The father of the woman killed on Interstate 15 Friday said he had already planned a graduation celebration for his daughter.
Instead of seeing his 24-year-old daughter start her final year at UNLV today, Larry West will be burying her.
LariAnn Vest was a UNLV senior majoring in engineering, and would have graduated in spring 2006. She was struck by three vehicles on Interstate 15 after getting out of a taxicab on the side of the freeway.
Family and friends are raising questions about what happened before the tragedy, and many remain unanswered.
"I never thought I would be doing this," Larry Vest said, his voice soft and sad as he left Palm Memorial Park on South Eastern Avenue on Sunday afternoon.
Vest had just finished arranging this morning's services for his daughter.
The family said they will try to piece together LariAnn's last moments of life after today's services.
A cabdriver had picked up Vest and a friend, 22-year-old Stephanie Ratcliff, from the Rio about 3:15 a.m. Friday to take them home in the south valley.
As the cabdriver drove onto the Flamingo Road onramp to southbound I-15, he heard a thump, said Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Kevin Honea, who had questioned the Nellis Cab driver at the time.
Honea said the cabdriver thought the woman hit her head on a window.
The highway patrol continued investigating the incident this morning but have "basically cleared" the driver of any fault in Vest's death, Sgt. Mike Nihei, a highway patrol spokesman, said.
"There's still no rhyme or reason to why she ran across the road," he said. "... There's no fault on his (the driver's) part because she got out of the cab."
The cabdriver told authorities that shortly after getting onto the freeway, Vest hit him 10 or 12 times, according to Rob Stewart, a spokesman for the Nevada Taxicab Authority, which is also investigating the incident.
Stewart said the cabdriver followed his training by pulling over immediately and calling for help. He got out of the cab to call his company and the Taxicab Authority on his cell phone, Stewart said.
An investigation into what happened inside the cab by the Taxicab Authority has cleared the driver, he said.
While the driver was out of the cab, Vest got out and started walking north on the freeway's shoulder, Honea said.
Then for 10 to 12 minutes, no one knew where Vest was, Honea said. But a Taxicab Authority investigator, who just arrived on the scene, heard screeching tires, turned around and saw that Vest was struck, Honea said.
Investigators say Ratcliff said she had stayed inside the taxi after the driver got out to talk on his cell phone, but she didn't remember any details.
Later, when Highway Patrol troopers came to her house, Ratcliff said she learned her friend had been struck by a white sedan, a concrete truck and then a Metro Police patrol car. Vest's body ended up in the middle of southbound lanes of the freeway.
Her 21-year-old brother, Tyler Vest, said his sister left her own vehicle at Mandalay Bay, went to the Rio and decided to take a cab home because she and her friends had been drinking.
"We were hanging out with some friends," Tyler Vest said, but he had left his sister early Friday morning.
On Sunday afternoon at the mortuary, Tyler Vest said his sister tried to call him about 2:45 a.m. He said he and their mother heard her scream, "Help me, help me, nine-one-one, help me, help me, nine-one-one." He said they heard the cabdriver screaming in the background.
LariAnn's younger sister, Nikki Vest, 22, was inconsolable Sunday, clutching a photograph of the three siblings.
Nikki and LariAnn had been inseparable. They performed native dances in their Assinniboine Sioux dress at the opening ceremony of the winter Olympics in 2002, she said.
Her grandfather gave LariAnn the Indian name of "Growing Medicine."
When LariAnn was seven years old she won first place at a powwow in Heber Valley near Denver, Colo.
"She did everything the right way, she was so smart and intelligent, she always did the right thing. That's why she took a cab," Nikki Vest said.
"I don't think she struck him (cabdriver)," Nikki Vest said. "She was screaming, 'He's got us locked in here.' She was crying for help at the very last minute."
LariAnn had registered Nikki at UNLV and they had planned to study and start taking classes together today.
All three children were born in Salt Lake City. They moved to Kansas and then to Las Vegas 11 years ago. LariAnn graduated with honors in 1999 from Green Valley High School.
The two sisters participated in foot races to support cancer research, and LariAnn had dreams of putting on a business suit, carrying a briefcase and driving to work in an Audi sports car after she finished her engineering degree, Nikki said.
LariAnn was the president of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society at UNLV and a member of the Women's Engineering Society on campus.
LariAnn was working in civil engineering at the Clark County Public Works Department.
"She worked for what she got, she was real smart," Larry Vest said.
"Self-motivated," said her grandmother, Donna Vest.
LariAnn and her family had gathered in St. George, Utah, on July 21 this year to celebrate her birthday, her father said.
No charges have been filed against the cabdriver or anyone else involved in the incident.
Nikki, Tyler and their mother drove to the scene of the accident on Saturday night, trying to discover what had led LariAnn to her death.
"Mom said, 'Please, God, give us a sign of what happened,' " Nikki Vest said.
archive