Omaima Nelson

Omaima Aree Nelson is an Egyptian model and nanny who was convicted of murdering her husband, Bill Nelson. She is serving a life sentence at the Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla, California.^[1] Her case made international headlines due to allegations of bondage sex, decapitation, castration, and cannibalism.

Marriage and murder

Omaima Aree Nelson was born and raised in Egypt, and immigrated to the United States in 1986.^[2] She met her husband William E. (Bill) Nelson, a 56 year-old pilot, in October 1991, when she was 23. Within days of meeting, the couple married, but Omaima would later claim that during the couple's month-long union, she suffered sexual abuse by her husband.

On Thanksgiving Day 1991, Omaima claimed that Bill had sexually assaulted her in their Costa Mesa, California apartment. Following this, Omaima stabbed Bill with scissors, then began beating him with a clothes iron.^[3] After finally killing him, she began dismembering his body, and allegedly cooked his head and boiled his hands to remove his fingerprints. She then mixed up his body parts with leftover Thanksgiving turkey and disposed of him in a garbage disposal. Neighbors claim they heard the disposal unit running for hours after the time of Bill's death.^[4] She reportedly castrated him in revenge for his alleged sexual assaults. She told her psychiatrist that she had cooked her husband's ribs in barbeque sauce and eaten them, but later denied this.^[3]

Trial and aftermath

Omaima was arrested on a suspicion of murder charge in December 2, 1991, and her trial began almost exactly one year later on December 1, 1992.^[5] During the trial it was revealed that as a child living in Cairo, Omaima had been circumsized and sex was traumatic and painful for her, only increased by the assaults she allegedly sustained during her marriage.^[4] She was convicted of second-degree murder on January 12, 1993.^[3] She was sentenced to 27 years to life in prison.^[6]

Omaima first became eligible for parole in 2006, but was denied when "commissioners found her unpredictable and a serious threat to public safety." She became eligible again in 2011, but was denied by the parole board again, citing that she had not taken responsibility for the murder, and would not be a productive citizen if she were freed. She will not be able to seek parole again until 2026.^[1]

Omaima Nelson has been compared to fictional serial killer and cannibal Hannibal Lecter, from Silence of the Lambs. Her case has been televised on the Investigation Discovery programs Happily Never After and Deadly Women and "Model Killers", as well as an episode of Snapped.

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