:02
  Speaker 9: stuff like that, and then you know that, yeah, I
• 23:06
  Speaker 9: thought there was something wrong from the start, Like Danna said,
• 23:09
  Speaker 9: you know.
• 23:09
  Speaker 2: To you, Larry Autman, you're the only one. Although Dana
• 23:14
  Speaker 2: goes to the cops and says she's missing something's wrong.
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: You're the one that says they're not taking this seriously enough.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: Why did you feel that?
• 23:24
  Speaker 11: I just felt at the time that they took a
• 23:26
  Speaker 11: report and put Don's name in the system, and we're
• 23:31
  Speaker 11: just waiting to see what happened. I mean, there were
• 23:34
  Speaker 11: some key things that we all knew, you know, from
• 23:39
  Speaker 11: the start. We knew that Don's car was still in
• 23:42
  Speaker 11: the driveway. So if she had just taken off, like
• 23:48
  Speaker 11: David said, why wouldn't she take her car?
• 23:51
  Speaker 10: This is southern California.
• 23:53
  Speaker 11: You can't, you know, do anything without driving. And she
• 23:58
  Speaker 11: also left me behind a sizeable amount of money that
• 24:02
  Speaker 11: she had been saving. If she just left on her own,
• 24:07
  Speaker 11: why wouldn't she have gone and collected that money? It
• 24:09
  Speaker 11: was about six hundred and forty dollars.
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: Well, now that you're telling me that you've completely turned
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: me around, these are facts that are very, very critical.
• 24:19
  Speaker 2: She left behind her car, I mean, for Pete's sake,
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: what was you gonna hitch hike when she's got a car.
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: And also the nature of the money. She had asked
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: a friend to hold the money in case of an emergency.
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Why not put it in the bank.
• 24:35
  Speaker 2: Why did she feel she had to? I mean, I'm
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: not gonna go hide my little bit of money. I've
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: gotten a glass jar in the backyard for Pete's sake. Guys,
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: now that months have passed, everyone is getting more serious
• 24:48
  Speaker 2: about Dawn's disappearance. Why did it take months? Why are
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: police now sitting on their thumbs? Take a listen to
• 24:56
  Speaker 2: our friend Richard Schlessinger.
• 24:58
  Speaker 17: Some friends alert had dawns who filed a missing person's
• 25:02
  Speaker 17: report that caught the eye of Larry Altman. His first
• 25:06
  Speaker 17: story about Dawn's disappearance ran on Christmas Eve two thousand
• 25:11
  Speaker 17: and nine, two months after Dawn vanished, and it got
• 25:15
  Speaker 17: an immediate response.
• 25:17
  Speaker 11: I received a phone call from one of Don's friends
• 25:19
  Speaker 11: who had seen that story.
• 25:21
  Speaker 5: She said, Hey, I read your story. There's more to
• 25:25
  Speaker 5: this than you know.
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 25:26
  Speaker 11: Well, the first article was just a basic missing person's story.
• 25:31
  Speaker 11: But when I initially had heard about Don's disappearance, I
• 25:37
  Speaker 11: placed a call to David to ask questions, you know,
• 25:41
  Speaker 11: what's going on with this? And I never got a response,
• 25:47
  Speaker 11: and a lot of time passed, and you know, after
• 25:49
  Speaker 11: several weeks, I thought, oh, I never heard from him.
• 25:53
  Speaker 11: Why would he not call me back, and so I
• 25:56
  Speaker 11: tried again, and I got a return phone call, this
• 26:01
  Speaker 11: time from an attorney. And this attorney said, he's not
• 26:05
  Speaker 11: going to talk to you, he's not going to do
• 26:07
  Speaker 11: any interviews, but he is cooperating with the police. And
• 26:12
  Speaker 11: I said, what are you talking about. He's cooperating with
• 26:15
  Speaker 11: the police, and why wouldn't he be cooperating with the police.
• 26:19
  Speaker 11: And I'm sure, Nancy, you know that is a phrase
• 26:23
  Speaker 11: that is used when there's some sort of suspicion.
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: You know what, You're absolutely right, Larry Allman on the
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: case from the very beginning, and then after you write
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: your article, somebody else hears about it and the case
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: blows up. Listen, how did all this start? And why
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: now this case lay dormant until we reported on it,
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: and then suddenly cops appoint a brand new investigative team
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: and start reinvestigating the case. And now suddenly they've dug
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: out the bottom of the husband's restaurant.
• 26:56
  Speaker 18: Right, Nancy Well on October eighteenth, two thousand and nine,
• 27:00
  Speaker 18: is the last time anybody saw don Vian's Her husband
• 27:03
  Speaker 18: said that he actually fired her.
• 27:05
  Speaker 3: They got in an argument.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: Bloke, the husband fires his wife from the family restaurant. Okay,
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: go ahead.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: Right right.
• 27:14
  Speaker 18: Her friends claimed that he fired her that day. He says,
• 27:17
  Speaker 18: she just walked away, took a Louis Vauton bag with her.
• 27:19
  Speaker 18: That was the last time he saw her.
• 27:21
  Speaker 3: Wow.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: So all this the case blows up after Larry Altman
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: publishes that first article. You know what that I recall
• 27:31
  Speaker 2: the first time I learn Larry Autman that he says
• 27:35
  Speaker 2: he the husband says he fired her. How do you
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: fire your wife?
