Memphis man convicted of killing his bride on their honeymoon in Fiji in 2022

Wellington, New Zealand — A person from Memphis, Tennessee has been discovered responsible by a decide in Fiji of murdering his wife during their honeymoon in 2022, the prosecutor’s workplace mentioned Monday.

Bradley Robert Dawson, 40, killed his spouse, Christe Chen, who was 36, on the unique Turtle Island resort within the Yasawa archipelago two days after the newlyweds arrived in Fiji, then fled by kayak to a close-by island. Chen was found within the couple’s room by resort workers with a number of blunt trauma wounds to her head after the couple was heard arguing and did not seem at breakfast or lunch the subsequent day.

Justice Riyaz Hamza discovered Dawson responsible within the Lautoka Excessive Courtroom final Thursday after a weeklong trial, the Workplace of the Director of Public Prosecutions mentioned. Dawson had denied the cost.

The truth that Dawson was carrying his passport and different belongings with him when he was arrested indicated that he deliberate to flee, Hamza mentioned, in response to the Fiji Instances newspaper. The decide mentioned he was glad past affordable doubt that Dawson and nobody else had dedicated the offense.

The U.S. nationwide, who stays in custody in Fiji, faces a compulsory time period of life in jail when he’s sentenced in January. Fiji regulation permits a presiding decide to set a minimal time period to be served earlier than a pardon is taken into account.

An legal professional for Dawson did not instantly reply to a request for remark.

In 2022, a lawyer representing Christe Chen’s mother and father mentioned their daughter’s physique was so badly broken that she could not be embalmed for return to the U.S. and her stays have been cremated. Chen labored as a pastry chef earlier than returning to highschool to grow to be a pharmacist, and had labored in that capability at a Kroger grocery store in Memphis.

The household’s lawyer, Ronald Gordon — who didn’t instantly reply to a request for touch upon Monday — mentioned Chen and Dawson have been heard arguing over dinner the evening earlier than the homicide.

Dawson labored within the info expertise division at Youth Villages, a nonprofit youngster welfare and help group primarily based in Memphis, the group confirmed when he was arrested. A web-based information search confirmed no legal arrests for Dawson in Shelby County, which incorporates Memphis.

The Turtle Island resort, the place the pair stayed, is an unique and distant 500-acre island that accommodates solely 14 {couples} at a time. Yasawa is a bunch of about 20 volcanic islands within the west of Fiji, an idyllic South Pacific island nation of 930,000 individuals.