Newport Coast man charged with murdering wife disappears

A man accused of killing his wife in their Newport Beach home in 2012 has disappeared, prompting an Orange County judge to issue a warrant for him Wednesday, according to court records.

Peter Gregory Chadwick, 50, faces one murder charge on allegations of strangling Quee “Q.C.” Chadwick, 46, and dumping her body in a trash bin in San Diego County.

Peter Chadwick has been free on $1 million bail since December 2012, when prosecutors dropped a charge that the killing was for financial gain.

Officials 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 responded to the Chadwicks’ 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.

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

— Jeremiah Dobruck

Twitter: @jeremiahdobruck