The Matthew Shepard Case (Including the Trials of Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney): A Chronology
Russell Henderson (left) and Aaron McKinney (right)
December 1, 1976
Matthew Shepard is born in Casper, Wyoming.Matthew Shepard Murder: A Chronology
1992
Shepard, age 15, is arrested for sexually assaulting two 8-year old boys in Casper.jjh
1993
The Shepard family moves to Saudi Arabia. Matthew enrolls in a boarding school in Lugano, Switzerland for his last two years of high school.
1995
In Marrakesh, Morocco, on a senior trip with other students from his boarding school, Matthew is attacked by a gang of young men and raped six times and robbed.
Fall 1995
Shepard enrolls at Catawba College in North Carolina.
1996
Shepard meets Ted Henson in Saudi Arabia. They grow to become close friends and lovers.
June 1996
Matthew is treated for depression and other symptoms in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Late June 1997
Shepard and McKinney, through mutual friend Doc O’Connor, meet for the first time at a Denver gay bar.
Summer 1997 to Summer 1998
Shepard lives in Denver. He gets hooked on crystal meth and cocaine and adopts a “fast” lifestyle. By the end of his time in Denver, Shepard is enmeshed in the drug trade, primarily dealing meth….McKinney, meanwhile, becomes a heavy drug user. He earns money and feeds his drug habit through work as a male (sexual) escort for a gay clientele of Doc O’Connor’s escort service.
December 17, 1997
Aaron McKinney, 20, and two others burglarize a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Laramie, stealing $2500 and some desserts.
May 9, 1998
A car goes up in flames in a Laramie neighborhood around 4 am. Police find Shepard (among others at the scene) and interview him. The police report notes inconsistencies in Shepard’s account of what he had been doing and describes him as “very excited,” “speaking rapidly,” and wide-eyed.
Spring 1998
McKinney is held at the Albany County Detention Center, awaiting trial on burglary charges. He is released on June 11.
Summer 1998
McKinney and his girlfriend, Kristen, and their infant son live in a trailer on the property of Thomas (“Doc”) O’Connor in Bosler, Wyoming….McKinney becomes friends with Russell Henderson, who he works with on roofing jobs. Henderson is introduced to meth,
August 19, 1998
Near Cody, Wyoming, Shepard’s sexual overtures toward a man lead him to lose his temper and punch Matthew, breaking his jaw.
August or September 1998
Shepard and McKinney smoke a bowl of meth together in a parked car. McKinney, according to friends of Shepard, comes back from the encounter angry at Shepard, apparently because he had turned down a proposed business (drug) deal—perhaps refusing to give McKinney meth without a cash payment up front.
September 1998
McKinney encounters Shepard at a Laramie convenience store. According to Shepard’s friend, McKinney yells at Shepard and tells him “you better watch your back.”
October 2, 1998
Shepard hires Doc O’Connor to take him and a friend, Tina Labrie, to the Tornado, a gay nightclub in Fort Collins, in O’Connor’s limousine. Shepard enjoys dancing, but later seems depressed (Shepard spends about $1100 over the course of the night.) After spending hours in the club, the group has a late-night dinner at a Denny’s. On the limo ride back to Laramie, Shepard expresses suicidal thoughts, so Labrie chooses to spend the night with him at his apartment.
October 2 to 6, 1998
McKinney is on a hard-core meth/cocaine binge.
October 3, 1998
Matthew calls his mother, cries uncontrollably, and has a panic attack. He takes about 15 anti-anxiety pills. That afternoon, Shepard meets with a drug dealer with a tough reputation at the Fireside Lounge. McKinney, according to a report by a friend, owes the dealer money (according to one source, about $1200).
October 4, 1998
Shepard calls Tina LaBrie from a bar and asks her to join him. LaBrie later describes his mood that day as pensive and worried. After LaBrie leaves, Matthew meets Doc O’Connor at the Eagles club and spends several hours talking with Shepard. Shepard reveals that he has AIDS and is depressed about it.
October 5, 1998
In the early evening, Shepard is driven to a grocery store by a friend, Tina Labrie, to pick up cold medicine. The two return to Shepard’s apartment and watch television.
October 6, 1998
In the early morning, out of money and almost out of drugs, McKinney breaks into home of his cousin. He goes to work at his roofing job. After work, McKinney meets Ken Haselhuhn, who promises to hook him up later that evening with a dealer who has 6 ounces of meth. (McKinney says later he planned to rob the dealer and Ken at gunpoint.) McKinney, Henderson, and Haselhuhn drive to the home of the dealer, but he is not there. They visit the residence of a second dealer, who also is not home. McKinney drops off Haselhuhn (though he will return to the house later). They stop briefly by McKinney’s apartment, visit Henderson’s trailer (where he showers and changes clothes) and then the two men go to the Library bar around 10 pm. They continue to check on whether a dealer has returned home. After a few drinks, they leave to go to the Fireside bar. They get to the Fireside sometime around 11:30 pm and sit down on stools at the bar, about 4 or 5 seats from where Shepard is sitting.
