The Story

In this episode, we’ll tell you more about Peter Chadwick… as he moves from missing person, to victim, to suspect.  And, at every step, he manages to leave his children more and more alone.

Listen to the Podcast

See the Photos

Q.C.’s cell phone on her bathroom vanity

Peter’s suitcase

Q.C.’s ring

Blood in the back of Peter’s Car

Read the Transcript

Chapter 1: Family First

The Chadwick family – and their lifestyle – is an intriguing mix of glamorous and grounded.  They live in a lovely home in the beautiful seaside city of Newport Beach, California.  They have family abroad, in Malaysia and Australia and the UK, and they often travel internationally.  All three of their children attend private schools.

But they aren’t flashy.  Their clothes aren’t expensive.  Their main family car is a Toyota minivan, and their second car, a Lexus SUV, is over 10 years old.   Their daily life is quiet and ordered, centered around their four-bedroom house in a peaceful neighborhood. Peter Chadwick does most of his work from a home office, and Q.C. is a stay-at-home mom.  The two younger boys share a room, and are very close.

Q.C. ensures that family time is highly valued.  Grandparents, aunts, and uncles are visited regularly, and holiday get-togethers are planned well in advance.  Homework and school are priorities for all three boys, who are excellent students.  Extracurricular activities are minimal; one son recently started an after-school cross-country program, and practices running with his father.  The children are polite, well-mannered, with all the security that comes from supportive parents and the structured predictability that their mother so highly values.

On the morning of Thursday, October 11, 2012, however, that structure and predictability seem like a distant memory.  The younger boys (ages 9 and 12) have spent the night at a friend’s house.  The oldest is away at prep school, but his mind keeps drifting back to Newport Beach… where nothing is right.

No one has seen or heard from their parents in almost 24 hours.

(Intro)

Welcome to “Countdown to Capture”.  I’m Jennifer Manzella, your host for this podcast and the spokesperson for the Newport Beach Police Department.  In Episode One, I told you about the boys at the bus stop – how the two younger Chadwick brothers were left without a ride home after school, and with no idea where their parents could be.  By that evening, the NBPD was investigating a case of two missing persons, with tiny specks of blood at the Chadwick home hinting that something was very, very wrong.

Today, I’ll tell you more about Peter Chadwick… as he moves from missing person, to victim, to suspect.  And, at every step, he manages to leave his children more and more alone.

In this episode, you’ll also hear the voice of Lieutenant Bryan Moore, who was a detective assigned to this case back in 2012, and a 911 tape, straight from NBPD’s evidence file.

Chapter 2: Midnight Oil

Throughout the night of October 10 and into the morning of October 11, the Newport Beach Police Department has been hard at work.  Both Peter and Q.C. have been entered into the Missing Persons database.  Search warrants have been requested and granted.  CSI is processing evidence in the Chadwick home.  Although the family’s minivan is parked in the garage, their silver SUV is gone.  Officers pore over surveillance footage and find that the Chadwicks’ missing car left the community at 1:32 the previous afternoon, and never returned.

[Lt. Moore’s voice shown in italics]

Attempts to track Peter Chadwick’s cell phone are unsuccessful.  It has been turned off since 4:30 p.m.

Q.C.’s cell phone, however, is easier to find.  It has been left in the master bathroom… still connected to her charger… next to her wedding ring and her wallet.

The missing SUV is not equipped with a tracking device. US Border Patrol assures investigators that the car has not crossed into Mexico, and that they will stop the Lexus (and its occupants) if there is an attempted border crossing.

Searches are conducted in the nearby hillsides, there are helicopter searches from the air… but no clues.

Chapter 3: The Call

One hundred miles from the Chadwicks’ home, at the San Diego Police Department, the 911 emergency line begins to ring.  The call is coming from the convenience store at a local gas station, just four miles north of the Mexican border.  It’s 5:31 a.m. on Thursday, October 11, 2012.

[Audio from 911 tapes shown in italics]

Dispatcher:         “911 emergency […]”

Chadwick:           “Yeah.  My wife is, my wife’s dead. My–”

This is the voice of Peter Chadwick.

Dispatcher:         “Okay, so where exactly is she?”

Chadwick:           “What?”

Dispatcher:         “Where is she?”

Chadwick:           “They took her. They took her.”

And here is the first explanation anyone hears for the Chadwicks’ inexplicable disappearance.

Dispatcher:         “Who took her?”

Chadwick:           “The guy broke into my house.  He drove me here.  He had a friend.  They, they just gone, they’ve gone in a pickup truck.”

Dispatcher:         “Okay, so your wife is in it?”

Chadwick:           “She’s dead.”

Dispatcher:         “Oh, so did she die in that house and then they took her corpse?”

Chadwick:           “They, they killed…  They, they, they… Yes, they, they, they killed, killed her, uh, yesterday.”

