Aaron Hernandez was born into a sports dynasty, and he was a star.
Growing up in Bristol, Connecticut, he excelled in football, basketball, and sprint running.
But his idyllic childhood took a turn at the age of 16 in 2006 when his father, a coach who was his inspiration and best friend, died during a routine hernia surgery.
Hernandez left high school in January 2007 to join the University of Florida Gators.
Within months, he was involved in a fight, sucker-punching a restaurant manager. The police report said he ruptured the man’s eardrum.
He was also suspended for marijuana.
And in his sophomore year, he was named in a police report about a club shooting, naming him as one of a few Gator players which triggered the argument.
But despite his run-ins with the law, he was incredibly skilled.
It meant he was able to skip his senior year to go pro in 2010.
He was expected to be the first pick. Ultimately, he was left until the fourth pick, selected by the Patriots. It has since emerged that Hernandez had written a personal letter to the team asking them to draft him – a factor which was likely significant.
And they weren’t disappointed. In 2012, he landed a $40 million contract for his third season.
But he didn’t see that season through.
In June 2013, Hernandez was arrested and charged with the murder of Odin Lloyd, the boyfriend of his fiancee’s sister.
Lloyd was a semi-pro football player. He was found dead in a park on June 17, 2013, with bullet wounds.
On June 28, Hernandez was detained, with an arrest warrant that said he was seen with Lloyd at 2.30am on the day of his murder. Gunshots were heard at around 3.25am, and at 3.29am, surveillance footage showed Hernandez arriving home in his car, which was five minutes from the crime scene.
In April 2015, Hernandez was convicted of first-degree murder, and sentenced to life in prison.
While in prison, Hernandez was charged with another killing – a double murder committed by a drive-by shooting. But in April this year, he was acquitted of both charges.
The next day, he took his own life, and penned three suicide notes, including one to his fiancee Shayanna Jenkins.
They were discovered in the cell were Aaron Hernandez hanged himself, leading investigators to officially declare his death a suicide.
The notes were discovered next to a Bible opened to John 3:16, the same verse that Hernandez had written across his forehead in marker.
That verse reads: ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.’