[....]
Peter Chadwick, a wealthy real estate investor, had been arrested and charged in the death of his wife at their Newport Beach home in October 2012. Her body was found in a trash bin in San Diego County.
Chadwick had claimed wife Quee Chadwick was kidnapped and killed by a handyman, according to the US Marshals Service, which placed him on its 15
Most Wanted Fugitives list. The agency said Chadwick claimed he was kidnapped and forced to drive to Mexico to dump his wife's body.
After his release on a $1.5 million bond as he awaited trial, Chadwick failed to appear for a January 2015 court hearing. He had surrendered his British and American passports and agreed to live with his father, "a wealthy investor," in Santa Barbara.
When Newport Beach detectives went to his father's home, they were told the defendant was not living there and no one knew where he was, according to a previous statement from the US Marshals Service.
A fugitive task force found his bank accounts worth millions of dollars had been cleared out. Investigators also learned of books that Chadwick had read about how to change identities.
The ensuing search for Chadwick became the
subject of a podcast series.
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