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Matthew Wayne Shepard was born on December 1 1976 in Casper, Wyoming. He was the oldest son of mother Judy Peck Shepard
and father Dennis Shepard. He was a devout member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church.
While living in Casper, he attended Crest Hill Grade School, Dean Morgan Junior High, and completed his sophomore year
in Natrona County High School. He attended the last two years of high school at the American School in Switzerland, where
he graduated in 1995. After graduation, he attended Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina. He then moved to Denver,
where he had several jobs. He was a first-year political science major at the University of Wyoming in Laramie.
Matthew was kind and gentle. People described him as a small man (5'2" and 110 pounds) with a big heart. He enjoyed anything
to do with drama and theatre, and loved swimming, soccer, running, and camping.
Matthew Shepard was lured from his college campus bar shortly after midnight on
October 7 1998 by two men who told him they were gay. He was driven to a remote area near the Sherman Hills neighbourhood
east of Laramie, Wyoming. He was tied to a fence, beaten and pistol-whipped by his attackers, while he begged for his life.
His attackers left him for dead in near freezing temperatures. A cyclist who found him on Snowy Mountain View Road at 6:22
pm, some 18 hours after the attack, at first mistook him for a scarecrow. He was unconscious and suffering from hypothermia.
His face was caked with blood, except where it had been partially washed clean by tears.
Matthew died at 12:53AM on October 12 1998, at Poudre Valley Hospital in Fort Collins,
Colorado, with his family at his bedside. Hospital officials said Matthew had a fracture from behind his head to just in front
of his right ear and a massive brain stem injury which affected his vital signs, including his heart beat, body temperature
and other involuntary functions. There were also approximately a dozen small lacerations around his head, face and neck. He
was so badly injured in the attack that doctors were unable to operate. He never regained consciousness after being found,
and remained on full life support.
Link: Matthew Wayne Shepard: A gentle spirit
Link: Remember Matthew
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