Dustin Michael Tappe, 38, the Maricopa Meadows motorcyclist who died Monday in a crash on Riggs Road, leaves behind a widow and seven children, including a month-old infant. 

“Honestly, I don’t know what to say right now,” Melody Rose Tappe told InMaricopa on Wednesday. “I just lost the man that I have loved since I was 12 years old, and he was 11.” 

Melody said she is desperate to get details of the crash. She wants to know what happened after seeing GPS evidence that showed he was traveling 67 miles per hour at the time of the crash. The speed limit there is 55 m.p.h. 

Tappe was traveling home from Sysco Foods in Tempe, where he had worked for three years. 

“They loved him at Sysco and are grieving as well,” Melody said.   

“He was the most incredible man I have ever known and even better father. We were a fairytale. On and off again since we were children and finally becoming adults and getting married on Nov. 16, 2020. He was my soulmate; my everything! He was the man that would do anything for anyone, especially his family.” 

Originally from Auburn, Wash., Tappe and his widow chose to relocate to Maricopa in 2021. 

“He is leaving behind a huge family, because once you met him you weren’t just a person or a friend, you became family,” she said. “We are shattered and broken. I am a stay-at-home mom! All he wanted was for me to stay home and take care of our babies! He wanted us to stay in our home until our middle child graduates in two years and now we are trying to figure out how to take care of us and make sure we stay true to his wishes. We are struggling.” 

She called it “a terrible unexpected tragedy.” 

Tappe’s family was “fully dependent upon him and his three other beautiful children that do not live in the state.” 

Three of his children live in Washington state.

“The youngest, baby Dusten is only one month old,” she said.  

Melody said she is desperate for answers. She wants to know what happened. 

She posted on Facebook last night:  

“Nothing we have been told makes sense. My husband could ride, and I mean really ride … He was coming home to me and our babies! We need to know what actually happened. Please don’t feed us stories. If you were there, please help me, help us! We need to know. Everything in me says that something isn’t right here, that someone isn’t being honest and because everyone hates motorcycles so much and he isn’t here to tell us, that they are going to just chalk it up to him doing something wrong.” 

Tappe 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 I-10, was closed between the two highways for several hours Monday night. 

A witness at the scene said she saw a white van, a Nissan Altima and a motorcycle involved in the crash. Other details have not been released. 

“Gila River Fire arrived on scene and advised that the operator of the motorcycle was pronounced deceased,” Gila River Police spokesperson Teaya Enos said Tuesday. The Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office had confirmed it was Tappe who died.   

Donations to the family can be made here and here.