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A man has been formally charged with murder after his wife’s body was found beaten to death at the hotel where they were spending their honeymoon in Fiji.
Bradley Robert Dawson is officially charged with the murder of his wife, the court announced in a statement on Wednesday. The man is imprisoned in Fiji, where his next hearing is set for August 18. This is where the crime he is accused of took place. Bradley Robert Dawson was there with his wife Christe Chen when she was found dead in the hotel where he was staying. If found guilty, he could be sentenced to life in prison. The defendant’s lawyer claims that his client is innocent and that he does not know how or why his wife died. To advance the investigation, the local authorities ordered that a DNA test be carried out by the suspect, who after his arrest had refused to do one.
Before their trip, the couple who lived in Memphis had moved in together in the Cooper-Young neighborhood of the city, after the start of what was described as a “lightning romance”. A neighbor told TV that Christe was “thrilled” with the planned trip to Fiji to celebrate their honeymoon. A co-worker of the victim told the ‘Daily Beast’ that her romance with the suspect was so quick that few people met her boyfriend before the wedding.
Christe Chen was a pharmacist at Kroger and a graduate of the University of Tennessee. Bradley Robert Dawson worked in the IT department of a non-profit organization that helps children, but had been suspended. The association wrote in a statement: “Bradley Dawson was an IT professional at Youth Villages. He has been suspended pending further information. We understand that Ms. Chen was his wife and our condolences go out to her family.”