♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, a california family seemingly idyllic life shattered by violence. >> okay, so your wife was kidnapped? >> she's dead. >> husband and father of her three children charged in the disturbing crime. >> we they an investigation's in the bag, he's going to prison for the homicide. >> a sudden twist. >> he's making his court appearances until one day he does not. >> eluding authorities for five long years, adopting a new identity and a new life in mexico. >> this guy committed murder in our city, we're not going to let him be on the run and live his life. >> we retrace his steps and life in hiding and the phone call that changed everything.

"nightline," "dial m for missing," will be right back. go now! ♪ okay, i'm an alien. if you're making a sci-fi movie, you need to finish the special effects. does that look good? and if you want to save by bundling home and car insurance, you need geico. [uh-oh] ♪♪ whenever heartburn strikes get fast relief with tums. it's time to love food back. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums ♪

♪ good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight, a murder mystery that turned into a five-year manhunt. the husband charged with killing his wife, suddenly disappearing, going on the run, creating an entirely new life in mexico. and abandoning their three

grieving sons. that wouldn't be the only death linked to him. here's abc's bob woodruff. >> it's the picture of domestic bliss. >> beautiful house, newport coast. >> inside and upstairs, there had been violence. >> this is now a crime scene. >> they took her, they took her. >> who took her? >> the guy broke into my house. might be going to mexico somewhere. >> now we've got a mystery. nobody thought they would ever abandon their children. their children were their lives. >> it's all leading to one international manhunt. >> we're not going away. let's get this guy. >> it's a very happy place with palm trees and beautiful people. that's newport. >> here in this picture-perfect suburb of wealth and beauty live the chadwick family. peter, kusie, and their three

sons. >> we don't know really what was going on behind closed doors, but it sounds like they had a lot of secrets between them. >> october 10th of 2012, happened to be a typical fall day for southern california. in the late afternoon, the kids got on the bus after school, went to the bus stop near mom and dad's home, and one of the parents would be there religiously. >> one of the neighbors is driving her children home from the bus stop. and they notice that peter and kusie chadwick's children are just standing there. did they get in an accident? what could have happened? >> now it's time for a welfare check. in newport beach, police proceed to go to the chadwicks' house. >> we were looking for anything abnormal. as i walked around, it looked extremely clean. the vacuum lines in the carpet. there was a lot of family photos. you can tell -- it appeared that

this was a normal, happy family. we made our way to the master bathroo. that's when it looked like something was suspicious. i can see a broken vase along the edge of the bathtub. as soon as i saw the blood, you knew there was a story there. >> once they realize there's nobody in the home who needs help, this becomes more of a missing persons investigation with the blood being a definite concern that something might have gone horribly wrong. >> kusie and peter chadwick are both missing. >> the next morning, october 11th, still no sign of the chadwicks. and it's very, very concerning. around 5:30 in the morning, something very strange happens. 911 dispatchers in san diego get a very bizarre call. and it's none other than peter chadwick.

>> 911 emergency? >> my wife's dead. >> okay, so where exactly is she? >> what? >> where is she? >> they took her. they took her. >> who took her? >> the guy broke into my house. he drove me here. he had a friend -- they just -- they've gone in a pickup truck. >> okay, so your wife is with them? >> she's dead. >> chadwick appears to know a few potentially helpful details about the kidnapper. a man named juan had kidnapped her and him. >> i picked him up to look at some work at the house. i brought him to the house. >> i immediately sent a team down to san diego to interview peter chadwick. his story does not match the 911 tape. now he's giving us a more elaborate story. he invites juan to his house to

give him an estimate, juan walks upstairs to take a look around, and peter stays downstairs. >> he claims he hears his wife scream "pete, pete!" and he runs upstairs. >> and finds juan strangling kusie in the bathtub. >> and then juan allegedly took a small two-inch doll swiss army knife blade and threatened peter with it. >> juan holds him at bay immediately while still strangling his wife. and holding her underwater. >> she drowned. she drowned. >> peter's story is he complies. juan wrapped her in a blanket, put her in the back of their lexus suv. >> juan allegedly made him drive around for more than 12 hours. >> that's the story peter initially gives us. >> based on our investigation, we believe she's the victim of a homicide and we're searching for her body.

>> peter is already telling the san diego police department that kusie is dead. >> he's talking in a very low, casual, unemotional way. they notice scratches. scratches on his face and neck. hm. the plot thickens. they're starting to wonder, what have we got here? >> either he's the aggressor or he's the victim. >> murder cases, it takes you weeks or months to figure out where somebody's lying. this is instantaneous. >> we quickly realize there is some turmoil in the marriage. >> kusie wanted to grow and blossom into the person that she really was. and i think peter wasn't entirely supportive of that. he teased her a lot. joked. ridiculed at times. he was very controlling. >> they talked to kusie's close

friends. they heard that divorce had come up as a subject. >> he doesn't want that to happen. >> kusie's got tons of money. >> right around noon of october 11th, we placed peter chadwick under arrest for homicide. >> he stands accused of not only telling his wife, seen here, but possibly hiding her body. >> mr. chadwick was in his car for about 18 hours with the body. so could be anywhere in southern california right now. >> seven days after kusie went missing, we got a call from peter chadwick's attorney indicating that peter was going to give us the location of kusie's body. >> peter chadwick says he has put her in a dumpster. >> authorities confirm the body discovered inside this lakeside dumpster yesterday afternoon is that of kusie chadwick. >> what do you think really happened that day?

