On October 7, 1998, Shepard met two people named Russell Henderson and Aaron McKinney at the Fireside Lounge. McKinney and Henderson decided that they would give Shepard a ride home. They drove the car to a remote, rural area, then robbed and tortured Shepard, beating him with a pistol. They tied him to a fence post and left him there to die. They also found out where Shepard lived and they planned to burglarize his house. Shepard was found by a cyclist named Aaron Kreifels, who thought Shepard was a scarecrow at first. Shepard was in a coma and suffered fractures to the back of his head and the front of his right ear. He had severe damage to his brain stem, a part of the brain which controls the body's heart rate, body temperature, and other important functions. He died at 12:53 a.m. on October 12, 1998.