If there's anything going on in and around the courtyard at 599 Old West Central Street, she's watching. At 67, the former college biology professor still has the keen eyes that could scan a classroom and spot a troublemaker in an instant.
So, when police said that Carlos Ortiz told them that "other football players" besides Aaron Hernandez crashed at the apartment next to hers, Bailey shakes her head.
She believes she would know – first, because nothing escapes her as the unofficial neighborhood watchdog, and because, well, she would know a football player when she sees one. She rattles off New England Patriots players' names, and talks about OTAs and workouts from beneath her Red Sox cap.
"I never saw any other players around here," Bailey said Wednesday, the day after Ortiz's statements were revealed in an affidavit for a Florida search warrant. "It was mostly just Aaron Hernandez and George."
George, she said, is Ernest Wallace, who used his middle name when he introduced himself to her when he moved into the apartment in May. Wallace, who "was always smiling," never divulged his last name, she said, and told her that he was moving into the unit "with his cousin," whom he never named.
The "cousin" turned out to be Aaron Hernandez.
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On those days, Hernandez and Wallace would arrive between 4 and 4:30 p.m., she said, in a white Chevy Suburban, driven by Wallace. They would park next to the building and hang out in the apartment, but they were quiet tenants. Occasionally, they would sit on the small balcony and drink beer, said Chris Mongillo, who said he doesn't remember seeing women at the apartment.
"It was more of a bachelor pad," he said, but he doesn't remember seeing any other Patriots on the complex's small campus, tucked back into the woods.
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