Anndel Taylor, 22, of Charlotte, was traveling home from work in Buffalo when her car got stuck in the snow, her family told ABC affiliate WSOC-TV.
Taylor moved to New York to take care of her ailing father, the family said.
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The family believes Taylor was trapped inside her car for at least 18 hours before she died. Even sadder, the family said her death comes at Christmas and days before she was to turn 23.
Taylor told her family she called 911 and was waiting for first responders--who couldn't reach her.
"I feel like everybody that tried to get to her got stuck. Fire department, police, everybody got stuck," Taylor's sister Tomeshia Brown told WSOC.
Taylor also told them in a group chat that the snow was accumulating quickly and shared video footage of snow covering her car windows, the family said.
She told her family she was scared.
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Wanda Brown Steele, Taylor's mother, said believes Taylor died of carbon monoxide poisoning.
"The car was running, and the snow was still coming, so it blocked the pipes, the exhaust pipe."
Steele said her daughter had planned to sleep out the storm, then walk home.
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