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Bradley Robert Dawson, 40, killed his wife, Christe Chen, who
was 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 trauma wounds
to her head after the couple was heard arguing and did not
appear at breakfast or lunch the next day.
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. Dawson had defended the
charge.
The fact that Dawson was carrying his passport and other
belongings with him when he was arrested indicated that he
planned to flee, Hamza said, according to the Fiji Times
newspaper. The judge said he was satisfied beyond reasonable
doubt that Dawson and no one else had committed the offense.
The U.S. national, who remains in custody in Fiji, faces a
mandatory term of life in prison when he is sentenced in
January. Fiji law permits a presiding judge to set a minimum
term to be served before a pardon is 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 she could not be
embalmed for return to the U.S. and 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 lawyer, Ronald Gordon — who did not immediately
respond to a request for comment on 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
based in Memphis, the organization confirmed when he was
arrested. An online records search showed no criminal arrests
for Dawson in Shelby County, which includes Memphis.
The Turtle Island resort, where the pair stayed, is an exclusive
and remote 500-acre island that accommodates only 14 couples at
a time. Yasawa is a group of about 20 volcanic islands in the
west of Fiji, an idyllic South Pacific island nation of 930,000
people.
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