October 6, 1998
Shepard is scheduled to make a drug run to Denver. He is supposed to pick up 12 ounces of meth, drop off 6 in Fort Collins, and return to Laramie with the remaining six ounces. In the afternoon, Shepard calls O’Connor from a bar to ask about renting a limo around 9:30 for a night out with friends. Shepard remains in the Library bar until 6 or 6:30. He goes to a meeting of the campus LGBTA. After the meeting, the group gathers at the Village Inn. Shepard is dropped off at his apartment about 9 pm. About 10 pm, Shepard drives his Ford Bronco to the Fireside bar, where it is karaoke night. He takes a seat at the bar and has a few drinks. He moves to a table where another patron is sitting and says something about not wanting to be near “the assholes” (presumably McKinney and Henderson) at the bar. According to the patron, Mike St. Clair, Shepard hits on him.
Early Morning October 7, 1998
Shortly after midnight at the Fireside bar, McKinney walks over to the bar where Shepard and St. Clair are seated. McKinney bums a cigarette from Shepard. They exchange a few words and the two men get up and walk to the Fireside bathroom. Sometime, most likely between 12:15 and 12:30 am, McKinney, Shepard, and Henderson leave the bar together. The three men get into a pickup. With Henderson driving, they head off to the east. A few minutes later, McKinney begins to beat Shepard with his gun. Shepard hands over his wallet, but the beating continues. They stop on a dirt road. McKinney pulls Shepard from the vehicle. Henderson, as ordered by McKinney, ties up Shepard with a rope. He is lashed to a rail fence. Henderson asks McKinney to stop the beating and McKinney responds striking Henderson in the face with his gun. McKinney delivers a final, violent blow (rendering Shepard unconscious), and McKinney and Henderson drive off. A few minutes later, McKinney and Henderson get into a fight with two vandals on North 6th Street. Police, suspecting McKinney and Henderson to be the actual vandals, pull up behind their truck. Both men take off, but Henderson is caught. The police soon notice McKinney’s gun, with blood all over it.
Later, October 7, 1998
Russell Henderson receives nine stiches in a Laramie emergency room as a result of the blow from McKinney.
Around 6 pm, a cyclist falls off his bike and sees Shepard, unconscious and severely injured. He calls for help. Shepard is taken to the emergency room of a Laramie hospital, then transferred by ambulance to a hospital in Fort Collins.
McKinney is read his Miranda rights and interviewed by police, but says nothing about Shepard….McKinney, Henderson, and their girlfriends concoct an alibi and dispose of their drugs.
October 8, 1998
Police question Henderson, his girlfriend Chastity Pasley, and McKinney’s girlfriend, Kristen Price. Stories change. Some facts come out about the beating.
At 11:30 pm, McKinney is arrested and charged with attempted murder.
October 9, 1998
McKinney confesses to the killing of Matthew Shepard. In his statement to police, McKinney claims Shepard had offered drugs in exchange for sex. He also admits to having been involved with meth, but denies any recent use of the drug.
At a press conference, the county sheriff suggests that Shepard might have been beaten because he was gay. The press begins to call what happened a suspected hate crime.
McKinney, Henderson, and their two girlfriends are arraigned.
The Shepards arrive in Fort Collins to see their brain-dead son. President Clinton calls the hospital to express his support.
October 12, 1998
At 12:53 am, Matthew Shepard dies. Memorial gatherings are held around the country. The charges against McKinney and Henderson are changed to first-degree murder.
October 14, 1998
President Clinton urges Congress to pass a federal hate crimes bill. Several thousand people stage a candlelight vigil on the Capitol steps.
October 16, 1998
A funeral service is held for Shepard in Casper.
April 5, 1999
In order to avoid the death penalty, Henderson pleads guilty to murder and kidnapping charges. At a court hearing, Henderson tells Shepard’s parents “I regret greatly what I did.” Henderson is sentenced to two consecutive life terms, making the possibility of parole unlikely. A week later, Henderson is taken to the state penitentiary in Rawlins.
October 25, 1999
Opening statements are delivered in the trial of Aaron McKinney.
November 1, 1999
Judge Voight rules that the jury must ignore "gay panic" evidence presented by the defense.
November 3, 1999
McKinney is convicted of kidnapping, aggravated robbery, and second-degree murder.
November 4, 1999
Rather than proceed with the sentencing phase of the trial, in which the death penalty would be an option for jurors, McKinney agrees to accept life without parole, and with no possibility of appeal of his conviction.
July 2004
Elizabeth Vargas, for ABC’s show 20/20, interviews McKinney at High Desert State Prison in Nevada. When it airs later, the show suggests that the murder of Matthew had more to do with money and drugs than the fact that Shepard was gay.
2009
Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother, published the book, The Meaning of Matthew: My Son's Murder in Laramie, and a World Transformed.
October 28, 2009
President Obama signs the Matthew Shepard Act (making assaults based on characteristics that include sexual orientation a crime).
October 2013
Stephen Jimenez, publishes the book, The Book of Matt: Hidden Truths About the Murder of Matthew Shepard. The book, which is extensively researched (Jimenez interviewed 112 named sources, in addition to a number of others who refused to be named), presents evidence that the murder of Shepard was about drugs and money, not Matthew’s sexual orientation.
October 26, 2018
Shepard's ashes are interred at the crypt of Washington National Cathedral.
The autopsy of Matthew Shepard is released. The formerAlbany County Coroner, Julie Heggie, who performed the autopsy tells reporters that hand-shaped bruises in Shepard's groin area convinced her that the murder was a hate crime.