• 27:40
  Speaker 8: Well?
• 27:40
  Speaker 11: Exactly. And what else was interesting was that Don was
• 27:45
  Speaker 11: replaced in the restaurant.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: Straight out to Dana, David and Derek Pappin Dana, did
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: you know the husband had quote fired Don?
• 27:56
  Speaker 7: No, I didn't.
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: That's a surprise.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Good luck David if you try to fire me. David Pappen,
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: did you know that Don had basically been quote fired
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: from her own restaurant?
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: How do you do that?
• 28:08
  Speaker 8: Well? I did not know that. But funny enough, in
• 28:12
  Speaker 8: two thousand and four, I was working for David and Don,
• 28:16
  Speaker 8: and my dad's sister passed away. So Don and I
• 28:21
  Speaker 8: were in Florida and she said one of us needs
• 28:23
  Speaker 8: to go. I'll go, And I said, okay, I'll stay,
• 28:26
  Speaker 8: and man in the restaurant. Well, David stepped in and
• 28:31
  Speaker 8: told Don she was not allowed to go. So I
• 28:34
  Speaker 8: jumped in my car and I started towards the airport
• 28:37
  Speaker 8: because I was going to go. Don was going to
• 28:39
  Speaker 8: cover the restaurant. I got about halfway to the Tampa airport,
• 28:44
  Speaker 8: David called me and said, don't bother coming back. You
• 28:47
  Speaker 8: don't have a job, You're not loyal, blah blah blah,
• 28:51
  Speaker 8: and he fired me on the spot. And I was
• 28:53
  Speaker 8: driving or I was going to Vermont to bury my
• 28:57
  Speaker 8: dad's sister, so I do leave. He fired her because
• 29:01
  Speaker 8: he did it to me.
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: Yes, firing people, But I mean, I'm telling you, I mean,
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: you know, guys how much I love David. But if
• 29:12
  Speaker 2: he tried to order me around or fire me from
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: whatever I'm doing, he would, you know, you pull out,
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: put out an arm and pull back and up. That's
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: what I've got to say to that dark Did you
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: have any idea that your brother in law fired? I mean,
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: it's her restaurant too. How can you fire somebody, I'd say,
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: h E double L No, I'm firing you take the.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: Patent turner pat the street and turn a corner.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: Absolutely not.
• 29:38
  Speaker 9: Yeah, I know, it's it's weird to hear that and
• 29:42
  Speaker 9: all that, especially since she was the primary owner. She
• 29:48
  Speaker 9: couldn't give his licenses and stuff without her hope to
• 29:51
  Speaker 9: fire her.
• 29:52
  Speaker 8: It would just be.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Silly, guys, take a listen to a little bit more.
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: I followed the trail that Larry Autman sniffed out first.
• 30:02
  Speaker 2: Take a listen, Deborah. The recent information that we got
• 30:07
  Speaker 2: is that after our show Friday Night, cops have now
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: gone out and started reinterviewing people, interviewing friends. We also
• 30:15
  Speaker 2: learned about the possessions being thrown in a dumpster, the
• 30:19
  Speaker 2: jeep being towed away almost immediately after she goes missing.
• 30:23
  Speaker 19: About a week and a half later, Nancy, after she disappeared,
• 30:27
  Speaker 19: a friend of hers saw her husband's daughter and his
• 30:32
  Speaker 19: new girlfriend taking her stuff.
• 30:35
  Speaker 2: They were in a car.
• 30:36
  Speaker 19: They drove to the restaurant, took stuff out of the car,
• 30:38
  Speaker 19: and started throwing things into the dumpster allegedly. You know,
• 30:42
  Speaker 19: there was a few things they decided to keep, but
• 30:44
  Speaker 19: most of the things were just thrown away.
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you're telling me that they basically went shopping
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: and the missing woman's closet. They kept some of her
• 30:55
  Speaker 2: belongings for themselves.
• 30:57
  Speaker 19: I have no idea if it was for themselves, but
• 30:59
  Speaker 19: they certainly did keep some things.
• 31:02
  Speaker 2: That's me talking to Deborah Mark.
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: In the Last Days, Convicted killer David Vienn's describes himself
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: as quote deeply remorseful.
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: And just sick by what he did.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: I guess he was so sick he liked it his
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: teeth all these years. It's one of the single most
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: shocking crimes in the whole South Bay area.
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: In years and years, the.
• 31:41
  Speaker 2: Story behind Dawn's disappearance and murder has been hashed over
• 31:46
  Speaker 2: and over. Not only did this guy, her husband jump
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: from a cliff, seriously jump from a cliff when police
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: were closing in on him, his revelation about how he
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: tried to cover up the crime it's still stunning. He
• 32:06
  Speaker 2: had been married to Dawn for seventeen years before he
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: murdered her. He told all of the coworkers at I'm
• 32:18
  Speaker 2: Contemporary cafe his wife worked as a hostess there, that
• 32:22
  Speaker 2: she left him because he demanded she seek help for
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: drug abuse. Nothing could be further from the truth. She
• 32:30
  Speaker 2: died a horrible death and then he boiled her body.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Where did this whole thing start.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Well, of course it aroused suspicion when her clothing and
• 32:40
  Speaker 2: some of her possessions were thrown in a dumpster by
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: her husband's new girlfriend. But that does not evidence make
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: While it certainly raised the hackles of the family, but
• 32:54
  Speaker 2: what about the mystery text.
