Police: Hernandez cited Bible passage at scene of suicide

BOSTON (AP) — Former NFL star Aaron Hernandez wrote a reference to a biblical passage in ink on his forehead and in blood on the wall of his prison cell before he hanged himself with a bed sheet, state police said in an investigative report released Thursday.

The former New England Patriots tight end was found naked April 19 at the Souza-Baranowski prison, where he was serving a life sentence in the 2013 murder of a man who had been dating his fiancee's sister. His suicide came five days after he was acquitted in the 2012 gun slayings of two men in a car.

A report released by state police on Thursday says "John 3:16" was written on Hernandez's forehead and on the cell wall.

The Bible passage says: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

The report, from a state police detective assigned to Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr.'s office, said a correction officer found Hernandez around 3 a.m.

Correction officers found that cardboard had been shoved into the tracks of Hernandez's cell door to prevent the door from opening. Hernandez also had put shampoo on the floor to make it slippery, the report states.

Once the correction officers got inside the cell, they found Hernandez hanging from a bed sheet tied around the window bars.

The officers and medical staff performed CPR, but Hernandez never regained consciousness. He later was pronounced dead at a hospital.