2019-08-07 07:00:00
It took a “tip” and a $100,000 reward. On the run for more than four years, an American millionaire has been arrested in Mexico. The CBS media broadcast a video of his extradition to the United States, where he will finally have to answer for the murder of his wife, strangled in 2012 at his Californian home.
Peter Chadwick, a 55-year-old British citizen who is a naturalized American, had called police saying a handyman had killed his wife, Quee Choo Lim, before taking him hostage. According to him, the murderer had forced him to drive to Mexico to dump the victim’s body there.
But the American police, who had arrested the millionaire a few kilometers from the Mexican border, had quickly seen that he had scratch marks on his neck and traces of dried blood under his fingernails.
An argument over a divorce
Investigators had discovered a crime scene at the couple’s home and the suspect had ended up driving them to a dumpster near San Diego (California) where he had hidden the body. He allegedly killed his wife during an argument over the financial consequences of a possible divorce.
Peter Chadwick, who made his fortune in real estate, was nevertheless released in December 2012 on bail of one million dollars and the surrender of his passports to the authorities. In January 2015, he had missed a court appointment and the police had discovered that he had fled, taking inspiration in particular from books explaining how to change his identity and live on the run.
According to the federal agency of the US Marshals, responsible in particular for finding the fugitives, the millionaire had left behind him clues suggesting that he had taken refuge in Canada to deceive the police. Peter Chadwick has since been on the list of “most wanted” suspects in the United States.
False identity documents
It took the police to offer a $100,000 reward and broadcast a podcast in memory of his victim for him to be captured. A “tip” allowed him to be located in Mexico, where he had actually taken refuge during all this time.
He was in possession of “numerous” forged identity documents and lived in a large apartment in a housing estate popular with American expatriates in Puebla, near Mexico City. If convicted of the murder of his wife, Peter Chadwick faces a prison sentence of 25 years to life.
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