• 32:56
  Speaker 5: It should relieve the worry from her friend.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: But did it? And I'll tell you why. There was
• 33:02
  Speaker 2: a glaring problem with that text. The nickname Pixie was misspelled.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: How often do you misspell your own name? Well, the
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: moment it's pointed out that Pixie is misspelled in that
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: mystery text, this is what happens. Take a listen to
• 33:26
  Speaker 2: the perfect murder.
• 33:27
  Speaker 13: We decided to take it to the next level and
• 33:29
  Speaker 13: do electronic surveyance. We had a whole camera facing the
• 33:33
  Speaker 13: rear of the restaurant. We had a GPS trackers on
• 33:37
  Speaker 13: David's car, and we also had undercovers that would go
• 33:40
  Speaker 13: into the restaurant occasionally for meals.
• 33:42
  Speaker 2: Straight out to Larry Autman, a crime reporter Daily Breeze
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: at the time that Dawn goes missing. So investigators start
• 33:50
  Speaker 2: this electronic surveillance on David Vann's down's husband, including GPS.
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: Trackers, wire taps.
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: They even go under into the restaurant to eat to
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: get a sense of what's going on. But then they
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: fly out to see his daughter, Jackie. She had moved
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: back to South Carolina. What happens when they get there,
• 34:15
  Speaker 2: Larry Autman.
• 34:16
  Speaker 11: Well, while they are interviewing her, and I'll tell you
• 34:21
  Speaker 11: what she said in a moment, they are also utilizing me.
• 34:26
  Speaker 11: And they used me. They gave me a story which
• 34:30
  Speaker 11: was true. That and this is all going on. At
• 34:34
  Speaker 11: the same time, they told me that they had gone
• 34:37
  Speaker 11: into the residents where Donn and David had lived. They
• 34:41
  Speaker 11: found blood in there. They believed don was dead and
• 34:45
  Speaker 11: that there was blood, and that he was a person
• 34:48
  Speaker 11: of interest in the case. So I wrote a story
• 34:54
  Speaker 11: to put that out to the world. At the same time,
• 34:56
  Speaker 11: they're interviewing her, and during that of you, she apparently
• 35:02
  Speaker 11: admitted that her father had told her that he had
• 35:06
  Speaker 11: killed Doc.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: Take a listen to our friend at forty eight hours,
• 35:08
  Speaker 2: Richard Schlesinger.
• 35:09
  Speaker 17: Did you tell them the truth?
• 35:12
  Speaker 3: I did? Yeah, I told them what happened.
• 35:15
  Speaker 17: And then she called her father to tell him what
• 35:18
  Speaker 17: she had done.
• 35:19
  Speaker 3: I said, Pops, they're looking for you.
• 35:22
  Speaker 8: I mean, they just came and talk to me, and
• 35:23
  Speaker 8: I told them what happened, so you know, beware they're.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: Going to be coming for you.
• 35:29
  Speaker 20: It was an unanticipated extra stimulation, and that next morning,
• 35:35
  Speaker 20: February twenty third, twenty eleven, Van's saw Altman's story on
• 35:40
  Speaker 20: page one, I.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: Smell a rat, Daryl Cohen.
• 35:44
  Speaker 10: Well, absolutely, you can smell a rat. But smelling a
• 35:47
  Speaker 10: rat doesn't mean you see the rat. Smelling a rat
• 35:50
  Speaker 10: doesn't mean the rat exists. What it means is it
• 35:53
  Speaker 10: gave you some reason to continue whatever superficial or investigation
• 36:01
  Speaker 10: you had. But quite frankly, the fact that this daughter
• 36:04
  Speaker 10: said yes, I said it and Daddy told me to
• 36:06
  Speaker 10: do it. She doesn't want to throw herself under the bus,
• 36:10
  Speaker 10: so she throws her dad under the bus. Does that
• 36:13
  Speaker 10: mean he killed don No?
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: And you know that's exactly why I like trying people
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: to gather co defendants. I'll let them boil in the
• 36:20
  Speaker 2: same pot because they always start pointing the finger at
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: each other. You know, when was it, Dana pappened? This
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: is John's sister that you found out? When did you
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: find out?
• 36:34
  Speaker 8: The daughter?
• 36:35
  Speaker 2: The grown daughter who high tails it back to South
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: Carolina says her dad told her to send the text
• 36:43
  Speaker 2: from quote Pixie and she misspelled the name.
• 36:48
  Speaker 7: I don't remember exactly how I found out. There was
• 36:52
  Speaker 7: a lot of information coming in at the time. I
• 36:56
  Speaker 7: just remember being really sad by it, really upset.
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: And you first learned that the sister the daughter David
• 37:04
  Speaker 2: Bean's daughter, David Pappen said she was the one that
• 37:10
  Speaker 2: sent the mystery text. I mean a lot of people
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: had pinned hopes on that text that your sister was
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: alive somewhere in Florida.
• 37:19
  Speaker 8: I knew that she was not in Florida because I
• 37:23
  Speaker 8: was in Florida, and she would have definitely reached out.
