Matthew “Matt” Wayne Shepard was born on December 1^st, 1976, to Judy and Dennis Shepard. He had a younger brother named Logan, who was born in 1981.  He grew up on S. Oak Street in Casper, Wyoming.  He went to public school in Casper, Wyoming until his junior year in high school.  In the summer of 1994 Dennis Shepard was hired by Saudi Aramco and subsequently they resided at the Saudi Aramco Residential Camp in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. During that time, Matt, attended The American School in Switzerland (TASIS) because there was not an American School in Dhahran.  He graduated in 1995.

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After graduating from TASIS in 1995 Matt went to North Carolina for college.  He later returned to the Laramie, Wyomia to continue his education at the University of Wyoming.  He was studying political science, foreign relations, and languages.

On the night of October 6^th, 1998, Matt walked into the Fireside bar alone.  Not long after Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson walked into the bar.  Shortly after Midnight the 3 men walked out into the parking lot where they got into McKinney’s truck.  He was beaten by McKinney while in the truck. They struck Matt with the butt of the Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum.  

He was beaten beyond recognition. According to reports Matt was beaten so badly that his face was covered in blood except where it had been partially cleansed by his own tears. Reggie Fluty, the first officer to arrive on scene, found Matt alive but covered in blood.  He was first transported to Ivinson Memorial Hospital in Laramie before being moved to the more advanced trauma ward at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins, Colorado. The hospital staff contacted Judy and Dennis to inform them of the tragic events that had occurred.  There were also about a dozen small lacerations around his head, neck, and face. His injuries were deemed too severe for the doctors to operate on him.  Matt never regained consciousness and remained on full life support, and this was devastating to his family and friends.  While Matt lay in intensive care in the days following the attack, candlelight vigils were held in countries around the World. Judy asked Matt’s former guidance counselor to go into Matt’s room and tell him to stop fighting so that his parents didn’t need to turn off life support.  

McKinney and Henderson tied Matt’s hands behind his back and tied him to a split rail fence. He was beaten, tortured, and left to die on that fence.

Detective Ben Fritzen testified that Price said that McKinney told her the violence against Matt was triggered by how McKinney “[felt about gays].”

On April 5^th,1999 Russell Henderson avoided going to trial and plead guilty to the kidnapping and murder charges.  In order to avoid the death penalty, he agreed to testify against McKinney and was sentenced to two consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Aaron McKinney’s trial took place in October and November 1999.  Prosecutor Cal Rerucha alleged that McKinney and Henderson pretended to be gay to gain Matt’s trust.  Price, McKinney’s girlfriend, testified that Henderson and McKinney had “pretended to be gay to get [Shepard] in the truck and to be able to rob him. McKinney’s attorney attempted to put forward a gay panic defense, arguing that McKinney was driven to temporary insanity by alleged sexual advances by Matt.  This defense was rejected by the judge.  McKinney’s lawyer stated that the two men wanted to rob Matt but never intended to kill him.

The jury found McKinney not guilty of premeditated murder but guilty of felony murder and began to deliberate on the death penalty.  Matt’s parents brokered a deal that resulted in McKinney receiving two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole.

Requests for new legislation to address hate crimes gained momentum during coverage of the incident. Under the existing (for the time period) United States federal law and Wyoming state law, crimes committed on the basis of sexual orientation could not be prosecuted as a hate crime.

The Matthew Shepard Act was adopted as an amendment to S. 1390 by a vote of 63-28 on July 15^th, 2009.  On October 22^nd, 2009, the Senate passed the act by a vote of 68-29.  President Obama signed the measure into law on October 28^th, 2009.

 On October 26^th, 2018, just over twenty years since his death, Matt’s ashes were interred at the crypt of the Washington National Cathedral.  He was the first interment of ashes of a national figure at the cathedral since Helen Keller’s fifty years earlier.

In June 2019, Matt was one of the inaugural fifty American “pioneers, trailblazers and heroes” inducted on the National LGBTQ Wall of Honor within the Stonewall National Monument in New York City’s Stonewall Inn.

Matt Shepard has changed the World!!!!

The Meaning of Matthew

My Son’s Murder in Laramie and a World Transformed

The story of Matt told by Judy Shepard

For the first time in book form, Judy Shepard shares memories of Matthew, their life as a typical American family, and the impact of his death. The Meaning of Matthew follows the Shepard family in the days immediately after the crime, when Judy and Dennis traveled to see their incapacitated son, kept alive by life-support machines; shows how the Shepards learned of the incredible response from strangers all across the world, who held candlelight vigils and memorial services for their child; and, finally reveals how Judy and Dennis struggled to navigate the legal system, helping prosecutors to convict Matthew’s murderers.

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