Relatives of Odin Lloyd tell CNN that the homicide victim in the recent New England Patriots former player Aaron Hernandez murder trial, was an easy-going, award-winning athlete with a penchant for jokes and pranks.
The 27-year old semi-pro football player always found reasons to smile. "Everybody in school used to say, like, I was always getting in trouble with my mom because he was always a class clown," his sister, Olivia Thibou, told CNN affiliate WHDH. "Everyone knew him to always make jokes, to laugh. Anybody who knows my brother would say that he's just a funny guy. He's very respectful. He never really disrespected anybody."
Lloyed worked for a landscaping firm while playing football for the Boston Bandits, Boston's oldest semi-professional team and the winner of four championships in the New England Football League, according to the team's official website. Among Lloyd's many trophies at his family home in Dorchester, Mass. is one that reads "MVP" for most valuable player, all on the family's front porch for display during news conferences as the family pressed investigators to tell them who killed Lloyd.
On June 17, Lloyd's body was found riddled with gunshot wounds a secluded area of an industrial park near Hernandez's house, discovered by a passing jogger. Later on the scene, investigators discovered five shell casings, as well as a wallet and keys to Hernandez's rental car in Lloyd's pocket. Llyod was dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancée, Thibou told CNN. Several days before his death, she said her brother and Hernandez went to a Boston nightclub together.
Hernandez pleaded not guilty to his charge of first-degree murder. The investigation is still ongoing.
"Since last week, the Bristol Police Department and the New Britain State's Attorney's office have, at the request of authorities in Massachusetts, been assisting in their investigation into the facts and circumstances surrounding the homicide of Odin Lloyd," the New Britain State's Attorney's Office confirmed today in a statement.
A second man, Carlos Oritz, was arrested today in connection to the murder.