• 37:26
  Speaker 8: If she just left with nothing but a Louis Vauton bag,
• 37:31
  Speaker 8: she would have certainly needed some help. So I knew
• 37:34
  Speaker 8: she wasn't in Florida.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: What about it, Derek, I agree.
• 37:39
  Speaker 9: With David, is just one more all over the sheep's side,
• 37:45
  Speaker 9: if you will, to everything that has happened.
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: At this point, police start digging in, digging in, so
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: right now the cops know something is horribly wrong. They
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: got a slow start on this investigation. Larry Autman was
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: beside himself trying to figure out what was happening. Finally
• 38:09
  Speaker 2: he lights a fire under the police rear ends and
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: the case is now in full swing and they start digging.
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: Take a listen to our friend at forty eight hours,
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: Richard Schlessinger.
• 38:21
  Speaker 17: In two thousand and five, Vians was arrested for selling marijuana,
• 38:25
  Speaker 17: and it was not his first arrest. Manatee County detective
• 38:29
  Speaker 17: Randy Barnett and DEA agent Derek Pollock worked on the
• 38:33
  Speaker 17: Florida case.
• 38:35
  Speaker 21: He was convicted in Vermont for distribution of cocaine in
• 38:39
  Speaker 21: nineteen ninety three.
• 38:41
  Speaker 17: The police sat Vans down and asked for his help
• 38:44
  Speaker 17: to break up the drug ring.
• 38:46
  Speaker 5: He was an agent stream to work with.
• 38:49
  Speaker 21: He returned calls, He was there for every deal that
• 38:52
  Speaker 21: we needed for him to be there for, and he.
• 38:55
  Speaker 10: Was on time.
• 38:57
  Speaker 17: Vans was sentenced to just one year in prison, and
• 39:00
  Speaker 17: in two thousand and eight he and Dawn headed to
• 39:03
  Speaker 17: Low Meter.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: What, Dana, did you have any idea that Dawn was
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: dating a doper?
• 39:14
  Speaker 7: Yes, we found out pretty quickly that he had been
• 39:18
  Speaker 7: arrested and was awaiting jail time.
• 39:22
  Speaker 2: Holy moly, I mean in the big scheme of things,
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: with the cases that you and I have handled in
• 39:28
  Speaker 2: the past. Darryl Cohen thank god, we're on two different
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: sides of the fence. But I mean, you know, pot,
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: people don't even sneeze at a bag of pot anymore.
• 39:40
  Speaker 2: But this guy was convicted of selling cocaine. That's a
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: whole nother can of worms.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: Then he turns.
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: A minute, then he turns into a snitch, a snitch.
• 39:55
  Speaker 2: He was such a great snitch, such a so convincing
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: as a snitch. They say he was a quote dream
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: ci dream confidential informant. He got a sweetheart deal one
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: year behind bars because he was such a great liar,
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: a snitch. You know, snitches get stitches. My son just
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: said that.
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: The other day.
• 40:17
  Speaker 8: Fancy what, Oh, come.
• 40:19
  Speaker 10: On, it was a project.
• 40:20
  Speaker 5: I hate it with all the time.
• 40:23
  Speaker 22: You have to because without those confidential informants slash snitches,
• 40:29
  Speaker 22: you don't make cases. And we don't know how much
• 40:33
  Speaker 22: cocaine he was convicted or he pled guilty.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: Still sold it.
• 40:38
  Speaker 10: It might have been just a small amount.
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: If he sold from an ounce. There has to be
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: a brick somewhere, yeah, but.
• 40:44
  Speaker 10: Doesn't necessarily meet. It's in his hand, his house, his
• 40:47
  Speaker 10: place of business, or his car. He may have gotten
• 40:50
  Speaker 10: it from someone else.
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: He's convicted of selling cocaine and Dana. How much of
• 40:56
  Speaker 2: his history did you know about.
• 41:00
  Speaker 7: In the beginning, Not as much. It only took a
• 41:03
  Speaker 7: couple of years for more serious things to.
• 41:08
  Speaker 8: Come to lay.
• 41:08
  Speaker 2: All I know is if my sister were dating a doper,
• 41:13
  Speaker 2: I would try like hell to get her to break
• 41:16
  Speaker 2: up based on just what I know from being in
• 41:19
  Speaker 2: the crime business for so long. But whether Dawn knew
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: the full extent of his background, we may never know.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: The investigation goes on. Listen to Richard's lessinger.
• 41:35
  Speaker 21: David Finns was now a person of interest when you introduced.
• 41:39
  Speaker 17: Yourself as Sergeant Garcia from the La County Sheriff's Homicide Division.
• 41:45
  Speaker 5: How did he react?
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: He immediately turned weight two.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: Joseph Scott, Morgan death investigator, professor forensics Jackson will stay, university,
• 41:52
  Speaker 2: author and TV star. Your resume is getting way too
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: long for me to say the whole thing. Joe Scott,
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: My question is why do people turn white? I mean,
• 42:04
  Speaker 2: I don't really completely understand why people turn red, but
• 42:07
  Speaker 2: I get that the blood rushes to your face. But
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: why do people I guess both of those. Why do
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: you turn red when you're embarrassed or flumox or your
• 42:16
  Speaker 2: face gets hot. But why do people turn white? Is
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: it the blood drains from their face?
