Prospective Buyers Invited To Tour Aaron Hernandez's Former Home This Weekend
NORTH ATTLEBORO (CBS) - For a buyer who can get past its association with a tragic chapter in New England history, it could be a beautiful home.
The late Aaron Hernandez's North Attleboro house at 22 Ronald C. Meyer Drive goes back on the market this weekend, with a new owner hoping to pass it along.
"I'm hoping, as a new seller, that when people come in, they'll see it more as an upscale house, than just an Aaron Hernandez mansion," said Arif Khan. He is a 24-year-old Patriots fan who bought the property from a bank for a million dollars eight months ago. He spruced it up, and is listing it again for $1.6 million, starting with an open house on Sunday.
It has five bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a salt-water pool, ice tub, theater, and walk-in sauna. The layout is the same as in footage jurors saw throughout the former Patriots star's two murder trials.
There are marks in some walls where investigators took security cameras that caught images of Hernandez and his fiancée, including an infamous photo of him holding an alleged murder weapon in front of the door leading to the basement.
Jurors also saw video of Shayanna Jenkins hauling a trash bag of what prosecutors called key evidence. Khan says he's installed new tile in the salt water pool she walked by. He says he also gutted out the three-car garage where investigators spent hours searching for clues.
There are traces of Hernandez, such as a helmet-shaped chalkboard sticker left on the wall by the basement bar, displaying what may have been his last tic-tac-toe game there.
Almost a year-and-a-half after he took his own life in a prison cell, there are still lawsuits over who will get the money Khan paid for the home, but neighbors are eager for the next sale. "If somebody moves in there, they can certainly have a nice life there," said Olivia Short, who lives around the corner.
She's hoping a new family will help lift the dark cloud over the home, and make way for brighter days.