LOS GATOS, Calif. (KRON) – A husband and father is overcome by heartbreak. Last week, his wife and 12-year-old daughter died in a fiery crash in Santa Clara. The community is now coming together to help the grieving family.
“I don’t want to forget. I don’t ever want to forget. But I’m still in denial. It’s not possible,” Christopher Chambers said.
Chambers’ wife Beidi and his 12-year-old daughter Elyse died on the afternoon of June 14. Mom and daughter were on their way to the doctor’s office when their Tesla Model Y crashed into a tree and burst into flames.
What happened beforehand is a mystery.
“They had an appointment at 2:15. They left around 1:45, which shouldn’t have been an issue with getting there on time without a rush, and about 2:30 the doctor called and said they never showed up for their appointment,” Chambers said.
Confused, Chambers tried looking for their location on the Tesla app and then called their phones. There was no response.
Frustrated, he decided to take his son and drive toward the doctor’s office. Within minutes, he saw smoke, and then a horrific scene swarmed by first responders.
“The firefighters and the police were very gentle, but they wouldn’t let me anywhere near the scene,” he said. “One of the firefighters came over to me and held me and made eye contact, and he just said keep your memories. Remember them that way because if we left and you see them, then that’s something you would never forget.”
Chambers says his wife Beidi, who he met in China, was strong and smart. She always had high expectations for her family.
“She was just a very remarkable person. Always, always striving for more,” he said.
His daughter Elyse would’ve celebrated her 13th birthday on Tuesday. She was a blossoming musician and Chambers says she was genuinely nice to everyone.
“She really had a good heart and it wasn’t BS. She really was. That was just her nature. I couldn’t have forced her to be nasty or mean or anything. I just couldn’t because that just wasn’t who she was,” he said.
Chambers and his 8-year-old son Ethan have struggled to come to grips with their new reality. Without a wife, without a daughter, without a mom and without a sister.
The next obstacle is a burial, which Chambers is grateful to get help with through a GoFundMe. As of Friday night, more than $50,000 had been raised by strangers, friends and family.
He’s also hoping to get closure by learning from investigators what happened before his wife and daughter died.
“Whatever comes out of all this about how they ended up where they did, it shouldn’t have exploded, caught fire whatever you want call it, so quickly that they couldn’t get out,” he said.
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/LIcW935
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