NEW MURDER BOMBSHELL!
Almost three years after the football player’s suicide, shocking new information is revealed
Aaron Hernandez seemed unstoppable. At age 20, the football player, who grew up in the working-class neighborhood of Bristol, Conn., was drafted by the New England Patriots, making him the youngest player on the NFL active roster for the 2010 season. Two years later, he signed a record-breaking $40 million contract extension with the team.
But then, in an instant, he threw it all away. On June 26, 2013, Hernandez was charged with first-degree murder for the slaying of Odin Lloyd. Two years later, he was convicted and sentenced to life. But on April 19, 2017 — five days after he was acquitted of the 2012 killings of two other men, Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado — 27-year-old Hernandez’s fate was sealed permanently: He was found hanging by his bedsheets from his jail-cell window in Lancaster, Mass. Now, as so many questions about the complicated life of the former tight end remain unanswered, the worldpremiere television event Aaron Hernandez’s Killing Fields, airing Jan. 18 at 8 p.m. ET on Reelz, is shedding new light on the case — including Hernandez’s struggle with his sexuality. The doc also drops a major bombshell: The late convicted killer may be responsible for another murder.
Hernandez’s cellmate and lover, Kyle Kennedy, reveals, “[Aaron] always used to tell me he had four murders. He’d…joke around saying, ‘I got four bodies.’” In plotting to kill Lloyd, Hernandez allegedly assembled a gang to carry out a drive-by shooting. However, according to one theory, they may have mistakenly killed another man before gunning down Lloyd. Jordan Miller, who reportedly looked similar to Lloyd, was shot in his home in a still-unsolved murder case. “It’s very possible,” says renowned former police detective Bo Dietl, “that they shot the wrong guy that time [thinking he was Lloyd].”
DOUBLE LIFE
So what was Hernandez’s motive for wanting Lloyd dead? Delving into Hernandez’s private world like never before, Killing Fields exposes startling evidence as to why the football player — who left behind a fiancée and 4-year-old daughter — would turn into a cold-blooded killer. The athlete, who was reportedly abused and sexually molested as a child, was tormented by dark secrets.
Though a motive for Lloyd’s murder was never definitively established, it’s believed Lloyd knew of Hernandez’s homosexuality and had access to his confidential health records — information the former Patriots player did not want to get out. Before Lloyd was killed on June 17, 2013, a male stripper named Chad, who was invited to Hernandez’s house to perform for the football player and his friends, says he overheard an agitated Hernandez discussing his meds. “They were talking about, ‘Oh, this guy Odin [stole] my medication. I can’t be having that get out,’” Chad claims, adding that Hernandez said he’d rather go to jail for “murder.”
Assistant District Attorney Jarrett J. Ferentino, who reviewed Hernandez’s medical record requests during his trial, suggests the footballer could have been concealing an STD or HIV diagnosis. And while there shouldn’t be a stigma attached to medications for chronic sexually transmitted illnesses, forensic psychologist Dr. Jeff Gardere believes Hernandez’s profession may have played a role in his paranoia. “Even though we know that being gay is normal, there are a lot of people who still view it as something that needs to be closeted away,” he explains, “especially in professional sports.”
DEADLY INTENTIONS
Since he killed himself, the world may never know with certainty Hernandez’s motive for wanting Lloyd dead. As for Miller’s murder, if Hernandez is responsible, did his cronies pull the trigger — or did Hernandez himself? It doesn’t matter, says detective Dietl: “If you’re working for me and I tell you, ‘Go kill him over there,’ that’s a conspiracy to murder — and you’re as guilty as the person pulling the trigger.” ◼