Millionaire Fugitive Sought In Wife's Murder

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — Newport Beach police and the U.S. Marshals Service will announce on Wednesday how they are "intensifying their search" for a murder defendant who jumped bail three years ago.

A federal arrest warrant was filed in October by the U.S. Marshals Service for Peter Chadwick, who had lived in Newport Beach.

Chadwick went missing in January 2015. He called police in October 2012 alleging that a handyman killed his wife, Quee Choo Lim Chadwick, and then kidnapped him and forced him to drive to Mexico to dump her body, according to Craig McCluskey of the U.S. Marshals Service.

However, San Diego police, who arrested Chadwick four miles north of the Mexico border, noticed he had scratches on his neck and "dried blood on his hands," McCluskey wrote. Investigators subsequently found a "crime scene" at the Chadwick home and after questioning the suspect he later led detectives to where his wife's body was dumped in a gas station trash bin, McCluskey said.

"Chadwick admitted that he made up the story about the handyman killing his wife," McCluskey wrote.

Chadwick was eventually granted bail and released Dec. 21, 2012, on a $2 million bond. He surrendered his British and American passports and agreed to live with his father, "a wealthy investor," in Santa Barbara, McCluskey wrote.

When Newport Beach detectives went to talk to Chadwick at his father's home after he missed a court date in January 2015 they were told the defendant was not living there and no one knew where he was, McCluskey wrote.

Chadwick's family later told investigators in February that Chadwick told them he was going to Seattle and left in a cab, McCluskey said.

"At the residence, I saw several books with titles indicative of a person wanting to flee a jurisdiction, including, while not verbatim, titles such as `How to Change Your Identity,' `How to Live on the Run Successfully,' and `Surviving in Mexico,' " McCluskey said.

Chadwick called for a cab at 11 a.m., Jan. 9, 2015, and was taken to the Santa Barbara airport, McCluskey said.

"Video from the airport showed Chadwick leaving the airport in a different taxicab six hours later wearing different clothing," McCluskey wrote. "According to phone records later obtained, Chadwick's cellphone was turned off on Jan. 9, 2015, and was later found in a trash dump."

An arrest warrant was issued Feb. 11, 2015.

Bank records indicate Chadwick drained $600,000 from a bank account in mid-January, McCluskey said.

The defendant's son told investigators in February 2015 that his father had been planning to flee since Nov. 28, 2014, McCluskey said.

Chadwick's son told investigators that his father planned "to exit the United States via the Mexico or Canadian international borders, by driving there and walking across," McCluskey said.

Chadwick's son said his father had "a large sum of money at his disposal and would establish himself in a foreign country by obtaining a place to live and getting a menial job," McCluskey wrote.

Investigators believe Chadwick fled with "several million dollars in assets, as well as large amounts of available cash," McCluskey wrote.

Before he became a fugitive, Chadwick would frequently visit China, Malaysia, Canada and Thailand, McCluskey said.

Related:

Newport Man Pleads Not Guilty To Murdering Wife, Disposing Body

Blood Found Inside Chadwick HomeBlood Found Inside Chadwick Home

Alleged Newport Coast Wife-Killer Released From Jail

OCDA Booking Photo