Inside the international manhunt to find Calif. multimillionaire accused of wife's murder
Correspondent Tracy Smith and "48 Hours" go deep inside the investigation into the search for a multimillionaire real estate investor accused of killing his wife and staging a kidnapping plot, in "#FindPeterChadwick", airing Saturday, May 11 at 10/9c on CBS.
Peter Chadwick and his wife, Q.C. Chadwick, seemed to have the perfect life. College sweethearts, they were married for 21 years and had three sons. They lived in a gated community in Newport Beach, California.
That dream life collapsed one day in 2012 when neither of the Chadwicks turned up to pick up their sons from the bus stop. Investigators had little idea that day the search for the couple would lead them on an international manhunt.
The next morning, San Diego authorities got a 911 call from Chadwick, claiming a house painter named Juan murdered Q.C. and forced Peter Chadwick to get her body out of the house. He said a man helped Juan and they were planning to cut up his wife's body and dispose it south of the border.
Law enforcement didn't believe Chadwick, and he was arrested and charged with Q.C.'s murder. He was released on $1 million in bail. Then he vanished.
"We had no idea this was going to become the logistical monster that it has," says U.S. Marshal Craig McCluskey.
"48 Hours" gained exclusive insight into the U.S. Marshals' search for Chadwick, who was charged with killing his wife and then jumped bail.
Members of the U.S. Marshals team reveal to "48 Hours" they've had some key clues to where he is. Chadwick is one of the U.S. Marshals' 15 most-wanted fugitives.
"What makes him so difficult to find is the fact that he fled with a decent amount of money," McCluskey says. "Approximately a million dollars."
The U.S. Marshals have been getting a lot of leads about Chadwick, many from around the globe, and at least one from a scammer.
"Once you find a string, you've got to start pulling on it," says McCluskey, who is counting on help from the public. "And we found a couple strings."
