Why would he approach them? Why them? He wasn’t approaching anybody else in the bar. They say he’s gay, he was a flaming gay, he’s gonna come on to people like that. Bullshit. He never came on to me. Hello?!? He came on to them? I don’t believe it.

Two. Territorialism is—is—is the word I will use for this. And that’s the fact that Matt was sitting there. Russell and Aaron were in the pool area. Upon their first interaction, they were in Matt’s area, in the area that Matt had been seen all night. So who approached who by that?

ROMAINE PATTERSON: But Matthew was the kind of person … like, he would never not talk to someone for any reason. If someone started talking to him, he’d just be like, “Oh, blah, blah, blah.” He never had any problem just striking up a conversation with anybody.

PHIL LABRIE: Matt did feel lonely a lot of times. Me knowing that—and knowing how gullible Matt could be … he would have walked right into it. The fact that he was at the bar alone without any friends made him that much more vulnerable.

MATT GALLOWAY: So the only thing is—and this is what I’m testifying to—’cause, you know, I’m also, basically, the key eye-witness in this case, uh (pause) basically what I’m testifying is that I saw Matthew leave. I saw two individuals leave with Matthew. I didn’t see their faces, but I saw the back of their heads. At the same time, McKinney and Henderson were no longer around. You do the math.

MATT MICKELSON: Actually, I think the DJ was the last one to talk to him on his way out that night … gave him a cigarette or something. His name is Shadow.

SHADOW: I was the last person that Matt talked to before he left the Fireside.… I was just bullshittin’ around with my shit, and he stopped me, I stopped him actually, and he’s like, “Hey, Shadow, da da da,” and I was like, “What, man, you gettin’ ready to leave?” he’s like, “Yeah, man, and this an’ that.” But then I noticed them two guys and they stood outside, you could see, you could see it, they were standing there, you know, and he was looking over to them, and they were lookin’ back at him. And I stood and talked to Matt for like a good ten minutes and you seen the guys with him, you seen ’em getting like, you seen ’em like worried, like, you know, anxious to leave and shit.… So when they took off, I seen it, when they took off, it was in a black truck, it was a small truck, and the three of them sat in the front seat and Matt sat in the middle.

And I didn’t think nothin’ of it, you know. I didn’t figure them guys was gonna be like that.