OC's 50 Most Notorious Cases ~ OC's 50 Most Notorious Cases

Day 42: An Egyptian nanny accused of cooking her husband

December 13th, 2009, 2:00 am · 66 Comments · posted by

1992.Nelson.1
1993: When authorities compare you to the real-life cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer and the fictional cannibal Hannibal Lector, you’re notorious. And no criminal defendant was more notorious in the early 1990s that Omaima Aref Nelson, a 24-year-old Egyptian nanny and model.

On Thanksgiving weekend 1991, Nelson bludgeoned pilot William Nelson, her much-older husband whom she married after a four-week courtship, in their Costa Mesa apartment.

Then she skinned the torso, cooked the decapitated head and fried the hands in oil. She was arrested after she stuffed some of her husband’s body parts into garbage bags and offered a friend $75,000 to help her dispose of it.

Omaima Nelson contended her husband beat and raped her regularly, and said she killed him after a particularly brutal assault. A psychologist testified she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and said she was psychotic.

She was convicted her of second-degree murder in January 1993 and sentenced to 28 years to life.

Pictured above: Omaima Aref Nelson in court in 1992.  File Photo by Bruce Chambers, The Orange County Register

Posted in: Criminal cases
 
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 66 Comments

  • no mo mex says:

    Ain’t love grand.

  • dennisintustin says:

    When does she get out of prison. I’m looking for a woman who can cook.

  • se says:

    Maybe she was a Twilight Zone fan and her favorite episode was “To Serve Man”

  • Marc says:

    gonna mark my calender for when she is paroled.

  • matt says:

    kinda wonder what would lead someone to eat another human

  • Tatiana says:

    WOW! I remember one of my CSI teachers telling the class about this. What a psychotic woman…

  • Alan Travis says:

    Well, to paraphrase the pro baby-butchering liberals, “If you don’t agree with murdering people and cooking them up, then don’t do it!”

    Just keep it “safe and legal”, that’s all.

  • babyrn58 says:

    And why is this even a story we need to read about again? Guess things are slow.

    • Adrian says:

      We’re reading about this again becuase they’re doing a series on The 50 Most Notorious Crimes in OC. By the number of comments, obviously it’s doing well. Perhaps you should be careful about throwing around the word, “slow”. Pot, meet kettle….

  • cd8ted says:

    I think she’s an old girl friend!
    She was temperamental!

  • crmazy says:

    Has she been released?

  • Yohners says:

    I forgot about this one.You never know what happens behind closed doors.Dr. says she was psychotic.You think!what a freak.fry it up

  • syscom3 says:

    28 years for that? She should get an LWOP just for eating the guy.

  • Shawna says:

    At least she removed the skin first. She should slow down on that deep-frying, tho.

  • BART AROYAN says:

    I THINK SHE WAS TRYING TO HIDE HIS IDENTITY BY FRYING OFF HIS FINGER PRINTS AND BY COOKING HIS HEAD SHE WAS TRYING TO REMOVE HIS FLESH FROM THE SCULL. THIS SHOULD HAVE BEEN 1ST DEGREE MURDER AND THE DEATH PENALTY BUT SHE IS IN A PROTECTED CLASS OF HUMANS .

  • Angie says:

    Husbands who beat and raped their wives deserved to be fried!!!!!!!!!

  • michelle says:

    wait…it said she cooked him…it didn’t say she ate him

  • Newman says:

    She’s hot!

  • loan_nerd@yahoo.com says:

    Finger licking good!!!! Poor lady!!!

  • loan_nerd@yahoo.com says:

    Wonder if she had his sausage and eggs for breakfast???? lol

  • doug says:

    having left overs @my house tonight your all invited

  • JusSayin says:

    Larry Welborn: Lisa Peng?

  • bobexoc says:

    Rachael Ray told her to “light the pilot” ……. so she did.

  • doug says:

    does it make any since that this women will let out of jail at some time in her life .look at all the other people that have been released for bad crimes!!!! this is land of the freeeeeeeeeeeee

  • Cyndia28 says:

    Maybe its an Egytpian ritual!

  • BruceMpls says:

    I’m sure this will look good on her resume when she applies for Top Chef.

