Woman killed in crash was decadeslong LV resident
The 78-year-old woman who died Monday night after she was struck by a drunken-driving and hit-andrun suspect was supposed to pick up her great-granddaughter for lunch Tuesday.
“We had to tell her she’s just not coming,” said Liza Brown, who identified the deceased as her mother, Rachel C. Hansen.
Hansen died after a crash reported about 8:45 p.m. at Boulder Highway and Indios Avenue, near Twain Avenue, Las Vegas police said. She was walking west across Boulder Highway in a marked crosswalk, police said, when she was hit by a 2002 BMW X5 turning right from Indios onto northbound Boulder.
Police said that Hansen had the right of way and that the BMW driver, later identified as 54-yearold Stephen Marker, “turned right without yielding” before striking her and driving off.
The woman was pronounced dead at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center, marking the 128th traffic death investigated this year by Las Vegas police.
Witnesses to the crash followed Marker’s vehicle, which drove to a nearby gas station before returning to the scene, police said.
Marker, who is suspected of impairment, was arrested on one felony count of DUI resulting in death and two traffic-related charges of failing to stop at the scene of a crash and failing to yield to a pedestrian, court records show.
Brown, of Metaline Falls, Washington, said her mother was a regular at some local casinos, particularly those in the area of the crash. Anything she won at the casinos she would use to take her grandchildren shopping or out to eat, said Brown, 50.
Growing up, Brown said, the family endured tough times. Hansen’s husband has been out of the picture since Brown was young, and Hansen was a “rock” for Brown’s brother and sister in Las Vegas.
“Her life was her family,” Brown said.
Hansen was born in Texas but spent the past 40 years or so in Las Vegas. She was a big Dallas Cowboys fan who preferred Troy Aikman over Brown’s favorite, Roger Staubach.
“Even at casinos, you’d hear my mom, ‘Whoo! Whoo!’” Brown said, imitating her mom’s cheers. “She just loved her Cowboys.”
The family is “lost” right now and is hurting, she said. But Monday’s crash caused pain for two families: hers and Marker’s.
“I pray for our family and theirs,” she said.
Contact Mike Shoro at mshoro@ reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5290. Follow @mike_shoro on Twitter. Review-journal staff writer Rio Lacanlale contributed to this report.