Roadside Memorial for Rebecca Murphy

It was a Wednesday evening about two weeks ago, sometime in the early evening that I was driving towards home, only a few blocks away from home and I came across a pink shoe in the middle of my lane. It struck me as odd because it appeared to be a new shoe. I had been down that road probably 4 times already that same day and the pink shoe wasn't there earlier. I wondered how it would have gotten in the middle of the lane and not along the roadside. My car straddled the shoe as I kept driving towards home. A little later I got a call from my son asking to pick him up at the MAX stop so he could come over for a bit. After picking him up, we came closer towards where I had seen the pink shoe in the road earlier and I found myself wondering if he would notice the shoe in road as I had. As we came closer, he said "There's a shoe in the road!" I told him, "Yes, I saw it earlier. Kind of weird, huh?" He agreed. When you see shoes in the road or alongside the road, they typically look worn and dirty. This shoe looked brand new. We visited for a short-time (you know it is hard to get an 18 year old boy to spend much time with his Mamma) and we headed back towards the MAX. He then realized he left some items at my house he needed. We turned around and headed back toward home. We again neared the pink shoe in the road on our drive back. I was drawn to that shoe. I don't know why. It was bothering me that it was there. I found myself wondering...is it possible...could someone have been hit by a car? Most of this road has no sidewalks, very poor lighting, it is a heavily driven road with a major bus line running on it and most cars drive 45 mph on it, rather than the posted 35 mph. On my third pass over that pink shoe, I took a little peek towards the roadside, looking in the ditch area to see if I could see anything. I didn't want Scotty to think that a shoe in the road would make me paranoid enough to think there might be someone dead or dying in the ditch, so I was very discrete. I couldn't see anything, but I wasn't sure. Scotty got what he needed and as we headed out again, I decided it was too late to let him take the MAX home so I drove him all the way back to where he lives. It was quite late now, sometime around 11:00pm as I came upon that pink shoe in the road for the fourth time now this evening. I looked a little harder this time towards the ditch area but it was so dark, I couldn't see anything. I thought I was being a bit weird thinking that someone would be there. No person in their right-mind would think that. When someone gets hit by a car, there is always help there immediately. I decided it was just a pink shoe in the road. The next morning I awoke to the sound of helicopters flying overhead. We don't live far from the Hillsboro Airport which is where the local news stations dock their copters. I knew something was going on. Several hours later, I headed out to the local store. I was stopped by a police officer and detoured down an alternative road. I could see up ahead lots of vehicles, police cars and a large area was blocked off with that yellow crime scene tape. I thought, "Wow! Something big has happened!" I wanted to be sure to watch the news to find out what was going on. Later, I realized I had missed the 6:00pm news so I headed to the internet to checkout our local news. There it was - a girls body had been found in the ditch on 198th in Beaverton. Reports said it appeared that the girl had been hit by a vehicle and left to die. I then remembered the pink shoe in the road. I felt my body trembling, shaking from the inside out. Reports also said that after collecting information door-to-door in the neighborhood that they were able to determine that she had laid there in that ditch for at least 12 hours before her body was discovered. What led police to the body? The police received numerous calls during the early morning commute time about a pink shoe in the middle of the road. When they checked it out, they found the body of Rebecca Murphy. Hit by a vehicle along the road, left to die in a ditch and left there for more than 12 hours before discovered. I have found over the years that my intuition, my sixth-sense, if you will, has typically been right-on. I wish I had listened to it this time. I wish I had looked a little more closely. Could I have found her, possibly saved her life? Rebecca Murphy was loved by many people. There is now a roadside memorial for her at the place where she was hit. Tips from local people led the police to the person who left her there to die. And, she will forever have a place in my thoughts. Jovanna wanted so badly to place a rose along with the others at her roadside memorial. I was slightly frightened to do so because we could get hit by a car in the process. However, we picked a time when the traffic was at it lowest, were very careful and we placed a rose from us, along with the many other flowers at the roadside memorial for Rebecca Murphy.