The 48 Hours episode #FindPeterChadwick investigates the disappearance of multimillionaire real estate investor Peter Chadwick. He is accused of killing his wife of 21 years, Quee Choo “Q.C.” Chadwick, and staging a kidnapping plot. Correspondent Tracy Smith reports that the couple vanished from their posh Newport Beach, California home in the middle of the day on October 10, 2012.
Hours later, Chadwick called 911 from a gas station near the Mexican border. He claimed a house painter named Juan and his friend murdered his wife (she was strangled to death) and forced him to remove her body from the house. (Her body was found in a trash can near San Diego.)
Chadwick was arrested and charged with his wife’s murder. When he was released on $1 million bail, he disappeared. (Chadwick had been ordered to stay with his father in Santa Barbara.) When he didn’t show up in court, U.S. Marshals discovered he had emptied bank accounts (approximately $600,000) and found books Chadwick allegedly read about how to change one’s identity and live off the grid.
A U.S. Marshal tells Smith: “We had no idea this manhunt was going to become the logistical monster that it has.” He also quotes Hemingway, “There’s no hunting like the hunting of men.” In 2018, Chadwick was added to the U.S. Marshals’ 15 most-wanted fugitives. There is a reward of up to $100,000 offered for his arrest. New episodes of 48 Hours air Saturdays at 10 pm on CBS.
Note: The full Hemingway quote is: “There is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never care for anything else thereafter.” It’s from a story called On The Blue Water. Hemingway’s stories are collected here.
