Peter Chadwick, who was placed in the U.S. Marshal’s 15 most wanted list as a fugitive for the murder of his wife in 2012, pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder on Feb. 9 — almost one decade after her murder.
Chadwick, age 57, murdered his wife by strangulation and drowned in their Newport Beach home after an argument about divorce and financial problems on Oct. 10, 2012. His wife, Quee Choo Chadwick, age 46, was reported missing when two of their sons were never picked up from school.
Another parent from the school district drove their children home from school and asked the Newport Beach Police Department for a welfare check when the two parents were nowhere to be found. When the police entered the residence, signs of struggle and blood were found inside, initiating the investigation.
Inside the home, a broken vase was found and there were spatterings of blood on the bathroom walls. According to the investigators, the house safe was also found empty.
Chadwick called the police from a gas station in San Diego County on Oct. 11 and told them that his wife had been murdered by another person and that they forced him to drive the body to the Mexico Border.
The man who Chadwick claimed to have murdered his wife was a house painter named Juan. When detectives held an interview with Chadwick, they noticed scratches on his neck and dried blood on his hands. They also gathered enough intel to determine that “Juan” did not exist.
“I picked him up to look at some painting work at the house. I brought him to the house,” Chadwick said in the interview about Juan.
“He hears Q.C. scream ‘Peter, Peter…’” and as he runs upstairs he sees Juan strangling Q.C., who’s in the bath, in their master bedroom and he’s drowning her,” Sergeant Ryan Peters said after an interview with Chadwick.
Chadwick led police to his wife’s body which had been wrapped in a comforter and dumped in a trash bin in San Diego County. Police gathered intel that his story wasn’t convincing enough, and they arrested him that day.
The multimillionaire posted bail for $1 million in December of that same year. He agreed to reside with his father and turned over both his U.S. and U.K. passports.
After failing to attend his pre-trial healing in Jan. 2015, Chadwick was deemed a fugitive and the police could not find him for nearly four years.
“You know, it’s — it’s just — it’s frustrating. … You shouldn’t be able to take advantage of the system because you have money. And you know, that’s what happened here. Most people can’t afford this bail. You shouldn’t be able to do this because you got money. … He took full advantage and he used his financial resources to do it,” Prosecutor Matt Murphy said.
When the police entered his father’s residence in Santa Barbara after Chadwick’s escape, they found books in the home like How to Change Your Identity and How to Survive in Mexico. They also proceeded to find other forms of literature about living in Canada.
This led to a large manhunt through the United States, Mexico and Canada. Police also followed what they referred to as “strategically placed indicators,” like receipts from Seattle.
According to prosecutors, Chadwick used several aliases while staying on the run in Mexico, as well as held jobs that would also allow for him to move from one place to another without staying in one of those places too long.
He allegedly would stay in hotels, progressively changing his hair and physical identity.
“Chadwick apparently used many fake ids and aliases, including ‘Paul Cook,’ ‘Paul Craig’ and ‘John Franklin.’ He even had an ID card. It was a copy of some fictional security force. And he was representing himself as some type of analyst with top secret access with his photo on it,” U.S. Marshal Craig McClusky said.
In 2018, the U.S. Marshals placed Chadwick on their 15 Most Wanted fugitive list. A $25,000 reward was offered for any information that could lead them to Chadwick, and the City of Newport Beach offered an additional $75,000 reward.
After learning that family friends were assisting Chadwick, on Aug. 14, 2019, he was arrested by the Mexican Immigration Authorities just outside Puebla, Mexico.
“Our investigation shows that Peter Chadwick never intended to return from Mexico. He had no intentions of coming back to Orange County to face trial or raise the three sons that he’d abandoned. Speaking of the boys, our hearts go out to them and we ask that everyone respect their privacy at this incredibly emotional time,” Chief John Lewis said in a press release after the arrest.
Chadwick’s trial took place Feb. 9 of this year in the Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana. Prior to his plea deal, he faced 25 years to life in prison. As a part of his agreement, the time he already served in county jail prior to trial did not add any credit to his guilty plea.
Chadwick plead guilty to one felony count of second-degree murder of his wife and will now serve 15 years to life.
Peter Chadwick and Quee Choo Chadwick were college sweethearts when they first met at Arizona State University, according to interviews conducted from neighbors, family friends and teachers. They had three sons, with the oldest away at boarding school during the time of the murder.
“We lost in Q.C. a mother who cared for her children deeply, and who loved life and loved vibrancy, and loved to give her children all that she possibly could,” music teacher Art Scott said.
Hanna Bulaj is a City News Intern for the winter 2022 quarter. She can be reached at hbulaj@uci.edu.
