Angela Chao, the sister-in-law of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, made an anxious phone call from her car on the evening of her demise.
“The car had zipped backward, tipping over an embankment and into a pond,” she told a friend, the Wall Street Journal reported. “It was sinking fast. Could they help her?”
Chao, aged 50, a shipping mogul who is a billionaire, is married to Jim Breyer, a billionaire venture capitalist. They were hosting a gathering to celebrate Chinese New Year at their expansive 900-acre ranch in Johnson City, located approximately 40 miles west of Austin, Texas.
Instead of spending the night at the 10-bedroom guest house, Chao decided to depart around 11:30 p.m. on Saturday, February 10th, and return to the main house where her 3-year-old son was already asleep.
However, an unfortunate incident occurred while she was driving her Tesla Model X SUV. According to the Journal, Chao mistakenly shifted the gear into reverse instead of drive. This was a mistake she had made in the past, but this time it had tragic consequences. The vehicle suddenly moved backward and ended up in a pond.
Upon witnessing the incident, her friends quickly went outside and immediately called for assistance.
“Over the next several hours, her friends, then the ranch manager and his wife, and then paramedics, and firefighters and sheriff’s deputies rushed around and tried to break the windows, find an escape hatch or any way to get Chao out of the car,” the Journal reported.
“Somehow an executive who made her living on the sea was drowning in a stock pond within sight of her home.”
The rescuers encountered a series of obstacles: They faced challenges in reaching the site due to the darkness and rough terrain. There was no available dive team, and the tow truck’s cable was too short to reach the submerged car, necessitating the request for a longer cable.
Adding to these difficulties was the car’s laminated glass, which was praised for its safety in accidents but proved to be “nearly impossible to break underwater,” according to the Journal.
After the car was retrieved from the water and the doors were opened, a significant amount of water gushed out. Despite responders’ efforts to resuscitate Chao, they were unsuccessful.
The unique circumstances prompted local authorities to announce a “criminal investigation” into the tragedy on Thursday, as reported by CNBC.
“This incident was not a typical accident,” the Blanco County Sheriff’s Office said in a letter addressed to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“Although the preliminary investigation indicated this was an unfortunate accident, the Sheriff’s Office is still investigating this accident as a criminal matter until they have sufficient evidence to rule out criminal activity.”
Chao served as the CEO of Foremost Group, a shipping company based in New York. She was the sibling of Elaine Chao, who held various influential government positions, including U.S. transportation secretary from 2017-2021 and U.S. labor secretary from 2001-2009. Following Chao’s passing, McConnell mentioned the family tragedy as one of the reasons for his choice to resign from his Senate leadership position post the November election.
“When you lose a loved one, particularly at a young age, there is a certain introspection that accompanies the grieving process,” he said in his remarks from the Senate floor.
“Perhaps it is God’s way of reminding you of your own life’s journey to reprioritize the impact on the world that we will all inevitably leave behind.”
