Robert K. Martin was a 57-year-old Arizona Department of Public Safety officer who was shot and killed on August 15, 1995. A 28-year veteran of the department, he had patrolled the Beeline Highway near Fountain Hills for 23 years and was known for strict enforcement of speeders and impaired drivers on that treacherous stretch. He grew up near Saguaro Lake, making the Beeline feel like a homecoming.

The incident began with a traffic stop of a blue Monte Carlo that escalated for reasons that remain unclear. Officer Martin was shot and left on the highway; his service weapon was taken and the assailant fled the state. A manhunt led to the suspect’s capture in California two days later. The suspect, identified as 19-year-old Ernesto Salgado Martinez, was tried and convicted of first-degree murder in Martin’s death and sentenced to death. Martinez was also convicted in California of murdering a convenience store clerk with the stolen gun.

Officer Martin was a husband and father of six and is commemorated by a named portion of the Beeline Highway, the Duthie-Martin Highway, and a monument at the site of his murder. Does anyone have memories of Officer Martin or information about that stretch of highway from the mid 1990s?