>> i believe she put up a good fight. was significantly traumatized with blunt force injuries. then the ultimate assault was strangulation. >> arguing and fighting with somebody is one thing. for it to turn physical is another. to take away your children's mother, to continue to torture her, essentially. i mean, you watch that person struggle and fight. it's particularly depraved. >> now we think the investigation's in the bag, he's going to go to prison for the homicide. >> on monday, chadwick pleaded not guilty to murder charges. >> because he had no criminal history and because of having the three children who could be believed to be a tie to him to stay local, he was allowed to post bail. which in the california system was set at $1 million. >> the conditions on his bail, do not leave the country, have no contact with certain members of the family, and we took his passport to reduce his flight

risk potential. >> so there he is in santa barbara staying with his dad. he has a relationship with his kids. for two years, he shows up for hearings. >> he's making his court appearances, until one day he does not. >> he had a safe deposit box, and that deposit box was emptied. >> and now it's very clear to everyone that peter chadwick has become a fugitive from justice. >> so we immediately set off on a manhunt. >> he could be anywhere. >> meantime, peter chadwick, unknown to the police, is thousands of miles away. >> wait until you hear what our team uncovered investigating this one man. fferent way to treat hiv. it's every-other-month, injectable cabenuva. for adults who are undetectable, cabenuva is the only complete, long-acting hiv treatment you can get every other month. cabenuva helps keep me undetectable. it's two injections, given by my healthcare provider, every other month. it's one less thing to think about while traveling. hiv pills aren't on my mind.

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a manhunt is under way for an orange county murder suspect who has vanished without a trace. >> after not showing up to the court to face murder charges accusing him of killing his wife kusie and leaving her body in a dumpster, authorities quickly realize that peter chadwick is on the run and is once again making headline news. >> we start talking to peter's dad and asking him, what's been going on? where is peter? and peter's dad just basically indicates that peter was getting scared that he was suicidal. >> how could a father leave his family, leave them behind, knowing he's the only parent left? he chose to save himself, not save his kids. >> now knowing we have a manhunt, we call united states marshals for assistance. >> our initial dive into peter's

finances, he had a safe deposit box. that deposit box was emptied. we suspect that there was roughly $1 million in that deposit box, just based on interviews with the bank. >> we made a decision to go to peter's father's home in santa barbara. >> we did a cursory search of the room where peter was residing at the time. >> there are references to canada, bread crumbs that would lead any investigator to thinking, this man's going to canada. he knew people in canada. he lived in canada as a child. so he's got ties there. >> so during the first three years after peter ran, the marshals followed up on leads and tips in canada, hitting dead ends at every turn. >> when peter decided to flee, you know, he made it look like he had fled to canada, when he came down here to the san ysidro

point of entry for the u.s./mexico border. went straight to mexico. >> so this was his trip. he walked across the border. caught a bus. 27 hours down the west coast. >> traditional, old-style colonial city. when you come down here, there's no expectation put on you. you can reinvent yourself. >> at this point, peter just starts changing his name. he's using fake i.d.s and further distancing himself from who he was. >> he created a new identity under the name "paul cook." he also started a close relationship with a local woman. >> her name was claudia soto. >> claudia was a very classy

person. she was very ladylike, funny as could be, very intelligent. >> late 2016, it's dark. late at night, paul cook is driving his close friend, claudia, and her sister, adriana, back from a concert in the nearby town of marelia. >> late that night after the crash, claudia was found dead at the scene. >> when you heard that paul was not badly wounded, what did you think at that point?

>> then he just disappeared. >> after nearly five years, toward the end of summer 2019, detective mike fletcher gets a tip that he shares with the u.s. marshals, leaving them to zero in on peter chadwick. >> 11:30 at night. i was in the room getting ready to go to sleep. brushing my teeth, playing a video game. a knock on the door. i put my pants on. answer the door.

rs mexico, peter chadwick is found. >> it was august 5th that peter chadwick was in custody. he looked like a man who was done running. deflated. no resistance. we brought him back here to newport beach police department. then said, well, let's see what he has to say. >> obviously i can clam up and just -- whatever. but i'm willing to talk. >> we basically crossed a whole dossier of information from his time in mexico. his budgeting, accounting for every dollar that he had, pictures of his family. numerous fraudulent identification cards. >> i knew i had to pay for what happened. it was a bad choice. >> after ten long years and a diligent investigation, finally peter chadwick faces justice.

>> there was a lot of discussion abou tpod toome rtf eent. at the end of the day, t boys s acutely aware that had been through a lot. >> mr. chadwick, did you want to make a statement? >> yes. next, peter chadwick's sentencing. what he has to say. i prep without pills. bring on apretude. long-acting protection from hiv. apretude is a prescription medicine used to reduce the risk of hiv without daily prep pills. bring on not worrying about daily doses. i prep without pills. apretude is the first and only long-acting prep with one shot every other month just 6 times a year. apretude was proven superior to a daily prep pill in reducing the risk of hiv, in head-to-head studies

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♪ i know i not only killed quee choo, i destroyed my family, my children. took their mother. i'm sorry. wish i could take it back. >> how do you plea to count one, violation of murder? guilty or not guilty? >> guilty. >> we accept the plea. at this time i'll sentence you to state prison.

>> he'll do 12 years minimum in state prison before eligible for parole. i think the family in mexico should have a voice at that hearing. >> do you feel betrayed by peter? by paul? >> this guy committed murder in our city, we're not just going to let him be on the run, live his life. kusie didn't get that opportunity. >> she had so many plans. she wanted to do as much for her children, and she could. i can't imagine a mother giving her children a better sense of love and devotion than she did. and she did. >> that's "nightline" for this evening. catch our full episodes on hulu. we'll see you right back here same time monday. thanks for the company, america. have a good and safe weekend.