WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A Memphis, Tennessee, man has been found guilty by a Fijian judge of killing his wife on their 2022 honeymoon, prosecutors 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 newlyweds arrived in Fiji, then fled by kayak to a nearby island. It was Chen he was found in the couple’s room by the staff of the resort After hearing the couple arguing, he didn’t show up at breakfast or lunch the next day with multiple grievous head injuries.
Justice Riyaz Hamza found Dawson guilty after a week-long trial at the Lautoka High Court last Thursday, the Department of Public Prosecutions said. Dawson defended the charge.
Hamza, who was carrying Dawson’s passport and other belongings when he was arrested, said he was planning to flee, according to the Fiji Times. The judge said he was satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Dawson and no one else committed the crime.
The US citizen, who remains in custody in Fiji, faces a mandatory life sentence when he is sentenced in January. Fijian law allows for a minimum period to be served before a pardon can be 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 badly damaged that it could not be embalmed for return to the US and her remains were cremated. Chen worked as a pastry chef before going back to school to become a pharmacist, working in that position 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 worked in the information technology department at Youth Villages, a nonprofit child welfare and support organization in Memphis, the organization confirmed when he was arrested. An online records search showed no criminal arrests in Shelby County, including Memphis, for Dawson.
Turtle Island resort, where the couple stayed, is an exclusive and remote 500-hectare island that accommodates only 14 couples at a time. Yasawa is a group of about 20 volcanic islands west of Fiji, an idyllic South Pacific island with a population of 930,000.
