Funeral for former Patriots star Aaron Hernandez is set for Monday

The funeral of former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez will be Monday at a funeral home in Bristol, Conn.

The private ceremony will be at the O’Brien Funeral Home. The burial will be private.

Hernandez’s family issued this statement Saturday:

“The family of Aaron Hernandez wishes to thank all of you for the thoughtful expressions of condolences. We wish to say goodbye to Aaron in a private ceremony and thank everyone in advance for affording us a measure of privacy during this difficult time.”

Hernandez, who was serving a life sentence for the murder of Odin Lloyd, was found hanged in his Massachusetts prison cell.

Last week Hernandez’s family said it wants to donate his brain to science, but Massachusetts officials were refusing to release it despite turning over the rest of his body to the funeral home.

Hernandez attorney Jose Baez said the family had arranged for Boston University researchers studying brain trauma in athletes to take possession of Hernandez’s brain following the autopsy. The medical examiner released Hernandez’s body Thursday, but Baez says the office has not given them Hernandez’s brain, as initially promised.

Reporters seeking comment from the medical examiner’s office weren’t allowed into the building.

Baez said the family will be seeking an independent autopsy.

“If we don’t get answers and answers quickly, we’re going to court,” Baez said in front of the state medical examiner’s office in Boston. “It is literally a destruction of evidence.”

He declined to say whether he or the family believed brain damage from Hernandez’s playing days led the 27-year-old former Patriot to kill himself.

Authorities on Thursday clamped down on releasing more details about Hernandez’s death.