PHOENIX — "I feel that I must share with you what Matt's life and death have meant to us."
In news coverage from 1998, captured by the award-winning documentary, "Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine," we hear both a mother's sorrow --and her quest to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else's son — or anyone else in the LGBTQ+ community.
28 years ago this week, Matthew Shepard, then a 21-year-old college student at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, was savagely attacked in a hate crime that made headlines around the world.
Sadly, on October 12, 1998, Matt would take his last breath. That same year, his parents, Dennis and Judy Shepard, created the nonprofit organization, "The Matthew Shepard Foundation," with the goal of erasing hate targeting the LGBTQ+ community.
Nearly three decades after their son's tragic death, they sat down with ABC15's Nick Ciletti.
"He was not shy," says Judy Shepard about her son, Matthew. "He was kind. He was very outgoing. Very extroverted."
"There was no such thing as a stranger to Matt," says his father, Dennis.
And yet, in many ways, his parents describe him as an ordinary young man - with high points and low points like everyone else - but who also had an extraordinary heart.
"He was very empathetic, which perhaps in the long run was not on his side," explains Judy. "And he didn't like bullies."
Sadly, in the overnight hours of October 7, 1998, Matt would meet two young men at a bar who started a conversation with him. They would offer him a ride home; police believe they pretended to be gay to earn Matt's trust to rob him later - but would end up committing a crime so full of hate, it shocked the world.
The two men would end up luring Matt to the outskirts of Laramie, where they would brutally attack him with a pistol, tying his body to a fence, leaving him to die in the frigid Wyoming night.
Almost 24 hours later, Matt was found, barely clinging to life.
"The doctor said he had never seen injuries that bad to a person's head area," explains Dennis. "Except someone who was going 80-90 miles per hour without a seat belt and hitting a solid object like a bridge."
Matthew had been severely beaten with the back of a pistol.
Matthew's parents at the time were living in Saudi Arabia for Dennis' job and were contacted by law enforcement back in the United States and urged to rush home as quickly as they could.
Not fully knowing what had happened to their son, the Shepards made their way back to the United States, but didn't completely grasp what had happened until they saw Judy's sister in the Minneapolis airport.
"She had this horrible look on her face," explains Judy. "She said, 'I'm so sorry! I'm so sorry!'"
Judy's sister would explain that Matt's story was on the front page of every newspaper in the country, sharing the horrible details of what had happened. Initially, the Shepards thought it may have been a car accident.
"When we walked into the room, it was every parent's worst nightmare with tubes everywhere," says Judy. "Monitors were everywhere...One thing the doctors told us was that Matt may not be conscious, but he is aware of what is in the room. Please don't take your fear inside. Try not to. So it's like, I can't take any of my fear or anger in there."
Judy described wanting to make Matt's room as warm and as welcoming as possible, despite the circumstances. "We put on his favorite music, Tracy Chapman, as it turns out. I put on the perfume he gave me for Christmas. We wanted it to be familiar, and that's all we could do for him."
"We held his hand and stroked him," says Dennis.
For several days, Matthew would cling to life, although doctors had warned his parents that even if he regained consciousness, he would never be the same. As the days wore on, Dennis and Judy debated what to do, until Matthew started to fail on his own.
"Matt, being the lovely child he is, made that decision for us," says Dennis.
On October 12, 1998, nearly a week after he was left to die, Matthew would lose his life.
Now, 28 years later, there are moments from that period that are still just as fresh for the Shepards, but they also motivate them to keep going, keeping their son's memory alive.
"When we talk about him, it keeps him and alive and present," explains Judy. "I feel him the most when we are on stage, speaking to other folks. His words and his ideas are coming out. And his dreams."
And that is exactly what Dennis and Judy have done. Coming up Friday on ABC15 Mornings, as we prepare to celebrate Phoenix Pride, we're taking a look at what The Matthew Shepard Foundation has been able to achieve in the decades since we lost Matt.
To learn more about their foundation, click here
Special thanks to Michele Josue and Run Rabbit Run Media for sharing clips of the award-winning documentary, Matt Shepard Is a Friend of Mine with ABC15. To stream it and for more information, click here
Nick Ciletti
Morning Anchor and Reporter
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