Authorities plan to file murder charges against a Las Vegas man who caused a fatal wreck Sunday by driving on the wrong side of Interstate 15 in a suicide attempt.

Marcus Deshun Buchanan, 21, walked away from the wreck. Lisa Fouch, a 48-year-old grandmother from Kansas, died.

Buchanan was booked into the Clark County Detention Center on one count of murder with a deadly weapon and multiple counts of battery with a deadly weapon and felony reckless driving.

Buchanan was driving north on the interstate Sunday afternoon when his Nissan sedan crossed the median near the Las Vegas Speedway and continued north in the southbound lanes.

A number of vehicles avoided Buchanan's car before it plowed into a blue Ford Focus carrying Fouch, her husband and their 2-year-old granddaughter.

Authorities believe Buchanan wanted to kill himself.

"This was a very deliberate act," Nevada Highway Patrol trooper Kevin Honea said.

It wasn't the first time Buchanan tried to commit suicide.

In December 2003, he was arrested for carrying a loaded .22-caliber revolver. Las Vegas police found the weapon after spotting Buchanan and his girlfriend arguing in the street, according to a police report.

The girlfriend told police that Buchanan planned to walk into the desert and shoot himself, the report said.

The Fouches were visiting Las Vegas from their home in Winfield, Kan., a town of about 12,000 people between Wichita and the Oklahoma border, according to the Arkansas City Traveler newspaper.

Lisa Fouch handled public relations for the Walnut Valley Festival, a popular bluegrass music festival held each year in Winfield, the paper reported.