• 42:24
  Speaker 14: Yeah, And that's a literary device that's been used for
• 42:26
  Speaker 14: years and years in the Nancy, this idea that you know,
• 42:30
  Speaker 14: when you turn red, you become flushed, you know, this
• 42:36
  Speaker 14: vascular reaction that you have. And conversely, this can happen
• 42:41
  Speaker 14: when you're faced with kind of a shocking moment. You know,
• 42:44
  Speaker 14: and we've heard this for years and years. People have
• 42:46
  Speaker 14: a sensation that their blood runs cold. I meantimes, have
• 42:49
  Speaker 14: you heard that over the years, And most of the
• 42:52
  Speaker 14: time it's almost like it's this physiological response to something very,
• 42:57
  Speaker 14: very troubling, something horrific. It's almost a promo response.
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: But I heard that his face drained white. I investigated,
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: and it brought on fight or flight. And that's not
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: just a term of speech. Listen, he said, I don't
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: want to talk about it here.
• 43:18
  Speaker 3: We need to leave.
• 43:20
  Speaker 23: He just kept saying I'm sorry, I'm sorry, and I
• 43:23
  Speaker 23: kept saying, you know, how how could you let something
• 43:26
  Speaker 23: like this happen? And I was just like, I can't
• 43:28
  Speaker 23: believe he lied to me.
• 43:31
  Speaker 3: So I didn't hear that morning monitoring traffic it seemed
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: like the cop was right here.
• 43:37
  Speaker 23: I started, you know, like flagging him down.
• 43:39
  Speaker 8: We were just we were hauling.
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: I immediately pulled out behind them. He was going quite
• 43:44
  Speaker 3: fast and had no intention of stopping.
• 43:49
  Speaker 23: I remember coming up on this curve. That's where I said,
• 43:53
  Speaker 23: I don't want to die.
• 43:53
  Speaker 2: If there was any doubt about David Vin's murdering his
• 43:58
  Speaker 2: young wife Dawn, it doesn't end there.
• 44:02
  Speaker 23: He pulled right up to like right here. He put
• 44:05
  Speaker 23: it in park real quick, and he's struggling to get it,
• 44:08
  Speaker 23: and I'm trying to get mine off, and eventually I
• 44:10
  Speaker 23: grabbed onto him like this, holding on like this. I
• 44:14
  Speaker 23: grabbed onto his pants.
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: He's running towards the cliff's edge. She's grabbing onto him.
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: He's trying to push her away.
• 44:24
  Speaker 23: I'm running after him, and he's taking his clothes off.
• 44:28
  Speaker 3: He proceeded to this railing and began to climb over.
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: To the perfect murder.
• 44:32
  Speaker 6: David gets out of a car, runs toward the cliff,
• 44:37
  Speaker 6: climbs the fence, and jumps. Amazingly, David survives his eighty
• 44:43
  Speaker 6: foot plunge because he lands on his legs.
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: Let's get real, why would.
• 44:48
  Speaker 2: He jump off a cliff if he did not have
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: a guilty conscience.
• 44:54
  Speaker 11: Right, And of course that morning is when the article
• 44:58
  Speaker 11: comes out at the top of the page that says
• 45:02
  Speaker 11: he's a person of interest, and that's what happened. He
• 45:04
  Speaker 11: immediately headed down to that cliff and jumped.
• 45:08
  Speaker 4: Against the odds. Detectives get word that David is awake.
• 45:11
  Speaker 4: Just three days later, Starry.
• 45:13
  Speaker 13: Get to Sea asked David Vianns why didn't he just
• 45:17
  Speaker 13: chop up the body?
• 45:19
  Speaker 5: And David looked at him and said, I'm a chef,
• 45:23
  Speaker 5: not a butcher.
• 45:24
  Speaker 2: That's what he had to say when confronted about the
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: murder of thirty nine year old Dawn Vian's I'm a chef,
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: not a butcher. That was from the Perfect Murder straight
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: out to Dana Pappen, Dawn's sister, When did you learn
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: about the horrific nature of David Viann's murder plot on
• 45:53
  Speaker 2: your sister?
• 45:54
  Speaker 7: The detectives actually went to Florida and met with my father,
• 46:00
  Speaker 7: my brother. They wanted to tell them in person, and
• 46:04
  Speaker 7: I was able to listen in horrifying is an understatement.
• 46:13
  Speaker 7: How do you targe up your head around evil like that?
• 46:18
  Speaker 2: To David pappened, this is Dawn's brother who was there
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: in Florida. Do you remember that moment that Dana's describing.
• 46:27
  Speaker 8: Yeah, very clearly. What I remember is, you know, the
• 46:33
  Speaker 8: detectives did come out to Florida and talk to us
• 46:36
  Speaker 8: about the newspaper article Larry was going to write. And
• 46:40
  Speaker 8: then Dana called me that morning and I was at
• 46:42
  Speaker 8: work and she said, did you read the article? And
• 46:47
  Speaker 8: I got home and I breathed dot com and the
• 46:51
  Speaker 8: article that said the police found blood was not front
• 46:56
  Speaker 8: and center. The fact that he jumped off this cliff
• 46:59
  Speaker 8: was off friend center. So then I called Dana and
• 47:03
  Speaker 8: she was like, well, what are you talking about? And
• 47:06
  Speaker 8: I'm like, you need to go online and look. So
• 47:10
  Speaker 8: that is pretty vivid in my memory. And then as
• 47:14
  Speaker 8: things unfolded, you know, it was horrifying to think that,
• 47:21
  Speaker 8: you know, he would tie her up, put her in
• 47:24
  Speaker 8: the bathtub, gagged and you know, restrained to a chair.
