Ed Troyer was looking forward to watching the Super Bowl Sunday like the rest of us, but all it took was one phone call to change his plans and upend his life, again.

As the official spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's Department, Det. Sgt. Troyer is called almost the second after any significant crime is reported. When dispatch told him of the explosion at Josh Powell's Graham home, Troyer knew he was in for a whirlwind that won't slow any time soon.

"I'm on call all the time," says the veteran cop.

He drops whatever he's doing, jumps in the car, and immediately gets details from dispatch as he races to a crime scene, like Powell's house.

"Then I call whoever the sergeant is on scene and get whatever is going on, then I start doing phone updates with the media," he says.

When he arrives, he immediately goes behind the crime tape and gets all the information so he can share it as soon as possible.

"Our policy is we act as though nothing is a secret and we don't want anything to be a secret. We put out information as fast as we can, accurately."

It's an intense job and Troyer's been asked often how he handles dealing with tragedy on an-almost-daily basis. He says it's because of his dedication to the people impacted by the crimes. While he's always professional, for Troyer it's often personal.

"I get to meet these families and get close to them," Troyer says. "Remember when the Snap-On-Tool guy was killed? I still talk to his widow, and his daughters have graduated from college, and I see them at events and survivor victims things and they send me Christmas cards," Troyer says with pride.

He says ultimately, many in the department consider it a duty to make sure the victims are never forgotten, even after their stories are long gone from the headlines.

"You know those two boys are dead and Susan Powell's probably dead and we're probably the only ones left that are going to stand up and say something for them. If we don't stand up and say something for them, if we don't continue to work this, and push through this, no one else is going to," says Troyer.

Ultimately, he says he gets the most satisfaction everyday serving the public, whether comforting a grieving family member or providing the latest information to the media.

"It means the world to me when I tell you guys [the media] something and you believe me, because you know I'm not going to try and lie to you and you don't need to go search around and see if I'm giving you guys the story or not."

Unfortunately, while it's often a story no one wants to hear, it's often a story the public needs to know.

Josh Kerns, MyNorthwest.com Reporter