Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Grave site visit becomes mountain rescue

HENDERSON -- The Palm cemetery at Eastern Avenue and Warm Springs Road was where Mickey Meyers thought she was going.

She just wanted to visit the graves of her husband and son.

But the frail, 78-year-old Las Vegas widow could only smile Wednesday in paramedics' arms when asked how she ended up on top of Black Mountain -- more than a dozen rocky miles and 24 hours off course.

"Next thing I knew I ended up here," she said, one cold, soft hand holding a reporter's wrist as she pointed with the other down at the valley several hundred feet down.

Meyers knew her name and where she was going, and told paramedics she'd set off on her sentimental journey Tuesday. She grinned when asked her age: "Sweet 16 and never been kissed."

But the rest of the details are still a bit fuzzy.

"She did tell us that she is a diabetic," said Deputy Chief Jim Cavalieri of the Henderson Fire Department. "But we're not real sure at this point. It's hard for us to know how long she's been out here. She's pretty confused."

Two Nevada Power Co. employees found Meyers about 1:15 p.m. Wednesday behind the wheel of her older-model Cadillac, its back end wedged in a dirt gully along the 15-foot-wide road and the front end facing a 150-foot drop off. It appeared that Meyers had attempted to turn around on the narrow path and got stuck.

Lynn Cox and Elan VanLuven said they didn't think much about the car when they first made it up the rocky eight-mile road, the southern end of Eastern just off Lake Mead Drive in Henderson.

The short stretch of paved road passes by new home construction sites, then becomes a rock-strewn, four-wheel-drive terrain winding its way southeast up the mountainside where KLAS Channel 8 and AT&T have an array of communications equipment.

"We were doing some welding up there, had lunch and were on our way back down when we realized the car hadn't moved," said Cox, a Nevada Power electrician.

"I figured someone was either having a good time, or had had their last good time," Cox said. "I was scared to look, but figured I had to in case someone was in trouble."

Meyers was hesitant to unlock the door, Cox said. "At first she told me that Valley Flight for Life had dropped her off there. Then she pointed to the ground and said she saw stars. She told me her friends were just a few feet away praying for Passover ... I knew something was really wrong."

Cox gave her water and tried to keep the woman talking, fearing that she would pass out. "I was really worried when she said she was a diabetic. We don't have any food in our truck."

Cox radioed for help, and a Metro Police search-and-rescue team and Henderson firefighters and paramedics were en route.

By 3 p.m., paramedics were driving the woman down the mountainside in a truck to an ambulance, which transported her to St. Rose Dominican Hospital, where she remained this morning.

The weather proved to be in Meyers' favor in the confusing tragedy. Weather officials estimated the top of Black Mountain had a high of about 75 degrees, with winds gusting in excess of 25 mph.

Had Meyers been alone for the suspected 24 hours in the deadly heat of summer or during the cold winter months, authorities speculated her chances of survival might have been slim.

"These guys do good work," Meyers said, as she looked over at one of the paramedics before the trip to the hospital. Her purse was on her lap, her pink polyester pants covering badly banged up shins she said she skinned in a fall before help arrived.

"I just don't know what happened."

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