• 47:31
  Speaker 8: You know, he says she was drunk and being loud,
• 47:35
  Speaker 8: but you know, to hear that, just that part was horrifying,
• 47:39
  Speaker 8: and then you know, to to do what he did
• 47:43
  Speaker 8: next with her body was you know, unbelievable, no words.
• 47:49
  Speaker 7: And that's something jump in I have a hard time
• 47:54
  Speaker 7: believing that that's what he actually did. I from what
• 47:59
  Speaker 7: I know about him, it's I don't know. I just
• 48:05
  Speaker 7: don't really believe that he could possibly have done it.
• 48:08
  Speaker 7: But that's just me and I wonder if we'll ever
• 48:11
  Speaker 7: really find out.
• 48:12
  Speaker 2: You know, let's explore that. But to Derek pappen Down's
• 48:17
  Speaker 2: brother joining us out of Vermont, Derek, do you recall
• 48:20
  Speaker 2: when you finally learned what exactly had happened to your
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: sister Dawn?
• 48:25
  Speaker 9: I do here that Dana had texted me to you know,
• 48:29
  Speaker 9: check out the internet, so Daily Breeze dot com and
• 48:32
  Speaker 9: all that, and you know, I just knew right away
• 48:35
  Speaker 9: that it was obviously bad and all that, and you know,
• 48:39
  Speaker 9: listening to everything that's gone on today just speace volume
• 48:42
  Speaker 9: of his character and his attributes that he he was
• 48:47
  Speaker 9: always that big figure that you wanted to look up
• 48:52
  Speaker 9: to and and you know, almost emulate. But then you
• 48:58
  Speaker 9: know when when things come big kind of down, and
• 49:01
  Speaker 9: he was just a big donkey tower and you would
• 49:06
  Speaker 9: never want to look up to that.
• 49:07
  Speaker 2: Take a listen to what we learned from Richard Slashinger
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: at CBS.
• 49:11
  Speaker 24: I went ahead and put her into this antique steamer trunk,
• 49:15
  Speaker 24: and I took some gray heavy duty garbage liners that
• 49:20
  Speaker 24: I had in the closet. I put one over her,
• 49:23
  Speaker 24: and I put the bag over her, and I put
• 49:26
  Speaker 24: it down on another bag, and then another bag to
• 49:29
  Speaker 24: three bags back into the trunk. I knew I had
• 49:34
  Speaker 24: to go to work, you know, I ask people they
• 49:36
  Speaker 24: are working. So I put the trunk in the back
• 49:39
  Speaker 24: of my vehicle. I drove to work and I went
• 49:41
  Speaker 24: in and I put my head down, just started working.
• 49:44
  Speaker 24: Twelve forty five, the garbage truck came on and I
• 49:47
  Speaker 24: saw him enter. When I was a truck closer, I
• 49:50
  Speaker 24: went out seat with the toyota, I opened the back.
• 49:54
  Speaker 24: I took the trunk out of the vehicle. No one
• 49:58
  Speaker 24: was out there. Fortunately, i'd picked the three bags up.
• 50:02
  Speaker 24: I'd put him a dumpster, picked up a bunch of
• 50:04
  Speaker 24: the cardboard that was on the side of the dumpster,
• 50:07
  Speaker 24: and I threw him in on top of the dumpster.
• 50:09
  Speaker 5: On top of her body.
• 50:11
  Speaker 24: And I went back in there, washed my hands. I
• 50:16
  Speaker 24: just thought to myself, you're going to hell.
• 50:18
  Speaker 6: David.
• 50:19
  Speaker 2: Well, that's the first true thing he said. If there
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: was any doubt about David Vin's murdering his young wife, Dawn.
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: There he is, he's speaking. That's his voice describing what
• 50:33
  Speaker 2: he did. Take a listen to our friends at the
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: perfect murder.
• 50:39
  Speaker 3: Boiling his wife in a pot.
• 50:41
  Speaker 12: As the body would be with heats up, begins to
• 50:44
  Speaker 12: fall apart. Over the days he was able to dispose
• 50:46
  Speaker 12: the body, the fat would go into his restaurant's grease
• 50:49
  Speaker 12: traps sta all night long. The next night he'd come
• 50:52
  Speaker 12: back after closing and bring her back out and start
• 50:54
  Speaker 12: the whole process again till she was completely gone.
• 50:56
  Speaker 2: Uh to Larry Altman, crime reporter daily at the time
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: that Dawn was murdered, currently freelance journalist. Apparently some people
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: still do not believe that the husband, David Van's a chef,
• 51:16
  Speaker 2: actually revealed how he slowly cooked his beautiful young wife
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: for four days, then hit her skull at his mother's
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: house after he killed her in a rage fit. I mean,
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: the cadaver dogs were brought there and they hit, and
• 51:37
  Speaker 2: they made a hit because the grease from her body
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: was poured down a grate in the floor. That is
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: why the dogs made a cadaver hit.
