Another key point. Aaron Hernandez likely made a split decision to murder out of “paranoia,” rather than planning his slayings, homicide detective Michele Wood theorizes during an exclusive new interview with In Touch. Wood will be collaborating with undercover investigator Don Jackson and veteran NYC police detective Bo Dietl to shed new light on Hernandez’s crimes in the upcoming REELZ limited series Aaron Hernandez’s Killing Fields.
“I think he’s one of those people that just acts out at the moment and it’s one of those situations. It obviously wasn’t planned out because if it was planned out, he wouldn’t have left his body out the way he did. I mean, they found his body right away. This wasn’t some big plot of a murder. It seemed like he was reckless and it seemed like it wasn’t planned,” she says.
While discussing what the late NFL star’s motive could have been for murdering Odin Lloyd on June 17, 2013, Wood examined his drug use and chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is caused by repeated head injuries that he likely suffered as a professional athlete.
The detective speculates that CTE could have played a bigger role in his “mindset” than originally anticipated. “I think he’s crazy. When you smoke leaf it literally makes you crazy and I think he was paranoid, and I think in addition to whatever crisis he was in because of using drugs — the injuries to his head, the CTE, I heard that it was the worst it was ever seen in anyone his age,” Wood tells In Touch.
Even though the reason behind the crime still remains a mystery, Wood made sure to address the rumors that Lloyd knew Hernandez was homosexual. “I think everyone knew he was homosexual and I don’t think he tried that hard to hide it, so to kill his good friend because of that, I don’t think so,” she says.
Hernandez was ultimately convicted of killing Lloyd and sentenced to life behind bars in 2015. Two years later, the former New England Patriots tight end was acquitted of the 2012 killings of two other men, Daniel de Abreu and Safiro Furtado. Not long after, the father of one was found dead in his jail cell at only 27 years old.
Aaron Hernandez’s Killing Fields, a three-hour investigative limited series on the murder and suicide case, premieres on January 18 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on REELZ.
Reporting by Diana Cooper