Wellington, New Zealand — A Memphis, Tennessee, man was convicted by a Fiji judge of murder his wife during their honeymoon in 2022the prosecution said on 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. Chen was discovered in the couple’s room by resort staff with multiple blunt force injuries to her head after the couple was 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 accusation.
The fact that Dawson was carrying his passport and other personal belongings with him when he was arrested indicated he was planning to flee, Hamza said, according to the Fiji Times newspaper. The judge said he was satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Dawson and no one else committed the offence.
The US national, still detained in Fiji, faces a mandatory life sentence when he is sentenced in January. Fijian law allows the presiding judge to set a minimum period of time to be served before a pardon is considered.
A lawyer for Dawson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In 2022, a lawyer representing Christe Chen’s parents said that their daughter’s body was so badly damaged that she could not be embalmed to return to the United States and that 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 day before the killing.
Dawson worked in the IT department at Youth Villages, a Memphis-based child protection and support nonprofit, the organization confirmed when he was arrested. A search of online records revealed no criminal arrests for Dawson in Shelby County, which includes Memphis.
The Turtle Island resort, where the couple stayed, is an exclusive and secluded 500-acre island that only accommodates 14 couples at a time. Yasawa is a group of about 20 volcanic islands located west of Fiji, an idyllic South Pacific island nation of 930,000 people.
