Police believe Shayanna Jenkins, the fiancée of Aaron Hernandez, may have attempted to hide evidence and mislead authorities in their investigation of Odin Lloyd's murder.
Investigators searched a storage unit rented in Jenkins name, the Hartford Courant reports. Court documents released on Friday revealed that police searched the storage unit on July 26 because they believed Jenkins made "overt attempts to hide evidence ... and to hinder and mislead" authorities.
Nothing was seized during the search.
Although Jenkins hasn't been charged with a crime, the documents indicate investigators believe she may have had knowledge about what happened to the gun used in the shooting death of Lloyd.
According to the released documents (via the Courant), surveillance video shows Jenkins leaving the basement of their North Attleborough home on June 18 with a trash bag that appears to contain a heavy, "rigid object" resembling a lock box or safe. The footage shows her placing the bag in the trunk of her car and driving away.
She returned 35 minutes later and opened the trunk, which no longer contained the trash bag or "rigid object" seen earlier.
Police believe the trash bag contained the murder weapon, based on information provided by Carlos Ortiz. Ortiz, a suspect charged in connection with Lloyd's death, told police Hernandez put two guns in a box in the basement, shortly after Lloyd's shooting.
The Courant also described a document detailing a conversation between police and Jenkins' sister, Shaneah:
"The records indicate Shaneah Jenkins relayed to investigators a conversation she had with her uncle Azia Jenkins, during which he told her that Hernandez had called his fiancée on June 18 because he wanted weapons taken out of the house. Azia Jenkins said that his niece passed the phone to him and Smith, and that later, the weapons were disposed of 'in the woods.'"
The documents also describe an exchange of "cryptic" text messages between Shayanna and Hernandez, who mentioned a box in the basement an hour before Shayanna carried the trash bag out.
Police haven't declared Shayanna a suspect. Hernandez is being held without bail on a first-degree murder charge.
