| Serving Kentucky's Bluegrass |
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Web site will seek to solve Lincoln double murder Lincoln County public record for March 23 Lincoln clerks turn 'blue' each time UK plays |
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Web site will seek to solve Lincoln double murder By KATHERINE BELCHER STANFORD -- One of the men instrumental in solving the 30-year-old mystery of the death Barbara Ann Hackman-Taylor -- a.k.a. "Tent Girl" -- has launched a Web site to help solve the case of two murdered Lincoln County men. Harold "Bo" Upton III and Ryan Shangraw were shot and killed in February 2002 after four gunmen burst into Shangraw's mobile home in the Hubble Community and opened fire. There have been no arrests in the case and family members of both men are desperate for police to solve the crime. Although Todd Matthews lives in Livingston, Tenn., he plans to do everything in his power to see that happen and is lending his support the best way he knows how. Matthews has established a Web site dedicated to the Upton/Shangraw case at www.angelfire.com/tn3/masterdetective2/BoRyan.html. The site is a work in progress and will soon undergo a complete overhaul. Matthews hopes to use the site to draw attention to the case in the hope that it will increase pressure on witnesses, the killers or anyone with information to come forward. Matthews added that the Web site will also provide a forum to keep interest in the case alive and let the killers know that people working to solve the case will not give up until that happens. The site will also provide visitors with the ability to pass along information they think might be relevant to the case. Matthews said people who are scared or unwilling to talk with police may be more likely to pass along sensitive information in an anonymous format. The Web site is just the beginning of Matthews work on the Upton/Shangraw case and he said he has pitched it as a possible feature story to such national news programs as 20/20 and 48 Hours. Although he hasn't received any takers yet, Matthews said he will keep trying and won't give up on the idea. Matthews is no stranger to unsolved mysteries and became aware of the Upton and Shangraw case after his father-in-law, Wilbur Riddle of Lincoln County, sent him newspaper articles about the case. Matthews was the person who discovered the identity of the dead woman who was known for years as Tent Girl. The woman's badly decomposed body was discovered in Georgetown in 1968 , ironically enough, by Wilbur Riddle. After hearing about the Tent Girl case, Matthews became somewhat obsessed with finding the dead woman's identity and worked on it for years. He finally solved the mystery while searching missing person Web sites in April 1998 -- 30 years after her body was discovered. Matthews came across the missing person case of Barbara Ann Hackman-Taylor that sounded like it could be a match for Tent Girl. Although he'd had several other leads over the years turn out to be dead ends, Matthews said there was just something about Taylor's case that drove him. Matthew's instincts were right and DNA tests on the exhumed remains of Tent Girl confirmed that she was indeed Taylor. Matthews hopes that same determination will help lead to an arrest in the Upton/Shangraw murder case and plans to devote as much time as it takes to ensure that happens. Additionally, Matthews has been in contact with Bo Upton's family and hopes the website will give the family something on which to focus their attention rather than on the police investigation and the lack of an arrest. This story ran in The Advocate Messenger on March 27.
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