Tennessee man accused in Fiji murder of wife Christe Chen confessed to killing before getting lawyer: Reports

The Tennessee man accused of viciously beating his pharmacist wife during a luxe belated honeymoon vacation in Fiji initially admitted to the murder before later going quiet, according to reports.

Bradley Dawson, 38, appeared in Fiji’s Lautoka High Court for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday, when he was photographed exclusively by Fox News Digital wearing a reddish-orange shirt and green shorts while one hand was cuffed to another person. He wore the same outfit for his first appearance in July.

Judge Riyaz Hamza denied an attorney’s effort to have Dawson released ahead of trial. Dawson is due to return to court on September 1 for a bail hearing.   

Dawson faces a murder charge in Fiji in connection with the beating death of his new wife, Christe Chen Dawson, whom police found dead at the exclusive Turtle Island Resort in the middle of their honeymoon.

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Fiji police discovered the 39-year-old woman beaten to death in the bathroom of a luxurious room at the Turtle Island Resort on Nanuya Levu on July 9, according to authorities.

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The medical examiner found “multiple blunt force injuries around head and face,” Ronald Gordon, her family’s lawyer, previously told Fox News Digital. When her parents visited her in the morgue, he added, her mother “was inconsolable because of the injuries.”

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Two days later, Fiji police arrested Dawson on another island.

Gordon, has said he believes Dawson – an IT specialist at the nonprofit Youth Villages – is a flight risk and will oppose bail.

“He left his very sophisticated GPS watch outside the room and left his room with just his wallet and his passport, and so it just shows his intention was to flee the country,” Gordon said. 

But during Wednesday’s hearing, Dawson’s attorney, Iqbal Khan reportedly argued that the case “may take two years.”

“Why should he remain inside for that long?” he said, according to ABC News. 

Attorneys for Chen’s family petitioned the court to take part in the case and be marked for appearance in future proceedings, but the judge denied the application. The same judge ruled oppositely on a separate case in which Dawson’s defense attorney, Iqbal Khan, had made a similar request.

They are still allowed to be present for any future hearings and the judge said they can communicate future requests to prosecutors.

“The judge said rightly, anything that you’re worried about, talk to DPP,” Khan said, using the acronym for the Director of Public Prosecution’s office.

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ABC News reported that Dawson, who remains housed in jail cell while he awaits his bail hearing, confessed to the killing early on, but then changed his tune after an attorney began representing him. 

But Khan maintained his client’s innocence and said he was awaiting additional disclosures from the prosecutors, who have not yet filed the “information” – Fiji’s terms for an indictment. The state asked the court for an additional two weeks to do so.

“At the moment, it is complete denial – he did not murder his wife,” Khan said. “As it is, there’s nothing implicating him.”

That could change after prosecutors file the delayed paperwork.

Dawson and Chen married in February after just a few months of dating and moved into a new home in Memphis, but Gordon said Dawson had previously traveled to Fiji with an ex-wife just two years ago.

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The accused murderer spoke to ABC News from one of the facility’s visiting rooms, saying he kayaked to a nearby island on July 8 – the day of Chen’s murder. On the morning after the crime, local resident Manoa Ratulele spotted Dawson on a neighboring island. He told Fox News Digital that the first thing Dawson told him when he found him on the beach was to “call police.”

Dawson was wearing a brown T-shirt and shorts and appeared disheveled, he said.

“He looked like he just woke up,” Ratulele said.

He said he offered Dawson food and water – but the man appeared agitated and kept telling him to call the police.

“I told him to calm down and to explain what happened,” Ratulele said, speaking on a stretch of beach on Matacawalevu, a nearby island across from the resort. “The only thing he said was that he just left his wife in the room and came here…he was drinking and talking with his wife before he came here.”

According to Ratulele, Dawson said nothing about a fight

Dawson told ABC News he and Chen were intoxicated and had an argument. 

“I just wanted to give her some space,” he reportedly said. “It was normal for me to take a walk.”

He called Chen his “everything,” and added that he is “praying every day” for her, according to the report. 

“What I can say is I am so sorry for the situation we are all going through now. We were supposed to have amazing holidays and I lost my wife,” he told the news site.

Dawson reportedly said he and Chen “were supposed to have an amazing life.”

“Just thinking she is not here anymore is so painful,” he said, according to the report. “I am thinking of her all the time.”

Meanwhile, someone who was staying at the resort during Dawson and Chen’s stay described hearing “loud banging sounds” coming from the pair’s room, despite that they seemed happy earlier in the night, according to a copy of the police report, which was obtained by ABC.

According to authorities, a woman who was staying at Turtle Island at the same time as the couple, said Dawson and his wife appeared happy the evening of the alleged fight. The vacationer said she later heard “loud banging sounds” from the couple’s room, according to the police report.

“It was as if someone was drunk and unable to control themselves inside. And then we heard a loud scream followed by a big loud bang and after that there were complete silence,” the woman reportedly told police.