  • Charles in Charge says:

    That will teach her to choose better role models (read: Jeffrey Dahmer)

  • KrazyKen says:

    What sides does he come with

  • doug says:

    last thing she told reporters was baam

  • Sandy says:

    What is the world coming too. Sick, Sick, Sick

  • Jim says:

    Well, if he was cooked then when found in the garbage it would just seem like an old turkey carcass. A really BIG turkey carcass. And If she were lucky some animals would eat it and nobody ever finds it.
    And frying his hands would remove the fingerprints.
    Sounds like a cold blooded murder to me.

  • WileyCoyote says:

    Tastes like chicken!

  • susan burton says:

    I know the horrible story behind this. This woman had been born in Saudi Arabia, and when she was just six yo. her father ordered her circumsicion. She said she screamed and screamed until some older brothers had to tie her down for them to perform this terrible ceremony. So when she immigrated to the US and married the very cruel Mr. Nelson when she would try to consumate her marriage, it was very painful. So, as time went on her husband’s drinking problem became worse and each time he would beat her and sexually assault her. The last time was the Sat. after Thanksgiving and she said she snapped, and broke a glass lamp over his head, and that disabled him, and the rest was history…

  • susan burton says:

    I have heard that it is a ritualistic tradition to circumcise a pre-teen female though.

  • czykoc says:

    wait, a model AND a nanny? crazy, just like her.

  • this makes me hungry says:

    Nuts! I don’t remember hearing about this story, but I was only 12 back then.

  • Lisa says:

    Shortcut to a USA Green Card?

  • oldski says:

    What’s her immigration status? I don’t think she’s likely to assimilate well.

  • Orbitor1 says:

    I should never want to see her ever, might want dessert.

    • Orbitor1 says:

      Restraint needed only apply here!!
      Huhhh she killed the man fried his hands, stripped his skin from his bones and if that wasn’t enough she separated his head from his shoulders. Most women who are victimized by their partner make a couple of calls. Wait a minute ya didn’t have a dime, no wait a minute ya the only one who suffered, no go straight to jail, baby!!!! leave the money behind

  • Michelle says:

    I like how it says “share and enjoy” at the bottom.

  • WATCHING says:

    I find nothing in the article that says she ate him. She fried his hands in oil and cooked his head in an unspecified manner but although the headline implies that she ate him it is never specified in the article that she did.

  • Dina says:

    Dude, sick.

  • mrhinkydink says:

    I lived across the street on Monte Vista from the “friend” she brought the body parts. I remember coming home one Sunday afternoon and the street was lined with cops and news crews. A trash bag full of what appeared to be meat was of particular interest to the cops.

  • dale says:

    she has that ” I want to be tigers number 14″ look about her.

  • mark says:

    friends don’t let friends eat friends

  • zfelix says:

    doesn’t say whether she was able to prove that he raped and beat her all the time.

  • The Imperfect Crime says:

    I assume she did that to keep the body from being identified.
    Although skinning the torso was a little over the top.
    Yeah, I’d say he really p1ssed her off!
    I don’t recall if the police ever found evidence that she’d been abused.
    She doesn’t look it in the picture.
    Talk about “Fatal Attraction!”

  • Ed says:

    SOYLENT GREEN!!!! ;-)

  • HEAD PROLE says:

    Aunt Oimama

  • Angie says:

    i just think that if a spouse abused you on a regular basis, someone’s
    mind go crazy and would think of all the things that person could get back
    at the person. it sounds like a revenge!!! this is human behaviour………

    however, when both are nice to each other, nothing bizare like this
    happen. so, what is this telling us? Spouses need to respect each other
    and if one does not like to be with the other anymore, the best thing is
    part with that other one in an amicable way so murders are avoided.

  • Dana mnaley says:

    Think of the money we could all save with prison food! What a great show like Top Prison Chef! Today: Colored greens and Bill Johnson each chef makes a different dish using Bill Johnson convicted child molester and murderer, Amazing! He no longer tastes like Chicken!

    The story is sad, but the comments are side splitting!

    See ya, I’m off to Lucile’s for some long pork BBQ ribs

  • Rose says:

    How the laws are so messed up, she is going to get out someday after what she did! And some are sentenced 25 to life in 3 strikes cases for things that could never even be compared to the this horrid act! Amend Sentencing Laws!!!

  • MaRiMom1 says:

    Maybe he criticized her cooking, along with beating and raping her.

  • smartayss says:

    She should be up for parole, if she hasn’t been paroled already.

  • gage says:

    wow i just figured out a few days ago that im actually related to her :O no lies

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