• 51:49
  Speaker 11: Remember one other thing. At the very beginning of this mystery,
• 51:53
  Speaker 11: Don's friend goes to the restaurant to confront David to
• 51:58
  Speaker 11: ask where is Dawn? And she finds David sweaty, agitated.
• 52:04
  Speaker 11: It's in the morning, and he's got a bandage on
• 52:06
  Speaker 11: his arm. To me, that means that he burned himself
• 52:11
  Speaker 11: in this process, and that's what was going on at
• 52:13
  Speaker 11: the time.
• 52:14
  Speaker 2: Larry Altman, freelance journalist. What do you think is the
• 52:19
  Speaker 2: most powerful evidence that not only did he murder Dawn,
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: but that he disposed of her body by slow cooking
• 52:27
  Speaker 2: her for days on end.
• 52:29
  Speaker 11: Well, I also wonder about the blood, and even though
• 52:35
  Speaker 11: the blood wasn't able to be used in court, I
• 52:39
  Speaker 11: still want to know what that blood was about. And
• 52:44
  Speaker 11: this is just speculation. This is what I believe. I
• 52:48
  Speaker 11: believe that, and I apologize to the family were saying this,
• 52:52
  Speaker 11: But I believe that he dismembered her at home and
• 52:55
  Speaker 11: that's why there's blood, or he killed her in some
• 52:58
  Speaker 11: other manner than he said that. It wasn't that he
• 53:02
  Speaker 11: tied her up, that he killed her in some other way.
• 53:05
  Speaker 11: And I also wonder how did he transport her body
• 53:12
  Speaker 11: to the restaurant to do this? And I always come
• 53:14
  Speaker 11: back to the Louis Vatan Bay and the whole thing
• 53:18
  Speaker 11: is just horrific.
• 53:18
  Speaker 2: In his interview with police, he stated he stuffed Dawn's
• 53:23
  Speaker 2: body and a fifty five gallon drum of boiling water,
• 53:28
  Speaker 2: keeping it submerged with weights and mixing what remained with
• 53:33
  Speaker 2: other waste before he disposed of it. He said the
• 53:37
  Speaker 2: only thing left at the end was her skull, which
• 53:40
  Speaker 2: he stashed at his mother's home. Now, a search of
• 53:44
  Speaker 2: the home turned up nothing, nor did an excavation of
• 53:48
  Speaker 2: his restaurant, the Time Contemporary Cafe there in Lomita. What
• 53:55
  Speaker 2: do you make of the recording he gave Larry Autman?
• 54:00
  Speaker 2: Do you think he truly boiled his wife's body for
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: days on end?
• 54:06
  Speaker 10: I do. I do.
• 54:08
  Speaker 11: I believe he did that overnight. Now, I don't necessarily
• 54:12
  Speaker 11: believe it was a fifty five gallon drum. I believe
• 54:15
  Speaker 11: that that was suggested to him by the detective.
• 54:19
  Speaker 10: That's what he used.
• 54:21
  Speaker 11: I believe it had to be something smaller because it
• 54:24
  Speaker 11: would have just been too heavy to keep lifting onto
• 54:27
  Speaker 11: the stove. And then I also believe that I don't
• 54:32
  Speaker 11: know where the skull is, but I do believe one
• 54:35
  Speaker 11: day it'll be found somewhere, maybe in the mountains. I
• 54:40
  Speaker 11: always believed that perhaps he was. He hid it somewhere
• 54:44
  Speaker 11: so it would be found.
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: Sometimes many a tree word is spoken in jest. We
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: learned that the daughter Jackie Vans, stated that her father
• 54:55
  Speaker 2: used to joke about the best way to dispose of
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: a body, and her exact words, Darrel were, he's a chef.
• 55:03
  Speaker 2: He would joke about cooking a body.
• 55:06
  Speaker 10: Man, you can't make this stuff up when you joke
• 55:10
  Speaker 10: about it. And then he then later admits that that's
• 55:14
  Speaker 10: what he did. Whether it was a fifty five pounds,
• 55:17
  Speaker 10: a five pounds of two court, it doesn't really matter.
• 55:20
  Speaker 10: It certainly seems to me that he gave a wonderful
• 55:25
  Speaker 10: confession and admission. And I hope that his Miranda rights
• 55:30
  Speaker 10: were given to him before he made that confession.
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: Oh man, you're not kidding about that, you know. Joseph
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: Scott Morgan, could you explain exactly how what he's saying
• 55:43
  Speaker 2: now that he did to his wife could have physically happened?
• 55:47
  Speaker 14: Oh yeah, And to go back to what Larry had
• 55:49
  Speaker 14: said just a moment ago. You know, after I've read
• 55:52
  Speaker 14: over this case now for some time, I believe with
• 55:56
  Speaker 14: Larry that he probably did performing dismemberment And let me
• 56:01
  Speaker 14: tell you what's really kind of chilling about this is
• 56:03
  Speaker 14: that the process that he used in disposing of Down's
• 56:09
  Speaker 14: remains is something that we actually use in the Medical
• 56:13
  Speaker 14: Examiner or slash corner world when it comes to remains
• 56:17
  Speaker 14: that we have that are decomposed and we're trying to
• 56:20
  Speaker 14: get to the bone, if you will. Forensic anthropologists use
• 56:23
  Speaker 14: this all the time. This is called rendering, and the
• 56:26
  Speaker 14: idea is it's almost like a crock pot. Do you
• 56:29
  Speaker 14: place the remains into this large vessel and you apply
• 56:35
  Speaker 14: low temperature heat to it for a you know, for
• 56:39
  Speaker 14: a protracted period of time. Sometimes it can be days.
