Angela Chao, sister-in-law of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, placed a panicked phone call from her vehicle the night she died.
"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, 50, a billionaire shipping mogul married to billionaire venture capitalist Jim Breyer, had been entertaining friends to celebrate Chinese New Year at the couple's 900-acre ranch in Johnson City, about 40 miles west of Austin, Texas.
Rather than spend the night at the 10-bedroom guest house, Chao decided to leave around 11:30 p.m. that Saturday night, Feb. 10, to return to the main house, where her 3-year-old son was already asleep.
But she made a fatal error in her Tesla Model X SUV, the Journal reported: She'd accidentally put the gearshift into reverse, instead of drive.
It was a mistake she had made before, but this time it was a fatal error. Chao's vehicle lurched backward and ended up in a pond.
Her friends rushed outside and called for help.
"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 would-be rescuers ran into one problem after another: Responders had difficulty reaching the site in the dark and on the rough terrain. There was no dive team available. A tow truck's cable was too short to reach the submerged car, so they had to send for a longer cable.
Compounding those problems was the car's laminated glass, touted for its safety in accidents, but "nearly impossible to break underwater," the Journal reported.
By the time the car was pulled out of the water and the doors were opened, hundreds of gallons of water surged out. Responders unsuccessfully attempted to resuscitate Chao.
It was such an unusual set of circumstances that local authorities announced Thursday they are conducting a "criminal investigation" into the tragedy, CNBC reported.
“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 was CEO of New York-based shipping company Foremost Group.
She was the sister of Elaine Chao, who, in addition to being McConnell's wife, has held multiple powerful government positions, serving as U.S. transportation secretary from 2017-2021 and as U.S. labor secretary from 2001-2009.
Shortly after Chao's death, McConnell cited the family tragedy as a contributing factor in his decision to step down from his leadership role in the Senate after 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.”
