Pair killed in Las Vegas crash ID’d as man, 12-year-old daughter

A 42-year-old man and his 12-year-old daughter were on their way to meet the girl’s mother when they were killed in a fiery crash in the central valley Friday night, according to a family spokeswoman.

The Clark County coroner’s office has not identified the father and daughter, but family spokeswoman Marisa Martin said they were Mark and Monet Garcia. They were on their way to meet Monet’s mother, Maria Conchos, at Nora’s Italian Cuisine.

Martin said Conchos was at the restaurant and did not witness the accident.

Witnesses say the driver of a 2016 BMW S1000R motorcycle was traveling west on West Flamingo Road as a 2012 Lexus ES 350 turned left onto northbound Duneville Street. The motorcycle crossed in front of the Lexus, and the vehicles collided.

The coroner’s office identified the motorcyclist as 28-year-old Johnathan Smith. Police said Smith was speeding and “driving recklessly” before the crash, but officers couldn’t get close enough to pull him over. A few minutes later, he was killed, police said in a release.

According to the Clark County School District, Monet was a seventh-grader at Knudson Middle School. Martin said she loved theater and directing skits.

Monet loved “The Office” and “Forensic Files” but “would grudgingly watch Hallmark Christmas movies with her mother,” Martin said.

Monet was a competitive figure skater and member of the Las Vegas Figure Skating Club who skated at SoBe Ice Arena. Monet competed locally and out of state, and Martin said she often volunteered as a junior coach in the Vegas Golden Knights Skating Academy at the arena.

“Many a day you would find Monet on the ice before school started and again later in the day after school finished,” Martin said. “She loved working with the young skaters and was a vital part of our skate family.”

Mark was an avid Dallas Cowboys fan who loved watching Sunday football, according to his wife, Luzy-Ann Yanson.

Yanson said her husband operated a small, family-owned and -operated carpet- and floor-cleaning company, “a business he started with the goal of providing a better life for his family.”

The couple’s son Ryon will turn 2 in less than two weeks, Yanson said.

She said her husband’s driving force in life was always his children, and it was fitting that he spent his final moments with his daughter.

Contact Alexis Egeland at aegeland@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0335. Follow @alexis_egeland on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Max Michor contributed to this report.