Chesapeake Energy's co-founder and former CEO, Aubrey McClendon, traveled well above the legal speed limit and touched the brakes "several times" before a fatal wreck earlier this month, police said Monday.
McClendon, 56, crashed into an embankment in Oklahoma City on March 2, a day after he was charged with conspiring to rig bids for oil and gas leases. His cause of death was later ruled multiple blunt force trauma.
Oklahoma City Chief of Police Bill Citty said the car's data box showed McClendon's vehicle went about 88 mph, above the speed limit of 50 mph, five seconds before the crash. His vehicle went left of the center line about 60 yards before the crash, and three of its wheels left the road.
While McClendon touched the brakes, "it did not really slow the vehicle down," Citty said. The car hit the embankment at an estimated 78 mph.
Citty added that he did not want to speculate about why McClendon tapped his brakes. McClendon was not wearing his seat belt.
He said the probe into McClendon's death is ongoing, and investigators are tying to piece together his final hours.
A federal judge has since dismissed the grand jury indictment against McClendon. However, a broader investigation into alleged collusion in the oil and gas industry is active, a law enforcement source told CNBC.
McClendon, a key player in the U.S. shale boom, co-founded Chesapeake in 1989 and stepped down from the company in 2013. Chesapeake is now the second-largest natural gas producer in the United States. He also founded American Energy Partners, where he had been chief executive.
— CNBC's Scott Cohn contributed to this report.