When the investigation of an 11-month-old double homicide suddenly heated up last week, it appeared that the authorities had tripped into a treasure trove of evidence pointing to Aaron Hernandez.
One week later, however, the case appears to be no closer to being cracked.
Buried at the bottom of a Boston Herald article that points out the significance of Carlos Ortiz meeting with police the day before Hernandez was arrested for killing Odin Lloyd is a quote from Boston mayor Thomas Menino regarding the murders of Safiro Furtado and Daniel Abreu.
“The community has to help us,” Menino said. “The community has to come forward and give us information they know.”
Unless Boston authorities are feigning ignorance for strategic reasons, the stall could mean that Ortiz believed Lloyd had information about the murders, but that Ortiz had no specific information himself. If Ortiz had no personal knowledge about whether Hernandez shot and killed Furtado and Abreu, the case against Hernandez would be essentially starting from scratch.
The end result for Hernandez won’t change, if Ortiz has fully flipped on Hernandez. If Hernandez is convicted of first-degree murder, he will be imprisoned for the rest of his life, without parole.
Of course, that won’t matter to the families of Furtado and Abreu. They deserve to know what happened to those men, and hopefully someday they will.