A police report released Wednesday revealed investigators have concluded Angela Chao was drunk when she drove into a pond.
The shipping CEO and sister-in-law of Senate Minority Leader Mitch O’Connell had a blood alcohol level of 0.233 at the time of her death, toxicology reports revealed, reported the Daily Beast.
According to the Business Insider, that’s three times the legal limit of .08. The accident happened as she hosted a dinner party for a group of women. They had gathered at the guest lodge on a ranch in Blanco County, Texas near Austin on February 10. Chao got into her Tesla to drive to get out of the cold, but she accidentally reversed the car into the water.
Chao phones a friend in a calm voice, Fox reported. One of her last words as the car submerged was “I love you.”
That friend took a kayak into the water in an attempt to rescue Chao. Another tried to swim to her rescue while a third phoned 911. One rescuer used a tool to break the driver’s side window. Once they got her out, they tried desperately to resuscitate her, but they declared her dead at the scene.
She is the youngest of six children of James Chao and the late Ruth Mulan Chu. One of her siblings is former transportation and labor secretary Elaine Chao.
“Although we are heartbroken, my family and I have the deep conviction — nurtured by our Christian faith — that we will see Angela again, along with her mother and my beloved wife, Ruth Mulan Chu Chao, and our daughter and her sister Jeanette. They are forever in our hearts and our minds,” the father James said.
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