The family of a Tennessee pharmacist, who was allegedly murdered by her husband during their honeymoon in Fiji, decided to cremate her in the South Pacific because of the damage to her body, their attorney revealed Thursday.
Christe Chen, 36, died earlier this month while honeymooning in Turtle Island, a luxury private island retreat in the Yasawa Islands North-West of Fiji.
Chen’s husband, 38-year-old Bradley Robert Dawson, has been charged with her murder. He appeared in Fiji’s Lautoka High Court on Wednesday, where the case has been adjourned until next month.
Dawson, who remains in custody, has yet to enter a plea but could face life imprisonment if convicted.
Ronald Gordon, the lawyer representing Chen’s family, said her parents traveled to Fiji after her death. However, they chose not to embalm and repatriate her body as initially planned and instead decided to have her cremated.
They’ve since taken their daughter’s ashes back to the United States, Gordon said.
The couple, residents of Memphis, had arrived in Fiji on July 7 for their honeymoon at the exclusive resort, which accommodates only 14 couples at a time.
Gordon said that Chen and Dawson were heard arguing over dinner on the evening of July 8. Later that night, following an incident in their room, Dawson reportedly fled on a kayak to another island, taking his wallet but not his phone or GPS watch.
Resort staff found Chen’s body the following afternoon after the couple had missed both breakfast and lunch.
According to Gordon, Chen had multiple blunt trauma wounds to her head.
Dawson was found by police approximately 36 hours later on a nearby remote island inhabited only by indigenous people, who reported his presence. It is believed he may have been attempting to reach Fiji’s main island.
Dawson’s lawyer Iqbal Khan said that from what he knows so far, he doesn’t see the elements of murder. He said investigators haven’t yet released to him all the information in the case, including the post-mortem report, but that what happened could have been an accident.
Khan said Dawson fled the resort because “he panicked, he was shocked,” adding that his client was still recovering emotionally from the incident.
Dawson, who worked in IT at Memphis-based nonprofit Youth Villages, has since been terminated from his position, the organization confirmed.
An online records search showed no criminal arrests for Dawson in Shelby County, which includes Memphis.
Chen, who transitioned from a career as a pastry chef to becoming a pharmacist, had worked at a Kroger pharmacy in Memphis.
Last year, she was recognized by the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Pharmacy with the Wolters Kluwer Clinical Drug Information Award of Excellence in Clinical Communication.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.