One year after he was killed while riding home from work on Riggs Road, Dustin Tappe’s friends and family held a memorial service in his honor.
A small crowd last night surrounded a white cross and plaque encircled with candles, photos and personal belongings for the man whose widow, Melody Rose Tappe, called “the most amazing man in the world.”
“My husband would be the first one to stand up for anybody. Bikers are a family. We love each other; we’re here for each other. It doesn’t matter what [motorcycle] club you’re from,” she said after lighting and lifting paper lanterns into the night sky. “We all love each other. Clubs are about the love of riding in the first place.”
Tappe was aged 38 when he died on Riggs Road while on his way to the family’s Maricopa Meadows home from a work shift in Tempe on Dec. 2, 2024. He was riding a Suzuki motorcycle at the time of the crash.
The road, the more major of two arteries running east to west between State Route 347 and Interstate 10, was closed between the two highways for several hours that night.
Tappe left behind a family of seven children, including a baby now aged 1.
“Not only did I lose my husband, but every family that lost someone has shown up for him too. Demetry [Quiruz]’s family showed up here,” Melody Tappe noted, referring to another fallen Maricopa biker who died on Halloween night a month ago in a crash at Smith-Enke and Porter Roads.
Joseph Vargas of Casa Grande said Tappe did a lot of work to help people in recovery from alcohol or drug addiction.
“He did help out a lot of men, recovering addicts like myself,” Vargas told InMaricopa at the vigil. “He took me through the steps, he took me through the ‘big book,’ and he also taught me a lot about God. My reading comprehension wasn’t too good, so he actually sat down with me, man to man, just him and I together and read the Bible to me.”
Tappe’s mother, Cindy Lang of Mesa, said he was “taken far too soon.”
“My son would have stood up for anybody, you know? He was a good man,” she said.
She said she caught the riding bug from him and recalled they bought bikes the same day.
“He helped me pick mine out and I got him his. We were going to ride together and within a month, he was gone,” Lang said.
Another friend, Teshia Kennedy from Mesa, said Tappe was “vividly passionate” about motorcycles and riding. She wanted to remind motorists to look out for bikes on the road.
“It’s important to pay attention to motorcycles, no matter who you are. A lot of people don’t see them,” she said.
Lang agreed.
“Just slow down and watch for bikes, because we lost a good man that day, and a lot of good men since then. It’s just crazy,” she said, describing the emotional pain as “bone crushing deep.”
“It’s like an empty hole in my chest,” Lang said. “It never fills up. It just aches.”
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