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University of Kentucky football player Trent DiGiuro was ringing in his 21st birthday on the porch of his campus home when a shot rang out, striking him in the head.
As DiGiuro lay bleeding in his leather rocking chair, his horrified friends rushed to put pressure on the wound, then called 911—still uncertain where the fatal shot originated from.
“I stepped out onto the porch. I just couldn't see anything,” friend Chris Davis recalled in Oxygen’s The Killer Among Us. ”It was eerily quiet. I was looking to see did somebody do this to Trent?”
The crime sent fear through the college community—but it would be years before investigators would find the killer and reveal the shockingly petty motive behind DiGiuro’s execution.
Who Was Trent DiGiuro?
DiGiuro was preparing to enter his senior year of college in the summer of 1994. The offensive lineman was living with three of his fellow teammates in a house just on the edge of campus.
Friends described him as a gentle giant who loved everyone. Though he had friends in all circles, his commitments with football kept him from ever joining a fraternity.
“Trent was the life of the party,” friend Holly Weddle recalled. “He always made you feel special and it was always a great time when he was around.”
What Happened to Trent DiGiuro?
On July 16, 1994, DiGiuro was celebrating his 21st birthday with a large party at his home.
As the night went on, many of the guests went home until it was just a small group of five close friends closing out the night on the porch.
“We were just having fun,” Weddle remembered, “getting ready to just wind down the night.”
But just shortly after Weddle and Davis stepped inside the house, friend Sean Mann heard a loud bang.
“I looked over to Trent and asked him if he heard that,” Mann said. “Trent was slumped over. He had clearly had a wound to his head. I saw that he had been shot.”
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Mann took off his sweatshirt, put it on DiGiuro’s head and ran inside to call 911. Davis ran out to see what happened and saw DiGiuro “bleeding out both ears.”
As he recalled, “I was like, ‘Good lord, you know, what’s going on?’”
Trent DiGiuro’s Shooting Leaves Witnesses Baffled
Within minutes, emergency responders arrived to perform CPR and rush DiGiuro to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.
Lexington Police Department Detective Don Evans also arrived at the scene and found the shocked college kids milling around. DiGiuro’s recliner was knocked over and covered in blood.
“The forensics team had a mess,” he recalled. “You don’t know exactly where the person fell, what the placement was. They gotta figure out what was there prior to this happening.”
Though DiGiuro died from a fatal gunshot wound to the head, crime scene investigators were unable to find any shell casings at the scene.
Evans spoke with Mann, who insisted he’d never seen anyone approach the house and believed the shot must have come from the side of the porch.
“I briefly talked to anyone else there, they have no idea what happened,” Evans added. “I mean that’s basically the theme.”
As dawn approached, the news of DiGiuro’s death spread throughout the college community.
“I found out that he didn’t make it, unfortunately, and of course we were all like crying and sobbing,” Weddle recalled. “Just not understanding what could have gone wrong.”
Trent DiGiuro Was Killed in “Assassination” With Long-Range Rifle
Initially, Evans was operating under the theory that DiGiuro had been killed at close range by a handgun, but was surprised to learn from ballistics analysts that the bullet had actually come from a long-range rifle, making it possible the killer was up to 300 yards away.
“We’ve gotten this all wrong. It changed everything,” he said. “It looked like an assassination.”
During a door-to-door canvas of the neighborhood, one neighbor reported hearing what sounded like a brick hitting the side of her house at the time of the shooting. Detectives theorized that she had likely heard the percussion from the shot and discovered an area of bushes near the front of her yard with a direct line to DiGiuro’s porch.
Though they likely established where the killer had lie in wait, they still had no idea who would have wanted to kill the well-liked football player.
With no arrests, DiGiuro’s friends were left feeling on edge.
“Your mind starts racing, you watch every turn you make around this corner, everybody you pass on the sidewalk. It could be somebody on campus,” Mann remembered. “I did not feel safe anywhere.”
Tip Points to Shane Ragland in Trent DiGiuro’s Death
For five years the case went cold, until police received a call from attorney Tom Bullock, who was representing former University of Kentucky student Aimee Lloyd.
Lloyd had seen an article marking the fifth anniversary of DiGiuro’s death and was struck by the family’s continued anguish. She decided to come forward with chilling information that would break the case wide open.
Lloyd told Evans that she had been dating Shane Ragland in 1995 when he made a stunning confession and admitted to gunning down DiGiuro a year earlier.
Ragland—the son of a wealthy businessman—was an acquaintance of DiGiuro’s and had been living down the street at the time of the murders. According to Lloyd’s account, as freshman students in 1991, Ragland had been eager to join the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity.
Yet, while hanging out with DiGiuro’s roommate in their dorm, Ragland claimed to have slept with a girl featured in a sorority calendar. DiGiuro overheard the conversation and knew the girl was dating the president of the fraternity. DiGiuro told the president about the rumors Ragland was spreading, ultimately tanking his chances of getting into the fraternity.
The account was corroborated by DiGiuro’s former roommate, who added that DiGiuro confirmed to Ragland he’d told the fraternity president after they bumped into each other on campus.
Who Killed Trent DiGiuro?
Years later, Ragland was still bitter and set out to kill DiGiuro, biking down the street with his rifle, taking the fatal shot and then returning to his home unnoticed.
Lloyd agreed to meet with Ragland in 2000 in the hopes of getting a confession and captured Ragland on a recording saying he regretted his actions, adding “I am very, very remorseful.”
“I was angry at him,” he said. “I made the wrong decision.”
Ragland was arrested the next day and charged with murder. The prosecution’s case was strengthened after they found a rifle that could have been the murder weapon at his mother’s house—although ballistics could never confirm that.
Though Ragland was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison, the verdict was overturned three years later after a ballistics expert was discredited.
Ragland agreed to plead guilty to second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to time served of 8 years.
After he was released, Ragland was paralyzed in a car crash.
