Bar owner killed in crash was a 'perfect soulmate'
Indigo Room co-owner Charlie Chieng at the Cave temple in Taiwan in 2024. PHOTO: SUPPLIED
A Dunedin bar owner who died in a single-vehicle car crash near Waitati at the weekend has been remembered by his husband as "the perfect soulmate".A Dunedin bar owner who died in a single-vehicle car crash near Waitati at the weekend has been remembered by his husband as "the perfect soulmate".
On Saturday, Dunedin business Indigo Room co-owner Charlie Chieng, 36, died after the vehicle he was driving left the road and went down a bank on State Highway1 near Waitati.
A police spokeswoman said emergency services were called about 3.30am.
"The sole occupant of the vehicle was sadly located deceased," she said.
Mr Chieng co-owned Indigo Room with husband Dan Brown.
Mr Brown said his husband was a hard worker, who had "so many friends".
"He was a great husband — he was the perfect soulmate."
The couple owned George St cafe Aika before opening Indigo Room.
"We built it from scratch, together ... everything that was there, we had done together. Charlie was very talented."
Mr Brown was working at a fragrance counter in 2010 when he met Mr Chieng.
A whirlwind romance ensued.
"He bought me kittens when we had been together two months — they’re old now and still alive," Mr Brown said.
The couple married in 2013 in a small ceremony at Otago Polytechnic.
"Charlie was Indigo Room. Everybody loved him."
Mr Brown said the name Indigo Room came from the "Blue Mansion" in Malaysia, where Mr Chieng was from.
Indigo Room had "so much meaning to him and so much meaning to our relationship", Mr Brown said.
"We were workmates, we were soulmates."
Mr Brown, who said Indigo Room would be closed "for a time" while staff came to terms with Mr Chieng’s death, believed the crash was caused by fatigue.
Mr Chieng’s sister-in-law, Keely Brown,
has set up a Givealittle page
"Charlie was very tragically taken from us in a car accident," she said on the page.
Money donated would help Mr Brown with costs associated with Mr Chieng’s death, as well as helping him with day-to-day life. More than $3500 had been raised so far.
Online tributes described Mr Chieng as the "sweetest person" and someone whose "generosity and welcoming nature was immediately felt".
Mr Chieng is survived by Mr Brown, sisters Priscilla, Kelly and Joanna Chieng, his father, Puong Chin Chieng, and his mother, Sze Chin Yen.