Meals, models, and murder. I'm Jason Horton. I'm Rebecca Leib. And this is Ghost Town.

A warning, this Thanksgiving-themed episode talks a lot about pretty heavy topics,

including the adulation of use assault, murder, cannibalism. Just a warning in case you're

easily nauseated or offended, or maybe today's just not the right day to listen to this episode.

Omaima Ari Nelson was born and raised in Egypt, and as a child, she was the victim of horrific

abuses, including sexual humiliation and female general medilation. In 1986, Nelson immigrated

to the United States in hopes for a better life. Omaima Nelson was striking, to say the least.

She was tall, long-limbed, with dark hair and eyes. She had nannied and monoled before moving

to the United States. But it wasn't easy for her. Her photos are so innocent. So late 80s,

I went through a lot of different photoshoots that she was in. She, for once, she's sitting on

the hood of a car in jeans and a sweatshirt, crop top, looking very young, and excited, and very

chic, honestly. All photos of her even ones in a courtroom show just how beautiful she was.

So Nelson moved to Orange County, where she became a sex worker while trying to break into the

US modeling market. She began trading sex for rent and cars from a long, overlapping line of men,

most of whom were considerably older than her. In October 1991, Nelson, then 23, met her husband,

William E. Bill Nelson, a 56-year-old pilot, within days of meeting the couple married.

The abuse started almost instantly. Nelson's new husband would assault her,

pamper out to other men, and perform other senseless and sadistic acts of violence. One time when

Nelson adopted a kitten, for example, Bill allegedly pulled the animal from her lap in a moving car

and tossed it out the window. The two had known each other five weeks and had been married

only three when something terrible happened. On November 28, 1991, Bill had sexually assaulted Nelson

in their Costa Mesa California apartment. In a rage, Omaima stabbed Bill with scissors and then

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