Laramie reflects 10 years after murder
College town still struggles with the aftermath of gay man's brutal death
Ten years ago, 21-year-old Matthew Shepard died after being beaten and left in the cold by two men he met in a bar. Residents were shaken by the brutality of the crime, and the media descended on the town trying to explain why it happened.
Today, residents lament Shepard's death but insist it doesn't define Laramie or its people.
"It's not representative of Laramie, of Wyoming or the West," said Melodie Edwards, who owns a downtown bookstore.
"We have the same problems here that exist everywhere in the country — racism, sexism, homophobia all exist," said Jim Osborn, a University of Wyoming employee who is gay. "But I think that most people in Laramie are decent, friendly people who understand that while you might not like somebody, and you even have the right to hate somebody, you don't have the right to hurt somebody because of that."
Nestled in a valley between two mountain ranges, Laramie has a population of about 27,000, including roughly 10,000 students at the university.
There was a gay community here in the fall of 1998 when Shepard enrolled at the university. He joined its Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered Association, a student group with about 50 members.
Shepard died Oct. 12, five days after his 5-foot-2, 105-pound body was found lashed to the lonely fence outside town. He was beaten so severely — his skull was fractured in six places — that the bicyclist who saw him initially thought he was a scarecrow lying on the ground.
The two men who killed him are serving life sentences in prison.
Residents disagree whether Shepard's death was a hate crime, a drug-induced robbery that went too far or both. Prosecutors' cases included evidence with elements of robbery, drugs and hate against gays, but the court only determined that the men were guilty of murder and not why they killed Shepard.
Whatever the case, life in Laramie changed.
"One of the things that the Matthew Shepard murder did was it reminded all of us, and it continues to remind all of us, that there is no place that is immune from random acts of senseless violence that plague our country, our society," Buchanan said.
Laramie was thrust into the national spotlight by media attracted by the murder of a young gay college student in a small Western town. It also produced an outpouring of films, books and plays.
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