Matthew Shepard (December 1, 1976 - October 12, 1998)
5 Days ago Matthew Shepard, a 21 year old University of Wyoming student made the mistake of announcing to two friends, Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson that he was gay. After he met the two at the Fireside Lounge in Laramie he let the secret out and before morning the two men had beaten, tortured, pistol whipped, and tied Shepherd to an old fence in the middle of no where, leaving him for dead.
Shepard was found the next day, 4 days ago by a cyclist named Aaron Kreifels who will be haunted for the rest of his life by the images of what he thought at first was a scarecrow in the wilderness.
Shepard was observed by doctors, who declared his injuries too severe to treat, for the remaining hours of his life. His mother, Judy could only gather as many last looks at her lovely boy's face as she could before he finally succumbed early this morning to his wounds.