She stayed on the phone as her Tesla sank: Report on death of Mitch McConnell’s sister-in-law
By CHRISTOPHER WEBER | Associated Press
Angela Chao, a shipping industry CEO and sister-in-law to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, was intoxicated when she drove into a pond and died last month in Texas, according to a law enforcement report released Wednesday.
The investigation by the Blanco County Sheriff’s Office concluded that Chao’s death was an “unfortunate accident” and her blood alcohol level was nearly three times the state’s legal limit.
Chao, 50, died the night of Feb. 10 after having dinner with a group of friends at a ranch near Johnson City, about 40 miles west of Austin.
The report said Chao left the lodge at 11:37 p.m. and, wrapped in a blanket, got in her Tesla. She apparently intended to drive to another house in the compound. Surveillance video shows the car lurching forward, then reversing over a limestone block wall at the edge of the pond.
At 11:42, Chao called Amber Keinan, one of her friends at the gathering, and calmly said her car had gone into a pond and she was trapped inside. The conversation lasted 8 minutes as the car slowly sank.
“Chao told Keinan the water was rising and she was going to die,” the report says.
One friend swam out to the car while another paddled out in a kayak, according to the report. A 911 call was placed at 11:53 p.m.
When law enforcement officials and firefighters arrived shortly after midnight, the car was 25 yards from the shore. They broke the window on the driver’s side, and a sheriff’s deputy felt around until he located Chao’s hand and she was pulled out. She was pronounced dead at 1:40 a.m. Feb. 11.
A toxicology test determined that Chao had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.233 percent.
Chao was the chair and CEO of her family’s shipping business, the Foremost Group, and the president of her father’s philanthropic organization, the Foremost Foundation.
She had been married since 2012 to James Breyer, a venture capitalist and part-owner of the Boston Celtics. They had previously spent much of their time at homes in San Francisco and Manhattan, but in 2020 they shifted their base of operations to the Austin area. Their son was born 3 years ago.
Chao was the youngest of six sisters to immigrant parents who moved to the U.S. from China in the late 1950s. Her eldest sibling, Elaine Chao, is married to McConnell and served as transportation secretary under President Donald Trump and labor secretary under President George W. Bush.
Her father was named chairman of Foremost Group following her death.
Chao is survived by her husband, son, father and four sisters. Her first husband, investment banker Bruce Wasserstein, died several months after they married, in 2009.