BLOOMINGTON, Minn. — Despite some national headlines on Tuesday, there does not appear to be a bombshell confession in the O.J. Simpson "trial of the century" sitting in Bloomington, Minnesota.
The Bloomington Police Department issued a statement late Tuesday in response to a report published by TMZ earlier in the day. The report stated the department had a thumb drive which Simpson's former bodyguard claimed contained Simpson's alleged confession to the murders of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and Ronald Goldman.
In a statement to KARE 11, Bloomington PD confirms the department arrested a man named Iroc Avelli on assault charges in March 2022, with investigators collecting a number of items as part of the case, including a backpack containing thumb drives.
More than two years later, in June 2024, BPD confirms it was contacted by detectives from the Los Angeles Police Department stating Avelli and his attorney claimed the thumb drives in BPD custody included an alleged recording of Simpson confessing to the murders. Avelli also filed suit against BPD seeking to have the backpack and thumb drives returned, but was denied by a judge.
In July, Bloomington PD obtained a search warrant to run a forensics analysis on the drives. According to the BPD statement released late Tuesday, "reviewing detectives did not locate any information of evidentiary value for the (Los) Angeles Police Department."
TMZ has also updated its reporting to state that there were no recordings of Simpson on the drives at all, but only recordings of Avelli.
Simpson died in April 2024. He was acquitted in criminal court for the murders following his heavily publicized trial, but later held liable in civil court.
LAPD said the deaths of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman are considered to be a closed case.