Wellington, New Zealand — A Memphis, Tenn., man has been found guilty by a Fijian judge of murdering his wife on their honeymoon in 2022prosecutors said Monday.
Bradley Robert Dawson, 40, killed his wife, Christe Chen, 36, at the exclusive Turtle Island resort in the Yasawa archipelago two days after the couple arrived in Fiji, and then they fled by kayak to a nearby island. Chen was discovered in the couple’s room by resort staff with multiple blunt force injuries to the head after the couple were heard arguing and did not show up for breakfast or lunch the next day.
Judge Riyaz Hamza found Dawson guilty in the Lautoka High Court last Thursday after a week-long trial, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said. Dawson had denied the allegation.
The fact that Dawson had his passport and other belongings with him when he was arrested indicated he planned to flee, Hamza said, according to the Fiji Times newspaper. The judge said he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Dawson and no one else had committed the offence.
Google Maps
The American citizen, who remains in custody in Fiji, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison when he is sentenced in January. Fijian law allows a presiding judge to set a minimum term to be served before a pardon is considered.
An attorney for Dawson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In 2022, a lawyer representing Christe Chen’s parents said their daughter’s body was so mutilated that it could not be embalmed to return to the United States, and her remains were cremated. Chen worked as a pastry chef before returning to school to become a pharmacist, and had worked in that capacity at a Kroger supermarket in Memphis.
The family’s attorney, Ronald Gordon, who did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday, said Chen and Dawson were heard arguing over dinner the night before the murder.
Dawson was working in the information technology department at Youth Villages, a nonprofit child welfare and support organization based in Memphis, the organization confirmed when he was arrested. An online records search showed no criminal arrests for Dawson in Shelby County, which includes Memphis.
The Turtle Island Resort, where the couple stayed, is an exclusive, remote 500-acre island that only accommodates 14 couples at a time. Yasawa is a group of about 20 volcanic islands west of Fiji, an idyllic South Pacific island nation of 930,000 people.