Former Model Who Killed, Ate Husband Denied Parole

Omaima Nelson (left) today and, at right, in 1993. She was convicted of killing her husband and eating his body parts over Thanksgiving weekend in 1991. (AP)

A former model convicted of killing her husband and then eating parts of his body in 1991 was denied parole Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Omaima Nelson was sentenced to between 27 years and life for murdering her 56-year-old husband William Nelson over the Thanksgiving weekend in 1991, then dismembering and cooking parts of his body in their Costa Mesa, Calif., apartment.

Senior Deputy District Attorney Randy Pawloski, who prosecuted the case, said Nelson -- a former Egyptian model who immigrated to the US in 1986 -- cooked her husband's head on the stove, skinned his torso and fried his hands in oil.

At one point during the murder investigation, the then 27-year-old Nelson admitted dipping parts of her cooked husband's body into barbecue sauce and tasting it.

During her Wednesday parole hearing, held at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, northwest of Fresno, Nelson argued she should be released because she was a changed woman, the Times reported.

"I am sorry for dismembering him," she said.

But William Nelson's 35-year-old daughter, who wished not to be publicly identified, told the hearing that she did not want Nelson to be released.

"I don't know the adequate punishment for a murderer who doesn't even leave a family a body to mourn over. But I do know you don't let her out," she said.