Wife and daughter killed in car crash
Husband recalls details of fatal incident on Gofundme post
A Los Gatos husband and father who says he would have called himself the “luckiest man alive” until last week detailed in an online fundraiser posted June 22 the horrific aftermath of a Santa Clara car crash that killed his wife and 12-yearold daughter.
In a heartbreaking Gofundme post, Christopher Chambers described how he met his wife, and the excruciating events leading up to the deaths of her and their daughter. The post identified Beidi, 44, and Elyse, 12, as the victims of the June 14 single-car crash in Santa Clara that claimed the lives of a mother and daughter. According to police, their white 2021 Tesla Model Y struck a tree and burst into flames around 2 p.m. on San Tomas Expressway.
Chambers wrote that he met his wife while studying in China, where she was a college student. The pair quickly began dating after he was intrigued by her “intelligence and poise.” Even when his semester ended, he chose to stay in Beijing to work as a freelance English teacher and stay with Beidi, he wrote. They later married and moved to the United States, where they had their two children.
On June 14, Beidi and Elyse left to go to a doctor's appointment. Eventually, Chambers received a call from the doctor asking why the pair never arrived at the office, a call that he said filled him with “dread.”
“It was a day, I thought, like any other,” he wrote in the fundraiser post. “I didn't even say goodbye.”
After unsuccessful attempts to track the locations of their phones and the Tesla, Chambers and his son drove toward the doctor's office to find Beidi and Elyse. They eventually saw dark smoke in the air and emergency personnel.
“We ran towards it through the throng of emergency responders, only to find a burning, twisted white Tesla Model Y,” Chambers wrote. “Just like ours.”
Chambers said he provided the Tesla's vehicle identification number to police, which confirmed it was theirs.
“Their sudden absence has left a deep scar on our family,” Chambers wrote. “A grieving husband and father, a bewildered son and Beidi's mother, mourning the loss of her only daughter — not to mention all the extended family and friends whose lives were touched by their lives and love.”
The Gofundme post, which exceeded its $50,000 donation goal before noon June 23 — only 19 hours after the fundraiser went live — will go toward the Chambers family. Chambers did not respond to a request for comment.