Back in 2013, New England Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez was arrested for the murder of Odin Lloyd, a friend who was also dating the sister of Hernandez's fiancee.
The case sent the world of professional football reeling, particularly after Hernandez was accused of two additional murders mid-trial.
While it's widely believed that Hernandez killed Lloyd in order to cover up the murders of Daniel De Abreu and Safiro Furtado, he was convicted only in his first trial and acquitted in the second.
Hernandez was in the process of appealing this conviction when he was found dead in his cell inside the Souza-Baranowski Correctional Center in Lancaster, Massachusetts.
He was just 27 years old.
Hernandez's short, tragic life is back in the news this week thanks to the release of a Netflix documentary series entitled Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez.
The series raises a number of startling revelations and largely forgotten theories, including the claim that Hernandez took his own life in part to exploit an obscure Massachusetts law that would enable his fiancee, Shayanna Jenkins, and their daughter to receive millions in salary that were owed to him by the Patriots.
According to abatement laws that are still enforced in the commonwealth, if a defendant dies during his trial, he is ruled non-guilty by default.
Since Hernandez was in the process of appealing his case at the time of his death, he believed that his conviction would be overturned, and the team would be forced to make good on his contract by passing his earnings on to Jenkins.
At first, it looked as though the gambit would pay off, but Lloyd's family fought the court's decision, and Hernandez was re-convicted of murder.
Throughout the documentary, Jenkins was portrayed as a stabilizing force in Hernandez's wildly tumultuous life.
Now, Jenkins is speaking out about the public's reaction to Killer Inside, and while she certainly has reason to be bitter, the mother of two kept her remarks entirely positive:
"I wanted to let all of you sweet sweet souls know I have tried to read every message sent on IG and through email (positive and negative)," Jenkins wrote on instagram.
"The amount of support and positive energy is again unreal! I'm sure you will all understand how imperative it is to take some time away from social media."
The comment -- in which Jenkins appears to announce that she'll be taking a break from social media -- comes on the heels of an earlier, equally optimistic post that appeared on the day of the documentary's release.
"Never forget how far you've come," reads a meme posted by Jenkins on January 15.
"Everything you have gotten through. All the times you have pushed on even when you felt you couldn't.
"All the mornings you got out of bed no matter how hard it was. All the times you wanted to give up but you got through another day. Never forget how much strength you have developed along the way."
Those who know her best say Jenkins continues to mourn for both her fiancee and his victims, and she reportedly bears no ill will toward the Lloyd family for their efforts to keep Hernandez's conviction in place.
Somewhat less gracious was Hernandez's attorney, Jose Baez, who also commented on the documentary this week:
"I don't give a damn about what some lame ass documentary has to say about Aaron," Baez wrote on Instagram.
"I knew him, they did not and while he was far from perfect, they are not even close to the truth."
"People have no idea how documentaries are made, the truth is usually found on the cutting room floor," the lawyer continued.
"These producers lied directly to my face, so I don't expect their money making scheme to be much better."
Others who were featured prominently in the documentary, including Aaron's mother, Terri Hernandez, have thus far remained silent.
Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez is currently streaming on Netflix.
