Who Is Angela Chao? Criminal Probe of Mitch McConnell Sister-in-Law's Death

A criminal investigation has been opened into the death of Angela Chao, a shipping chief executive and sister-in-law of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who died in a car accident last month.

Chao, the CEO of her family's global shipping company Foremost Group, was found dead shortly after midnight on February 11 after she was submerged in a vehicle that had driven into a pond on a private ranch in central Texas. She was 50 years old.

According to CNBC, the Blanco County Sheriff's Office wrote in a letter to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday that it was investigating Chao's death as a "criminal matter," adding that the "incident was not a typical accident." Law enforcement had originally ruled her death as an "unfortunate accident."

Newsweek has reached out to the sheriff's office via email for more information.

Chao, the youngest of six daughters and the sister of McConnell's wife, former U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, had been the CEO of Foremost Group since 2018. According to the company's website, she previously served as Foremost Group's vice president before taking over the company from her father, James S.C. Chao. She earned two degrees from Harvard University, a bachelor's in economics and a M.B.A., and served on advising boards for United States and Chinese companies, including the Bank of China.

Chao's parents left China for Taiwan in the late 1940s following the Chinese Civil War, and relocated to the U.S. in 1958, according to The New York Times. She was born Syosset, New York, and lived in Austin, Texas, before she passed.

"Although born in America, she never forgot her roots and throughout her life helped build bridges of understanding between East and West," her father said in a statement following her passing. "Losing her at such a young age is something we never imagined, and our entire family is devastated with grief."

Chao is survived by her father, Elaine, three other sisters and her husband, Jim Breyer, an American venture capitalist and founder of Breyer Capital in Austin. Breyer and Chao also have a 3-year-old son.

McConnell acknowledged his sister-in-law's death during his speech on Wednesday when announcing his plans to step down as the Senate's Republican leader in November. The 82-year-old Kentucky senator is the longer-serving party leader in U.S. Senate history, and first took the seat in 1985.

"This has been a particularly difficult time for my family," he said Wednesday. "We tragically lost Elaine's younger sister Angela, just a few weeks ago. When you lose a loved one, particularly at a young age, there's a certain introspection that accompanies the grieving process."