Massachusetts

Funeral Plans Announced in Connecticut for Aaron Hernandez

"We wish to say goodbye to Aaron in a private ceremony and thank everyone in advance for affording us a measure of privacy during this difficult time," his family said in a statement

Funeral plans for Aaron Hernandez were announced on Saturday, the same day his body was moved from a funeral home in Watertown, Massachusetts, to his hometown in Bristol, Connecticut.

According to a press release by the Connecticut Funeral Directors Association, the private wake for Hernandez will be held on Monday at the O'Brien Funeral Home in Bristol from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Attendance will be by invitation only and burial will be private at the convenience of the family.

Hernandez's family released a statement for the public's "thoughtful expressions of condolences."

"We wish to say goodbye to Aaron in a private ceremony and thank everyone in advance for affording us a measure of privacy during this difficult time," the statement read.

The body of the former New England Patriots tight end was prepared at the Faggas Funeral Home in Watertown after an independent autopsy was performed and a judge granted his family's request to preserve all evidence related to his suicide. His brain is currently being studied at the Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) Center at Boston University and his body was then transferred to Connecticut on Saturday.

The state medical examiner said the cause of death was asphyxia by hanging, according to Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr.

Hernandez, 27, was serving a life sentence for murder and just last week was acquitted in two other killings before he hanged himself Wednesday with a bed sheet attached to his cell window at the Souza Baranowski Correctional Center in Shirley, Massachusetts.

About an hour after he was found, Hernandez was pronounced dead at UMass-Memorial Health Alliance Hospital in Leominster, according to a statement from the Massachusetts Department of Correction. He was in a single cell in a general population unit in the maximum-security state prison.

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