Wellington, New Zealand — A man from Memphis, Tennessee has been found guilty by a judge in Fiji of murdering his wife during their honeymoon in 2022, the prosecutor’s office said Monday.
Justice Riyaz Hamza found Dawson guilty in the Lautoka High Court last Thursday after a weeklong trial, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said.
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.
Dawson worked 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.
The Turtle Island resort, where the pair stayed, is an exclusive and remote 500-acre island that accommodates only 14 couples at a time.
Wellington, New Zealand — The prosecutor’s office announced Monday that a judge in Fiji had found a man from Memphis, Tennessee guilty of killing his wife off-wedding in 2022.
Two days after the couple’s arrival in Fiji, Bradley Robert Dawson, 40, killed his 36-year-old wife, Christe Chen, at the upscale Turtle Island resort in the Yasawa archipelago. He then fled to a nearby island in a kayak. After the couple was heard fighting and failed to show up for breakfast or lunch the following day, resort staff found Chen in their room with multiple blunt trauma wounds to her head.
The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions said that following a week-long trial, Dawson was found guilty by Justice Riyaz Hamza in the Lautoka High Court last Thursday. The charge had been refuted by Dawson.
According to the Fiji Times newspaper, Hamza stated that Dawson’s intention to escape was evident from the fact that he had his passport and other possessions with him when he was taken into custody. The judge declared that he was positive Dawson and no one else were the perpetrators of the crime.
The U. A. When the national, who is still being held in Fiji, is sentenced in January, he will be given a mandatory life sentence. A minimum sentence must be completed before a pardon is considered, according to Fijian law.
When asked for comment, Dawson’s lawyer did not immediately reply.
A lawyer for Christe Chen’s parents stated in 2022 that their daughter’s body was too severely damaged to be embalmed and sent back to the United States. S. and the cremation of her was performed. Chen was employed at a Kroger supermarket in Memphis as a pastry chef before going back to school to become a pharmacist.
Ronald Gordon, the family’s attorney, said Chen and Dawson were overheard fighting over dinner the night before the murder. Gordon did not immediately reply to a Monday request for comment.
At the time of his arrest, Youth Villages, a Memphis-based nonprofit organization dedicated to child welfare and support, confirmed that Dawson was employed in the information technology division. There were no criminal arrests for Dawson in Shelby County, which includes Memphis, according to an internet records search.
The couple stayed at Turtle Island resort, a private and secluded 500-acre island that can only hold 14 couples at a time. Approximately 20 volcanic islands make up the Yasawa group, which is located west of Fiji, a beautiful South Pacific island nation with a population of 930,000.
