The murder continued to attract public attention and media coverage long after the trial was over. In 2004, the
ABC News news program
20/20 aired a report quoting claims by McKinney, Henderson, and Kristen Price, the prosecutor and a lead investigator, that the murder had not been motivated by Shepard's sexuality but rather was primarily a drug-related robbery that had turned violent.
[15]
Gay advocacy organizations charged that the
20/20 report, which featured interviews with McKinney and Henderson, was
sensational, misleading, and downplayed or ignored evidence of homophobia as a motivation for the crime.
[61][62][63][64]
By contrast, in an essay in LGBT publication
The Advocate,
Aaron Hicklin wrote that after years of investigation the show's producer Jimenez interviewed over 100 people and had "amassed enough anecdotal evidence to build a persuasive case that Shepard's sexuality was, if not incidental, certainly less central than popular consensus had led us to believe."
[65]
Dave O'Malley, the Laramie police commander over the investigations division at the time of Shepard's murder,
[66] said "I feel comfortable in my own heart that they did what they did to Matt because they had hatred towards him for being gay." The prosecutor in the case, however, stated there was ample evidence that drugs were at least a factor in the murder
[67] and Officer Waters told British journalist
Julie Bindel "I believe to this day that McKinney and Henderson were trying to find Matthew’s house so they could steal his drugs. It was fairly well known in the Laramie community that McKinney wouldn’t be one that was striking out of a sense of homophobia."
[41] Homicide detective Ben Fritzen, who had interviewed Price, said that those "closely involved with investigating the case.... Initially agreed [this wasn't a hate crime but] as time went on, some became politically involved".
[35]...
...Some police officials interviewed after Jimenez's book's publication disputed certain claims made in the book while others praised it. O'Malley noted Shepard's slight build and said the idea that Shepard was "a methamphetamine kingpin is almost humorous. Someone that would buy into that certainly would believe almost anything they read." Rob Debree, lead sheriff's investigator at the time, said the book contains "factual errors and lies", and deemed Jimenez's claim that Shepard was a drug dealer "truly laughable".
[66] However Matthew Shepard's former lover and long-term friend, Ted Henson, said the book is “nothing more than the truth”
[41] and Cal Rerucha, who prosecuted the case, stated that Jimenez was one of the only people "that really looked through the files" of the case. He called the book "fair" saying Shepard's friends "were on a mission" to make the crime out as a hate crime. Rerucha also disputed Debree's claim that Jimenez lied by claiming that someone had shot through Rerucha's window. He said that someone had indeed shot through his window
