The call came just after midnight. A friend of Justin Murphy's was on the line. Justin had been hit on his motorcycle by a drunk driver. He was about ten houses from his own driveway.
That was March 2024. Justin was a Marine. He had signed his retirement paperwork two days earlier. He and Tracy had been high school sweethearts, together 21 years, married 19.
Tracy Murphy is now an Arizona state trooper.
255 days
She graduated from the Arizona Department of Public Safety academy with Class 39 after 255 days of training. She addressed her graduating class, and her message to them was to remember why they raised their hand in the first place.
Nobody in that room had to wonder about hers.
"If I can get one drunk off the road, then I'm saving one family," she said.
Where she's going
Trooper Murphy is working overnights in Tucson, a part of the state DPS has struggled to staff. That's the shift when the drivers she's looking for are on the road.
The numbers explain why. In 2024, 347 people died in alcohol-related crashes in Arizona, more than one in four of every traffic death in the state, according to ADOT. More than four in ten alcohol-related crashes happen at night or on weekends. And 219 motorcyclists died on Arizona roads that year.
Justin was one of those motorcyclists, and one of those alcohol-related deaths. Every one of those numbers is somebody's phone call just after midnight.
The part nobody says out loud
People who lose someone to a drunk driver usually get told the same things. Time helps. Find a cause. Join a group.
Tracy Murphy put on a uniform. She went back to school, got through 255 days of the DPS academy, and took a night patrol in a city that needs troopers.
She will spend her nights trying to make sure someone else's husband makes it the last ten houses home.
What we're asking
We'd like to talk with Trooper Murphy, if DPS and she are willing, about what the first months on overnight patrol have been like, and what she wants drivers to know before they turn the key.
And to Trooper Murphy: thank you, and welcome to the job. Justin would be proud. We are in service.
Hear every episode of The Valley 10-8 on Apple Podcasts.
How we reported this: drawn from Arizona's Family's Sept. 18 report on Trooper Murphy's graduation and ADOT's 2024 crash facts. Public reports do not give the exact date or location of the crash that killed Justin Murphy, or the outcome of the case against the driver, and we have not included them. We will ask DPS whether Trooper Murphy will speak with us and update this story. Corrections and information: [email protected].