Suspect in Newport Beach homicide vanishes; warrant issued

A Newport Beach businessman accused of murdering his wife in their Newport Coast home and then dumping her body in a trash bin near the Mexican border has vanished, according to court records.

Peter Gregory Chadwick, 50, had been free on $1-million bail following the 2012 slaying of his wife.

On Wednesday, an Orange County judge issued a warrant for Chadwick’s arrest.

The businessman faces a single murder charge for allegedly strangling Quee “Q.C.” Chadwick, 46, and dumping her body in a trash bin in San Diego County.

He’s been free on bail since December 2012, when prosecutors dropped a charge that the killing was motivated by financial gain.

Officials originally arrested Peter Chadwick near the U.S.-Mexico border in October 2012, one day after a neighbor called police, worried because the couple didn’t pick up their three children from school.

Police said they found signs of a struggle when they searched Chadwick’s home in Newport Coast.

Sources close to the investigation have told the Daily Pilot that Peter Chadwick claimed someone else killed his wife and forced him to load the body into a car and drive to the border.

Chadwick’s lawyer, Robert Sanger, declined to comment Wednesday or say when he last communicated with his client.

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