Millionaire who murdered wife thwarted by a police podcast
Peter Chadwick went on the run for 10 years – but justice finally caught up with him
After making millions in property investment, Peter Chadwick had an oceanview home in an exclusive gated community in Newport Beach, California. Chadwick shared the Mediterranean-style house, worth around $2.5 million, with his Malaysian-born wife of 21 years, Quee Choo.
Chadwick, 57, was born in the UK but became an American citizen when he married Quee, 46, who had been his college sweetheart. Once wed, Quee, affectionately known by her friends as QC, became a stay-at-home mum to their three sons.
Family was everything to Quee, and she loved nothing more than arranging family gettogethers. Those who knew the couple said they were quiet and easy-going. With their wealth, they seemed to have the perfect life, until the family was hit by tragedy.
On 10 October 2012, the two youngest of Quee’s sons (then aged eight, 10 and 14) were found waiting at a bus stop, saying their parents had failed to pick them up after school. Another parent drove them home, but the couple weren’t at the house, so they requested that the police do a welfare check.
When officers entered the home, they found blood in the bath and on the bathroom walls.
There were signs of a struggle in the master bedroom, including a broken glass vase and a towel with blood on it. The home safe had been emptied and Chadwick and Quee were missing. Had the couple been victims of a home invasion? Concerned for their safety, police put out an alert. But the next day, Chadwick called them from a petrol station near the Mexican border.
In a shocking confession, Chadwick said that his wife was dead. He said that he’d hired a handyman named Juan to paint their home, and he’d killed Quee in their bathroom before robbing them. Juan had then allegedly forced Chadwick to drive to Mexico to dump Quee’s body.
After discovering his exact location, police picked Chadwick up but were immediately suspicious of his story. He didn’t have Quee’s body, but officers did notice that he had scratches on his neck and dried blood on his hands.
Chadwick then admitted that he’d made up the story about Juan and told them where they could find Quee’s body. He led them to a bin in the San Diego suburb of Lakeside. Inside, Quee’s body was wrapped in a blanket. She’d been strangled and drowned. Chadwick was arrested and charged with murder.
Considering divorce
Investigators discovered that Chadwick may have been unfaithful and that Quee was considering a divorce. Had that triggered an argument between the couple?
While waiting for trial, in December 2012, Chadwick was released on a $1 million bond. He gave up his American and British passports and agreed to live with his dad, a wealthy investor in Santa Barbara. It was a controversial decision to release him on bail, but for two years he appeared at hearings. Then in January 2015, when he was due to attend a pre-trial hearing, Chadwick vanished. When police went to Santa Barbara, Chadwick’s family said they believed he’d gone to Seattle.
Officers saw that Chadwick had called a taxi and gone to an airport – but then had left the airport six hours later, wearing different clothes. His phone had then been turned off and was found in a bin. Receipts from Seattle were found in the place Chadwick had been staying, as well as literature about living in Canada. There were also books called How To Change Your Identity, How To Live On The Run Successfully
‘He dumped her body as if she was a piece of trash’
and Surviving In Mexico. It was clear Chadwick had fled. He became an international fugitive and was on the US Marshals’ 15 Most Wanted list. Bank records revealed that Chadwick had withdrawn $600,000 from an account called the “Chadwick Family Trust”. He’d also taken cash advances on credit cards and had drained all his other accounts of millions.
Vanished into obscurity
For several years, Chadwick was hunted by police, as they searched across the US, Canada and Mexico. But there was no sign. Chadwick had been used to travelling for work and easily vanished into obscurity with his money.
Then in late 2018, the police took the unusual step of creating a crime podcast, called Countdown To Capture, about the case. There had been success in other popular crime podcasts, and it was a way to put pressure on Chadwick while keeping the case in the spotlight.
They offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to Chadwick’s arrest. In the last episode police warned Chadwick that his time on the run would be short-lived. “Mr Chadwick, you are in a very bad situation here,” they said. “You can run but you can’t hide much longer. Do yourself a favour, Mr Chadwick, and turn yourself in.”
It generated a rush of tip-offs from around the world and one led them to Chadwick’s whereabouts. The podcast had worked.
In August 2019, after four years on the run, Chadwick was found hiding in Puebla, near Mexico City, at a residential duplex in a community of American expats. When he was searched, Chadwick had a fake ID card from the Marvel show Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D. He’d been using it to pose as a spy.
Chadwick had been using several aliases and staying at high-end resorts in Mexico to start with, but when he got to the point where he needed to show a passport, he moved to more modest hostels.
All the while, he’d left his three sons with family, without any intention to return to them.
Chadwick was brought back to face trial for first degree murder, which he knew would put him in prison for the rest of his life, so he made a plea deal.
In February this year, nearly 10 years after
Quee’s death, Chadwick, 57, pleaded guilty to second degree murder and admitted that he’d killed his wife.
Tearfully, Chadwick apologised to the court. “I wish I could take it back,” he said. “I compounded that by running away from it. I destroyed everything so I deserve whatever the court decides. She was a great person. So loving. She cared for everyone.”
The prosecution said that Chadwick had strangled and drowned his wife in the bathroom of their luxury home on 10 October 2012. Then he’d dumped her body in a bin. They said it had happened during an argument over a possible divorce and financial issues.
Quee’s brother and sister had written statements that were read in court. They described Quee as “chatty, inquisitive and compassionate” and said she was devoted to her family.
Quee’s sister said, “I will never understand how, after hurting her, Chadwick was so barbarically able to dump her body as if she was a worthless piece of trash.”
At part of the plea deal, Chadwick was sentenced to life in prison and told he would serve a minimum of 15 years. Quee’s family finally got justice, 10 years after her death.
Chadwick had used his money to try to get away with murder – but he soon learned there was nowhere to hide.
He might have pretended to be someone else, but he couldn’t escape the fact he was a coldblooded killer.