Connecticut town prepares for Aaron Hernandez funeral

BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) - Family and friends of Aaron Hernandez will say their farewells to the former NFL player during a private funeral in his hometown.

Services are scheduled for 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Monday for the former New England Patriots tight end, who was found hanged in his cell in a maximum-security prison in Massachusetts last Wednesday.

Hernandez was serving a life sentence for the 2013 murder of semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd, who was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee, and he had just been acquitted of murder charges in the shooting deaths of two men in Boston in 2012. Hernandez's death was ruled a suicide.

His body arrived Saturday at a funeral home in Bristol, where the services are being held. The burial will be private at an undisclosed location.

Hernandez's family in a statement asked for privacy as they mourn and thanked people for offering condolences.

After the Massachusetts medical examiner ruled the death a suicide, Hernandez's brain was taken to Boston University, where scientists will study it for any signs of repeated trauma suffered during his years of playing football.

A judge on Friday ordered key evidence in the prison suicide preserved, granting a request from Hernandez's fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins Hernandez, so the family can investigate the circumstances of his death.

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