Only days after he was acquitted of two additional murder charges, former New England Patriots tight-end Aaron Hernandez was found hanged to death on April 19 in his cell at the maximum-security prison in Shirley, Mass.
Hernandez died at the young age of 27 and was currently serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for his killing of Odin L. Lloyd back in 2013.
The former NFL superstar was found hanging from a bed sheet that was attached to the bars on the window of his two-man cell, which was only occupied by him, at 3:05 a.m. Wednesday morning. He was then rushed to UMass Leominster, which is 5 miles down the street from Fitchburg State University. Shortly after the discovery of his body Hernandez was pronounced dead by doctors at 4:07 a.m.
Officials say they have completed multiple searches of his cell and did not discover a suicide note. They also went on to say that Hernandez showed no signs of suicide and was associated with many of the other inmates, but they still believe he killed himself.
Highly regarded defense attorney’s, Ronald Sullivan and Jose Baez represented Hernandez in his most recent trial. They have yet to comment on the incident, but a few days ago said they felt Hernandez’s acquittal meant he was moving in the right direction of being reunited with his family. His suicide raises many questions because it comes so close to him being acquitted of the two additional murder charges.
His agent, Brian Murphy, was quick to tweet about Hernandez saying, “Chico was not a saint, but my family and I loved him and he would never take his own life.” This comes in combination with many others taking to social media to speak out about how they do not believe it was suicide, but only time will tell what the exact truth is.