Fatal crash rattles small Clark County town

By Jean Reid Norman

Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2009 | 1:59 a.m.

Misty Ann Imboden took a rare night off on Aug. 7 from her duties as a single mother, college student and full-time worker at a Boulder City garage.

She went with a friend to see Gwen Stefani and No Doubt at the Hard Rock in Las Vegas to celebrate her 23rd birthday two weeks early.

On the drive home, just a couple of miles from the Nelson ranch that has been in the family for five generations, Imboden rolled her Toyota sedan and died shortly after rescue crews arrived.

Imboden always wore her seat belt, her mother Pamalyn Peterson said, but apparently she had left or taken it off this time. She was tired and had been all week, her mother said. Her friend had tried to talk her into staying over for the night and driving back the next day.

“She was trying to get home to her son,” Peterson said. “She was always home when he woke up in the morning.”

Imboden’s death has shaken the tiny town of about 50 residents between Boulder City and Searchlight, Peterson said. A memorial service was held for her Saturday at Grace Community Church in Boulder City and a private service for family will be held in Nelson this weekend.

Imboden was stretched pretty thin between her job at First Choice Auto, classes in environmental safety and health at the College of Southern Nevada and her parenting responsibilities, Peterson said. She became a mother at age 16.

“I don’t know how a young girl does it if she does not have the whole family committed to help,” Peterson said. Imboden and her 6-year-old son Cyrus lived with Peterson in Nelson. Cyrus is a second grader at Andrew Mitchell Elementary School in Boulder City.

Her daughter only recently decided to focus her education on environmental safety, Peterson said, after searching for a career that both interested her and would support her and her son. She had wanted to be a veterinarian in her youth, but decided it would take too long to complete the required education.

Now Peterson, a former Boulder City police dispatcher, said she will be looking for work a month after her retirement from the North Las Vegas Police Department so she can support Cyrus.

“Nelson was for me to retire,” she said. “We were trying hard to get Misty set up so she could move to Boulder City.”

Peterson is thinking about moving back to Boulder City to be closer to Cyrus’ school and friends, she said, but she hasn’t made any final decisions yet.

The child, she said, seems to understand that his mother is gone, but “He has no frame of reference for the pain.”

Her next decisions will be centered around Cyrus, as her daughter’s decisions were, she said.

“She always said that he is what stabilized her life, even though she still had to go through those teenage things,” Peterson said. “The responsibility of parenting is overwhelming, even if you have a strong support system.”

In addition to her mother and son, Imboden is survived by her brother, Charles, father, Rodger and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins.

The family is asking that friends write letters to Imboden or her son about how she touched their lives to be saved for when Cyrus grows up.

A Misty Ann Imboden Memorial Account has been set up at the Boulder Dam Credit Union for support of her son. Peterson said she did not expect fundraisers to be held in Nelson, largely a retirement community, though people have been supportive.

“There’s been lots of love and prayers and hugs,” she said.

Boulder City Family Mortuary handled the arrangements.