Matthew Shepard Bio

Matthew Wayne Shepard was born in Casper, Wyoming on December 1st, 1976(1976-12-01).  In February 1995,  Shepard was beaten and raped during a high school trip to Morocco.  This was obviously a traumatic experience for Shepard and his family, and he experienced depression and panic attacks following the incident. On October 6, 1998, Shepard met Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie, Wyoming. McKinney and Henderson pretended to be gay in order to gain Shepard's trust, and they offered to give him a ride home.  The two men proceeded to drive Shepard to a remote area where they robbed, tortured, and beat him.  They then tied him to a fence and left him there to die.  When he was discovered 18 hours later he was barely alive and in a coma. Shepard was pronounced dead 5 days later at 12:53 a.m. on October 12, 1998.  He died at Poudre Valley Hospital, in Fort Collins, Colorado.