Dispatcher:         “They killed her yesterday?”

Chadwick:           “Yeah, we, we, we’ve, we’ve been driving.  Ah, in, in Newport Beach.  Oh.”

Chapter 4: The Story

Peter Chadwick is known as a quiet man: docile, shy, and soft-spoken.  When he does speak, you can easily hear the traces of his British accent.  Peter is from the UK, and became a naturalized US citizen in 1991.  He works for his father’s family business, managing assets and investments, and developing real estate.

His wife of 17 years, Q.C., is known for being more gregarious, outgoing, and friendly.  Q.C. grew up in Malaysia, in a large family of six children.  She has a reputation for being organized and detail-oriented.  She is also a bit insecure; she is the only one of her siblings without a master’s degree, and she worries that she is somehow less capable than they are.  Her children have always been her number one priority and – unsurprisingly – their education has been very important to her.

But now, Peter Chadwick is explaining the story of Q.C.’s untimely and violent death to the San Diego PD Dispatchers, and then to the officers who meet him at the Arco gas station on Del Sol Boulevard.  It goes something like this:

[Male voice shown in italics]

Yesterday at about 11:00 am, Peter was at one of the properties that he manages for his family’s corporation.  He was approached by a man named Juan, who asked for work on the remodeling project inside.  Peter said no, that the remodel was fully-staffed… but that he needed someone to work on a small project at his house, if he’s interested in doing some painting.  Juan agrees, and gets in to Peter’s car for a ride back to his Newport Beach home.

Once there, Peter asks Juan to paint the railings on the circular stairway that connects the foyer to the upstairs landing.  He leaves Juan working, and retreats to his home office.  Shortly thereafter, he is pulled away from his work by the sound of his wife screaming.  He follows her voice to the master bathroom, where he finds Juan with his hands around Q.C.’s throat, repeatedly holding her under the water in their bathtub.  Peter says he tries to stop Juan, but the painter is too strong.

Q.C. doesn’t struggle for long.  When she is still, Juan threatens Peter with a pocket knife, and forces him to help with the next stage of the process: wrapping Q.C.’s naked body in the green blanket from their bed, and then placing it in the back seat of Peter’s silver Lexus SUV.  Peter does as he’s told, also emptying the family safe and giving Juan $10,000 in cash, along with jewelry and other valuables – and his cell phone.

Then, they drive.  Juan orders Peter into the driver’s seat, then sits behind him, holding the knife to Peter’s throat.  Juan is deaf to Peter’s pleas to let him stop, to let him take Q.C.’s body, to let him bury her.  They drive for hours.  Juan mentions something about heading to Flagstaff, Arizona… but they don’t make it that far.  At some point, Juan calls a friend named Chee.  They speak in Spanish, which Peter can’t understand.

Eventually, Juan orders Peter to stop at the Arco gas station on Del Sol Boulevard.  He threatens Peter, promising that, if he doesn’t cooperate, he will dismember Q.C.’s body and take it down to Mexico where Peter will never find it again.  They wait for Chee, who arrives in a green Chevy truck with a camper shell.  Then, the two men load the cash, jewelry, and Q.C.’s body into the truck, and leave.  Before they pull away, Juan orders Peter to sit in the SUV and wait for his call… the call that would tell him where he could find Q.C.’s body.

Peter waits a few minutes, and then enters the gas station’s convenience store.  He asks to use the phone, and instructs the attendant to dial 911.

He remembers few details about his wife’s killer.  Only his hair (which is dark, in a crew cut style), and his first name: Juan.

Chapter 5: Suspect

[Lt. Moore’s voice shown in italics]

Peter Chadwick’s story is… problematic. And so is his demeanor.  During the 911 call, the gas station attendant is shocked to hear his claims, delivered without a single tear.  When the officers first arrive at the gas station, they note that Peter does not appear upset.  While Peter tells his story, he seems troubled or flustered from time to time, but by and large he remains calm… He is still calm five hours later when they place him in handcuffs.

Peter Chadwick is now the primary suspect in his wife’s disappearance.  Given the blood on his hands, the scratches and bite marks on his body…. and the holes in his story, perhaps it should come as no surprise. 

He hasn’t mentioned his children once.

There are no questions about his boys… no concern about if they got picked up after school, where they are now, if they are safe, or who is caring for them.

In the back seat of his car, which Peter claims was recently occupied by both his tormentor (Juan) and the body of his wife (Q.C.), investigators find a suitcase with men’s clothes and shoes and toiletries.  The suitcase appears to have been packed in a hurry.  Nothing is neatly folded.  Everything is in Peter’s size.

In the folds of the leather seat, there is a woman’s ring.  It is the only sign of Q.C., besides – of course – the traces of blood in the back of the car, and on the bumper.

NBPD investigators are driving to San Diego.  They now know where Peter Chadwick is.  But where… where is Q.C.?