The medical examiner’s office still had not released a cause of death for the daughter of Austin Beutner. Emily Beutner, 22, died January 6 in a hospital.
She was the youngest of four children and the Beutner’s only daughter. She was a student at Loyola Marymount University.
In a statement on January 21, Beutner said, “My family has experienced the unimaginable loss of our beloved daughter. We ask for privacy and your prayers at this time.”
Austin and Virginia are long-time Palisades residents, where they raised their four children. The Palisades Fire seriously destroyed their Riviera home, forcing him and his family to rent elsewhere in the neighborhood. The fire also destroyed his mother-in-law’s home.
On October 13, Beutner announced his candidacy for L.A. Mayor, running against incumbent Karen Bass, who released the following statement:
“I am profoundly saddened by the news of the tragic passing of Austin Beutner’s daughter. There is no way to describe the depth of pain experienced by parents who have lost a child. My heart is broken for the Beutner family, and I offer Austin, his wife Virginia, and their entire family my deepest condolences,” Bass said.
“I will hold them close in my heart, and I am ready to assist the family with whatever they might need.”
When Beutner was appointed publisher and CEO of the Los Angeles Times in 2014, he spoked to this editor in an interview for the Palisades News.
The former Wall Street Investment banker has a long history of public service.
In 2010, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed Beutner as deputy mayor of economic development, a “jobs czar” who oversaw 13 city departments. Over the next 15 months, he became a critic of City Hall operations.
Then Beutner told this editor that City Hall is looking for the “faster horse,” rather than to the future. “They have dated practices and need to spend money more effectively.”
After that $1-a-year job, Beutner joined the 2013 mayoral race, but pulled out early to spend more time with his family.
In 2012, he served as co-chairman of the Los Angeles 2020 Commission, which was created to address solutions to the city’s budget problems. Serving as his co-chair was Mickey Kantor, a former U.S. Secretary of Commerce, who described Beutner in a L.A. Times story as “one of the best analytical minds I’ve ever run into. He’s not tied to the past. He’s willing to take chances.”
That same year Beutner founded Vision to Learn, a nonprofit that has given free eyeglasses to 25,000 school children in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Oakland.
According to Fox 11, the family has not yet announced public memorial services.