Wyo. town reflects 10 years after Shepard's murder

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.

"It's as close to small-town, rural America as you can get and still have a comprehensive university," said University of Wyoming President Tom Buchanan, who grew up in New York and moved to Wyoming more than 30 years ago.

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.