Dad mourns wife, daughter killed in fiery California crash. ‘I didn’t even say goodbye’

Christopher Chambers didn’t pay much attention when his wife and 12-year-old daughter left their California home for a doctor’s appointment.

“I didn’t even say goodbye,” the Los Gatos resident wrote on a GoFundMe account. Then the doctor’s office called to complain they had missed their appointment, he told KRON.

After being unable to reach his wife Beidi or daughter Elyse, he followed their route in his own vehicle with their young son, Ethan, he told the news outlet. Then he saw smoke pouring from a blazing Tesla that had crashed into a tree.

It was Beidi’s car.

“The firefighters and the police were very gentle, but they wouldn’t let me anywhere near the scene,” Chambers told KRON. “One of the firefighters came over to me and held me and made eye contact, and he just said keep your memories.”

Officers responded to the crash at about 2 p.m. June 14 to find a 2021 Tesla Model Y had crashed into a tree, Santa Clara police said in a news release.

A 44-year-old woman and 12-year-old girl died in the crash, police said.

An investigation into the cause of the accident continues, the release said.

“I was left with unbearable questions,” Chambers wrote in the GoFundMe established to cover funeral expenses.

Santa Clara police ask anyone with information to call investigator Scott Wilson at 408-615-4764 or leave an anonymous tip at 408-615-4847.

Santa Clara is a city of 127,000 people about 45 miles southeast of San Francisco.

This story was originally published June 26, 2023 at 8:43 AM with the headline "Dad mourns wife, daughter killed in fiery California crash. ‘I didn’t even say goodbye’."