Former Tennessee Titans quarterback and 2003 NFL co-MVP Steve McNair is dead. The 36-year-old McNair was found shot to death in a downtown Nashville condominium this afternoon with multiple wounds to his body and head. Found next to him was the body of 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi, a local waitress whom McNair had met fairly recently. Kazemi had a single gunshot wound to her head. Nashville police will autopsy the bodies Sunday in an effort to discern the exact means and sequence of cause of death. Speculation already swirls in Nashville that this was a murder-suicide, though there are many yet unanswered questions about the personal situations involving McNair, Kazemi, Kazemi’s recent ex-boyfriend Keith Norfleet, and two of McNair’s associates.
The bodies were discovered by McNair friend Wayne Neely, who possibly rented the same condominium with McNair, or another one nearby. According to the Tennessean online, the condominium in question, at 105 Lea Avenue, is registered to Charles Cardwell, who is the Metropolitan Trustee in charge of levying property taxes. Exact ownership is only speculative at this time.
Apparently, Neely did not call police immediately upon discovering the crime scene. Instead he contacted another McNair associate, Robert Gaddy, who arrived at the scene, and then police were called, with approximately one half hour of time elapsed.
The McNair case already takes on the drama of a TV cop show. Apparently, McNair, long married and the father of four sons, had recently purchased a 2007 Cadillac Escalade for Kazemi, of Middle Eastern descent (possibly Iranian) and 16 years his junior. The car, registered jointly in both McNair’s and Kazemi’s names—possibly for insurance reasons or because of the way the car was paid for—was pulled over by a patrol car on Thursday night, July 2, in downtown Nashville. Kazemi was cited for driving under the influence (DUI) and arrested after refusing to submit to a breath test, but not before McNair, presumably wanting to avoid embarrassment and publicity, removed himself from the vehicle and hailed a cab to make his getaway. Kazemi was taken to lockup and apparently called Norfleet, who later picked up the car. Meanwhile, McNair bailed Kazemi out of jail. Tennesseean reports loosely quote Norfleet as claiming that he was “worried” about Kazemi having an affair with a married man. Previously, Kazemi had lived four years with Norfleet in Jacksonville, Fla., which means she’d’ve been 16 when she began that cohabitation situation.
Kazemi apparently has known McNair for less than five months. She met him while waiting tables at the Dave & Busters restaurant in the Opryland area.
Nashville TV reporters have been trying to elicit information from police with only mostly speculative results. It is not known yet exactly when the shootings took place, and police have not revealed if other condo dwellers at the site might’ve heard anything long before the bodies were found.
A single pistol was found at the scene near Kazemi’s body, thus spurring the murder-suicide speculation, though if Kazemi, as her ex-boyfriend hinted, was considering breaking off her relationship with McNair, it begs the question why she would shoot him first and then kill herself.
Apparently the Escalade in question was towed by police from the crime scene, along with another black SUV, possibly a Ford Expedition.
Police spokesman Don Aaron broke off a late evening press conference with electronic reporters, stating that until the autopsies are completed, no more official reports will be given on the case.
Area map: http://www.zillow.com/homes/map/105-lea-avenue,-nashville,-tn_rb/#/homes/for_sale/map/105-lea-avenue,-nashville,-tn_rb/36.156305,-86.769222,36.15433,-86.772226_rect/17_zm/
2 comments:
When in doubt, check Myspace. One need only check out Norfleet's and one of his friend's pages for some answers. Particularly one would question how his friend could send a RIP to Kazemi two days before her death. Note the last log-in date of 7/02:
http://www.myspace.com/postedinthaoch
Norfleet's Myspace features "I Want You Back" by MJ, and an telling "warning": "never let anyone or anything come in between you and the one you love because when you do you lose everything."
......And now that particular account has been cancelled.Someone needs to alert the Tennessee Police to this immediately. It was there this morning because I read it too. It also had some negative remarks about McNair.
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