The Aaron Hernandez Investigation

Aaron Hernandez (Wikimedia, Jeffrey Beall)

It feels a little futile to begin with a post about a case as big as the investigation into former New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, whom police believe may have killed one man and been somehow involved in the murder of two others. Boston media is covering the case non-stop and since moving to New England I've developed a healthy respect for the Boston news machine. Much of the time both TV and print seem provincial and a little fluffed-out here, but when big stories like the Marathon Bombings or the Hernandez case pop, Boston press crank up their game and do an amazing job--if a New England story is big enough to merit cable news coverage I usually ignore the cable nets and staying with local TV and social media updates from reporters for the Herald and Boston Globe.

Still, it's impossible to ignore Aaron Hernandez's shocking fall from the pinnacle of NFL stardom to a jail cell in North Attleborough.

So--Hernandez remains jailed on multiple firearms charges as well as charges he murdered pro-am football player Odin Lloyd in an industrial park near his home on June 17, 2013. Police have also arrested Carlos Ortiz, age 27. Police say Ortiz was a fugitive from justice. Authorities are still looking for a third man, Ernest Wallace, age 41.

Boston police were at Aaron Hernandez's North Attleborough residence overnight on Thursday, apparently seeking evidence tying Hernandez to a drive-by shooting that followed an altercation at a Boston nightclub in July of 2012. WBZ reports:

Daniel Jorge Correia de Abreu, 29, and Safiro Teixeira Furtado, 28, both of Dorchester, were killed when someone fired at the BMW they were in near the corner of Herald Street and Shawmut Avenue.

Another person was wounded in that incident. The shots were allegedly fired from a gray SUV with Rhode Island license plates.

The kicker? The Boston Globe has reported that "officials" think the true reason Odin Lloyd was killed was he "knew [Hernandez] might have been involved" in the deaths of Abreu and Furtado.

This level of intrigue is what separates the Hernandez case from many other crimes involving pro athletes, even the various crimes and alleged crimes of O.J. Simpson.

What makes Hernandez tick, if he is guilty of any of these crimes? Watching his blank-faced, calm demeanor in the courtroom it's hard to not think he is either a cold-blooded psychopath or--as the many die-hard fans who have flocked to the North Attleborough court to support him surely hope--utterly sure of his innocence.

In the past it would have been easy to conclude he's a stone-cold killer, given the nature of the charges.

But that's the thing about crime and certainly about big cases like this: nothing is ever remotely that simple.

*Edited to add a link regarding further investigation at Hernandez's home on Thursday night.