• 56:42
  Speaker 14: And I have no doubt that what he saw was
• 56:46
  Speaker 14: actually taking place. That is, say, for instance, we're talking
• 56:50
  Speaker 14: about the rendering down of the fat, all the other
• 56:52
  Speaker 14: soft tissues the body that are being poured off. However,
• 56:56
  Speaker 14: this is what I believe the bone, I think there
• 57:02
  Speaker 14: would still be some remnant of that. I don't know
• 57:04
  Speaker 14: that he could successfully render down all of the bone,
• 57:08
  Speaker 14: particularly when you talk about things like the pelvis, the
• 57:10
  Speaker 14: long bones of the legs, because they're very robust. It's
• 57:14
  Speaker 14: interesting that he mentioned the skull because the skulls rather
• 57:16
  Speaker 14: robust too. I think that he still had to go
• 57:19
  Speaker 14: some distance to get rid of the body. But what
• 57:22
  Speaker 14: this did do is that if we follow through with
• 57:25
  Speaker 14: this idea of dismemberment, he's completely gotten rid of evidence
• 57:29
  Speaker 14: like tool marks, for instance. And I take exception to
• 57:32
  Speaker 14: what he said earlier, and that is this person where
• 57:37
  Speaker 14: he said, I'm a chef, not a butcher. Well, the
• 57:40
  Speaker 14: reality is this, if you are a chef, you have
• 57:43
  Speaker 14: butchering skills. And you know, I'm from New Orleans. Originally,
• 57:47
  Speaker 14: I understand this because I've been to some of the
• 57:50
  Speaker 14: finest restaurants in the world. I have friends that are chefs.
• 57:53
  Speaker 14: They know how to take game and butcher that game
• 57:56
  Speaker 14: in order to cook it. Okay, he understands this, all right,
• 58:00
  Speaker 14: I didn't come down with the last drop of rain.
• 58:03
  Speaker 14: So I think that's that's a ridiculous comment that he made.
• 58:07
  Speaker 14: He knows how to do this, Nancy. He knows how
• 58:09
  Speaker 14: to slow cook meat, if you will, And like the
• 58:13
  Speaker 14: reporter said, Dawn became just merely a piece of meat
• 58:18
  Speaker 14: to him, something to be disposed of. And what's really chilling, Nancy,
• 58:22
  Speaker 14: is that you know, I worked serial killings with dismemberments
• 58:27
  Speaker 14: and that sort of thing. Those people are unattached from
• 58:30
  Speaker 14: the individuals that they victimized. This is his precious wife.
• 58:34
  Speaker 14: He's doing this probably, I think, in that kitchen because
• 58:39
  Speaker 14: he can sustain it, he can maintain it, and he
• 58:42
  Speaker 14: has to make the body manageable, which in this case
• 58:46
  Speaker 14: I think that he did, and he rendered her down
• 58:48
  Speaker 14: completely over a long protracted period.
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: Now, according to the daughter twenty two at the time,
• 58:54
  Speaker 2: she said her father told her that he and Donn
• 59:00
  Speaker 2: arguing and he tried to barricade their bedroom door with
• 59:04
  Speaker 2: a dresser, but it didn't work, so he felt his
• 59:07
  Speaker 2: only alternative was to tie up his wife and tape
• 59:11
  Speaker 2: her mouth.
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: The next morning she was dead. She says.
• 59:15
  Speaker 2: Her dad, David Van's told her that dog's body would
• 59:21
  Speaker 2: never be found. Now he told the same story to detectives.
• 59:27
  Speaker 2: He's sticking to his story. To sister Dana Pappen, why
• 59:34
  Speaker 2: is it that you don't believe this is what happened.
• 59:38
  Speaker 7: Well, Number one is because that was an operating restaurant.
• 59:43
  Speaker 7: There were customers in there daily, and I think that
• 59:46
  Speaker 7: cooking a body like that would probably have a very
• 59:50
  Speaker 7: intense odor. It just doesn't make sense to me. And
• 59:58
  Speaker 7: also I don't it Just it's I can't wrap my
• 1:00:03
  Speaker 7: head around him actually doing it. I can't wrap my
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 7: head around the full thing. So it really shouldn't surprise
• 1:00:11
  Speaker 7: me that he said he did it and probably did
• 1:00:14
  Speaker 7: do it. It just doesn't make sense to.
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 2: Me the case it goes to tryal Take a listen
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 2: to kt LA five. Will you think during the bob
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 2: entitled action find the defendant David Van's guilty of the
• 1:00:27
  Speaker 2: crime of murder in violation of Penal Code Section eight.
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 2: I can tell you this much. If all it takes
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 2: to get out of jail is to say I did it,
• 1:00:38
  Speaker 2: all the jails will be empty right now. I hope
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 2: no parole board falls for this. In the future, rot
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 2: in hell, Vans rot in hell, or should I say
• 1:00:52
  Speaker 2: boil in hell?
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 3: Goodbye friends,