On a summer morning, the life of 19-year-old T’miya Ornique Murphy was tragically cut short in a burst of gunfire on a Virginia interstate. On August 1, 2023, shortly before 11 a.m., Murphy was driving her 2017 Kia Optima south on Interstate 85 in Dinwiddie County when another vehicle pulled alongside her. Shots were fired from the passing vehicle, striking the recent high school graduate in the head. Her car then veered across the southbound lanes and crashed on the shoulder.
Murphy was rushed to a local hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries the following day.
T'miya, a resident of Chesterfield, had recently graduated from Thomas Dale High School and had earned a Medical Assistant Certification. Remembered by her family as a funny, goofy, and kind young woman, she had dreams of becoming a nurse. Friends recalled her as a lovable and kind-hearted person who loved to dance and sing, with aspirations of becoming 'TikTok famous.' The shooting was not believed to be an act of road rage, and investigators treated it as an isolated incident. For over a year, her family pleaded for answers as the case remained unsolved, a painful reminder of the 54 interstate shootings that occurred in Virginia in 2023.
For more than a year, the investigation into T'miya Murphy's death continued without a resolution. The community was left searching for answers, and her family grappled with the unanswered questions surrounding her sudden and violent death. Virginia State Police diligently worked the case, piecing together evidence to bring those responsible to justice. The breakthrough came more than a year after the tragic incident, bringing a glimmer of hope for accountability.
In the fall of 2024, an arrest was finally made. Zayah Phelps, a 20-year-old man from Dinwiddie, was identified as the suspect. Phelps was already in custody at Riverside Regional Jail on an unrelated probation violation from October 19, 2024. On November 25, 2024, while incarcerated, he was served with multiple indictments related to Murphy's death. The charges brought against him were severe, including first-degree murder, the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, shooting from a vehicle, shooting at an occupied vehicle, reckless handling of a firearm, and conspiracy to commit murder. The arrest marked a significant development in a case that had left a community in mourning and a family desperate for justice.
