BOSTON – Three search warrants have been issued in connection with the investigation into a homicide near the home of Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez, a court clerk said Friday.

Hernandez was gone from his home for most of the day Friday, including when two state police officers knocked on his door. He returned home with his lawyer around 5 p.m.

The warrants have not been returned and are not public. Warrants must be returned within seven days.

Attleboro, Mass., court clerk Nancy E. Clarke said she couldn’t comment on where the warrants were intended to allow investigators to search.

Attleboro circuit court clerk Mark Sturdy said no arrest warrant for Hernandez was issued out of that court.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Sturdy said. Clarke said no arrest warrant has been issued for Hernandez in the state.

“If it was issued anywhere in the state it would show up,” said Clarke. “There’s only three clerks here, we all talk to each other. No warrant has been issued.”

Hernandez’s North Attleboro home was searched by investigators earlier this week after the body of a 27-year-old Dorchester man, Odin L. Lloyd, was found Monday night in an industrial park less than a mile from Hernandez’s $1.3 million mini-mansion. The death was ruled a homicide.

Just before noon Friday, two state troopers delivered papers to Hernandez’s house, which was quiet aside from a scrum of media. A few minutes earlier a gift order of fruit was delivered.

Hernandez was booted from Gillette Stadium on Thursday when he showed up for a workout, according to a source close to the team.

A week ago Friday, Hernandez and Lloyd sat together at a VIP table at Rumor, a Boston Theatre District nightspot, reveling around a roped-off table with hangers-on, Rumor nightclub manager Thomas Moore said.

Investigators probing Lloyd’s homicide reviewed surveillance tapes from the club that night, sources said. A spokeswoman for Bristol District Attorney Sam Sutter, who is heading the probe, declined to comment Friday, except to say the investigation is “fluid and very active.”

Moore said he wasn’t at the club when police reviewed the surveillance tapes and was unsure what investigators looked at. He said Hernandez is an occasional customer at the club, a hot spot for Boston pro athletes.

“He’s been here a few times,” Moore said. “All of the players come in.”

Hernandez refused to speak with reporters at a gas station Thursday, and his lawyers at the firm of Ropes & Gray didn’t respond to multiple inquiries.

Meanwhile, Hernandez was issued a summons Thursday out of federal court in Florida, after a former friend re-filed a lawsuit claiming Hernandez shot him in the face after a spat at a Miami strip club in February.

Family members said Lloyd was never in trouble.

“I want the person that killed my son to be brought to justice,” said Lloyd’s mother, Ursula Ward. “That’s my first-born child, my only boy child, and they took him away from me. I wouldn’t trade him for all the money in the world. And if money could bring him back I would give this house up to bring my son back. Nothing can bring my son back.”

Family members said they heard from Lloyd’s girlfriend but not from Hernandez after the death. They are awaiting an arrest.

“We’re just hoping for justice,” said his cousin, Marsha Martin. “We don’t want Odin to have died in vain.”

The family also bristled at media reports speculating drugs were somehow part of the case.

“I hear it on the news and it hurt us. He’s not a drug dealer,” said a cousin who identified herself only by her first name, Camela. “He was loved. He was loved. He was loved and we need justice.”

Hernandez’s lawyer, Michael Fee, has acknowledged media reports about the state police search of Hernandez’s home but said he wouldn’t comment.

A Patriots spokesman said the team doesn’t anticipate commenting during the investigation. Commissioner Roger Goodell was waiting for the legal process to take its course.

CytoSport, a Benicia, Calif.-based company that makes Muscle Milk and other supplements for athletes, said Friday it was ending Hernandez’s endorsement contract because of the investigation.

The Patriots drafted Hernandez out of Florida in 2010. Since then he has combined with Rob Gronkowski to form one of the top tight end duos in the NFL. He missed 10 games last season with an ankle injury and had shoulder surgery in April but is expected to be ready for training camp.

Last summer the Patriots gave him a five-year contract worth $40 million.

Hernandez said after he was drafted that he had failed a drug test while with the Gators and had been upfront with NFL teams about the issue.

 

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