The body of a woman found by a passer-by in a dumpster in rural San Diego County Thursday may be the missing wife of a Newport Beach real estate investor who was arrested on suspicion of killing her.
At about 3:30 p.m. Thursday, San Diego County sheriff's detectives were alerted to a woman's body found in the 1200 block of Wildcat Canyon Road in Lakeside. Newport Beach police detectives also responded to the scene. Investigators could not immeidately verify if the body was identified as that of 46-year-old Quee "Q.C.'' Chadwick, a sheriff's spokesman said, but KCAL9 reported that the body had been identified as Chadwick's. Newport Beach Police detectives were working Friday with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department and San Diego County Medical Examiner to positively identify the remains.
Peter Gregory Chadwick, 48, was arrested last Thursday near the border in his Lexus sport utility vehicle and later charged with murdering his wife.
Newport police were alerted Oct. 10 when the woman failed to pick up her three children from school that afternoon. At about 5:30 a.m. the next morning, Peter Chadwick called San Diego police as he drove along Interstate 905 and was later arrested. He was later charged with murder for financial gain, which makes him eligible for the death penalty or life in prison without parole, and pleaded not guilty.
"What I can tell you is he definitely did it ... It's his motive that's still pretty unclear,'' Orange County Deputy District Attorney Matt Murphy told City News Service.
The two were talking about getting a divorce, Newport Beach police said. Peter Chadwick, who was denied bail, is jailed in Orange County pending an Oct. 26 pretrial hearing. Murphy said investigators found blood and signs of a struggle in the Chadwicks' Newport Coast home.
Anyone who may have information regarding this crime is asked to contact the Newport Beach Police Department at 800-550-NBPD or Detective Bryan Moore at 949-644-3764. Messages can be left anonymously if desired.
-City News Service
