The wife of a California radiologist accused of killing his family by driving his Tesla off a cliff told police he had stated his intention to die shortly before the crash, newly unsealed court documents show .
‘He drove off. He’s depressed,” Neha Patel told a California Highway Patrol officer as she was flown away from the crash site, according to an affidavit of the arrest warrant unsealed Tuesday.
“He said he was going to drive off the cliff. He drove away on purpose,” the woman added, saying her husband Dharmesh deliberately drove off a coastal cliff in San Mateo County on Jan. 2 in an attempt to rescue her and their two children, ages four and seven. murder.
All four people in the car survived what one official called an “absolute miracle.”
Dharmesh Patel, 41, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder and remains in custody without bail.
Dr. Dharmesh A. Patel declared his intention to die shortly before driving off a cliff in a car carrying his wife and young children, wife Neha Patel told police in the aftermath
All four people in the car survived what one official called an “absolute miracle.” Dharmesh Patel, 41, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of attempted murder
A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 12, after which a judge will decide whether there is enough evidence to proceed with a trial.
Patel’s attorney, Josh Bentley, has previously said his wife does not want her husband prosecuted, despite her comments at the scene that the crash was not an accident.
According to the warrant, a Pasadena radiologist, Patel claimed he drove off the road to check for a possible flat tire. Witness statements do not seem to corroborate his account.
Patel was driving his white 2021 Tesla Model Y along the Pacific Coast Highway south of San Francisco when the car plunged hundreds of feet off the cliff at Devil’s Slide. Firefighters had to free the family from the wreckage.
The affidavit includes an interview with Patel while he was recovering from serious lower body injuries.
In the interview, he said his wife was annoyed shortly before the cliff plunge because she didn’t want to stop at his brother’s home in San Mateo County before they drove home to the Los Angeles area.
He said he wasn’t really depressed, but that he felt down because times were bad in the world, according to the affidavit.
“When asked if he was suicidal, he said, ‘You know, not as a plan, usually not,'” the affidavit said.
Patel is pictured in a mugshot after being booked into Maguire Correctional Facility in San Mateo County where he is being held without bail
Dharmesh Patel, left, is accused of deliberately killing his wife and two young children as he rode off the Devil’s Slide cliff on January 2
A San Mateo District Court judge ruled that Patel should have limited contact with his family, especially his wife, as he remains in custody without bail.
Prosecutors are expected to use traffic camera footage from the Lantos Tunnel as evidence that Patel, who works as a radiologist at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Pasadena, deliberately steered his Tesla Model Y off the cliff.
“There are cameras,” said Steve Wagstaffe, San Mateo County District Attorney. “So we have video showing the movement of the car.”
That video, he said, “clearly shows his car coming out of the tunnel, going up the hill and turning right off the road, at the top into a dirt area. And then a sharp right turn down and over the edge and down the cliff.”
State attorneys are also likely to bring witness statements, as two people who allegedly drove behind Patel on Jan. 2 “who looked into what happened and were able to provide information about the lack of brake lights,” Wagstaffe said. People.
Troopers were dispatched around 10 a.m. on January 2 to report that a vehicle had veered off the bluff on Highway 1 about 12 miles south of San Francisco. The steep, rocky, winding coastal area is known as Devil’s Slide.
Fire Chief Brian Pottenger told reporters, “We go there all the time for cars over the cliff and they never live. This was an absolute miracle.’
Initially, the car would have flipped several times. However, experts have since cast doubt, arguing that the Tesla’s heavy batteries in the floor would have stopped the rolling.
There was no guardrail where the sedan went off the cliff, officials said.
Patel was seen driving north on Highway 1 at high speed and it is speculated that he made a sharp turn before reaching the Tom Lantos tunnel where the Tesla went off the road, first onto a dirt area and then then down the cliff.
Patel and his attorney Joshua Bentley in court during Patel’s Redwood City trial in February
The wreckage of the Tesla is depicted at the bottom of the cliff
Robin Johnson, who called 911 after seeing the crash, recalled, “Wow, he’s driving extremely fast to make that exit.” You shouldn’t even be going that way.
“And I can see in my rearview mirror that this car is just going over the edge and going straight down.”
About 30 to 50 rescuers arrived at the scene, where it was initially believed that someone in the car must have been dead.
It took a helicopter and specialist teams to abseil from the cliff to the car. Only hours later, rescue teams discovered the four family members conscious and alert in the car.
The children were first pulled out through a back window and pulled up the cliff by hand with a pulley in a rescue basket.
The doctor and his wife were more seriously injured and had to be hoisted by helicopter and then flown straight to hospital.
Patel was arrested after California Highway Patrol investigators “developed probable grounds to believe that this incident was an intentional act,” the agency said.
In late January, he was admitted to Maguire Correctional Facility in San Mateo County, where he is being held without bail.