Angela Chao, CEO of Foremost Group, was drunk when she accidentally drove her last month Tesla An X-SUV backed over a wall into a pond on the Texas ranch she owned with her husband, billionaire venture capitalist Jim Breyer, according to a police report released Wednesday.
Chao drowned after friends and rescue workers tried unsuccessfully to free the 50-year-old shipowner from the submerged vehicle.
This desperate effort is detailed in the new report, which concludes that she died by an “unfortunate accident.”
A toxicology report later showed Chao had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.233, the Blanco County Sheriff’s Office said in its report.
This level is nearly three times the legal limit for driving on public roads in Texas and can cause behavioral problems and other side effects.
Surveillance video from the outside of a guest house at the ranch shows her walking “unsteadily to her vehicle” that night, the report said.
Chao was the sister-in-law of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who is married to her sister Elaine Chao, a former head of the U.S. Labor and Transportation departments in various Republican administrations.
According to a police report, Angela Chao hosted seven close friends at the guest house of her 4,500-acre JW Ranch in Johnson City on Feb. 10, a day after the group attended a concert by rapper Pitbull in nearby Austin.
Most, if not all, of the women were from New York and had attended Harvard Business School with Chao. Breyer was reportedly in Dubai while the couple’s young child stayed in the main house at the ranch.
The women had dinner and drinks at the guest house before Chao left around 11:30 p.m. for the mile-long drive to the main house.
Investigators later determined that Chaos Tesla had crashed into a retaining wall near the pond, separating two large limestone blocks at least three feet tall and weighing up to 500 pounds. ” says the report.
The video shows the car first heading forward toward a wooden barrier and then “turning backwards without stopping, turning left and driving over the limestone wall.”
Minutes after she left, Chao called one of her friends, Amber Landeau-Kienan, and calmly told her that “she was in the ‘lake’ (pond),” the report said.
Kienan went outside and saw the Tesla in the pond, which is about 30 feet from the guesthouse.
Chao, still on the phone with Keinan, tells Keinan in one [calm] “Their feet are under water,” the report said. “Keinan tells Chao to get out of the vehicle.” In a calm voice, Chao tells Kienan that she cannot get out of the vehicle.
“Chao told Keinan that the water was rising and she would die, and said “I love you” to Keinan before the vehicle went underwater.”
Keinan told police that the call lasted about eight minutes and that she got into a kayak and paddled toward the Tesla while another friend, Victoria Garcia, “walked to the pond and swam in the pond to the spot.” “where the Tesla went underground,” the report says. “Victoria then climbed onto the Tesla and attempted to locate Ms. Chao.”
A third friend, Heela Yang Tsuzuki, called 911, the report said.
Rescue workers were quickly on site.
A sheriff’s deputy wrote that when he arrived with another deputy, he saw the ranch manager “standing on top of the completely submerged vehicle” about 25 yards from shore while Kienan paddled to shore.
The ranch manager told officers that the Tesla’s rear passenger door was open, the report said.
Both officers entered the pond and repeatedly attempted to locate Chao through the back door, “but were unsuccessful,” the report said.
“During our time, several women shouted at us [frantically] on the shore,” the deputy wrote. “They advised that they knew she was in the water because Chao called them and informed them that the vehicle was filling with water.”
The deputy then retrieved a crowbar from Blanco County firefighters and swam back to attempt to break the windshield, but was unsuccessful.
Then two paramedics swam out to help him break a side window of the SUV and “I swam down and felt a hand,” the deputy wrote.
Chao was then pulled from the vehicle and paramedics swam her back to shore and “began CPR.”
She was pronounced dead at 1:40 a.m. on February 11.
Days after the accident, on February 15, Texas Rangers and FBI agents met with the Blanco County Sheriff’s Office, which was the lead investigative agency in the case.
After reviewing crime scene photos and videos and reports, the Texas Rangers and the FBI “concluded that this incident was nothing more than an unfortunate accident.”
Angela Chao became CEO of Foremost Group in 2018. The company was founded in 1964 by her father, James Chao.
A spokesman for James Chao and his family said Wednesday: “Angela’s death was a terrible tragedy, and words cannot describe the family’s deep sadness.”
“The family is grateful to the first responders and friends who worked so hard to save her,” the spokesman said.
Angela Chao has held board positions at the American Bureau of Shipping Council, the Board of Dean’s Advisors at Harvard Business School and at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Her first husband, investment banker Bruce Wasserstein, died months after their marriage in 2009.
Breyer is part owner of the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association. He previously served on the boards of Facebook, Walmart, Marvel Entertainment, News Corp. and Dell.
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2024-03-21 01:05:58
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