i agree with those who say something doesn't sound right here. hey, maybe she was so distraught that this rich celebrity was breaking up with her that she decided that she just didn't want to live anymore and she wanted to take him with her... i guess it's possible. But that would make her an extreeeeemely disturbed indidual, and I don't think that just happens out of nowhere. I think there would have been signs prior to this happening... past incidents that would have shown her to be somewhat unstable, something. i don't think the police are finding any evidence of anything like that, so maybe they're still suspecting that something else happened here.
maybe she got the gun to protect herself because she was getting threats from McNair's wife? I don't know... just a thought.
i agree with those who say something doesn't sound right here. hey, maybe she was so distraught that this rich celebrity was breaking up with her that she decided that she just didn't want to live anymore and she wanted to take him with her... i guess it's possible. But that would make her an extreeeeemely disturbed indidual, and I don't think that just happens out of nowhere. I think there would have been signs prior to this happening... past incidents that would have shown her to be somewhat unstable, something. i don't think the police are finding any evidence of anything like that, so maybe they're still suspecting that something else happened here.
maybe she got the gun to protect herself because she was getting threats from McNair's wife? I don't know... just a thought.
Her ex's myspace profile:
The first song on his playlist: J5 "I Want You Back"
Three of the four shots to McNair were from some distance, the fourth to his head at close range. The shot to her was with the barrel pressed against her head. The gun she purchased two days prior was the same make as the gun the shots came from. The gun was found under her body.
The ballistics aren't in yet, but this was either a murder/suicide, or somebody's making a hell of an effort to make it look that way.
Tests: McNair's girlfriend had gunpowder on hands By TERESA M. WALKER, AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker, Ap Sports Writer ??? 11 mins ago
NASHVILLE, Tenn. ??? Nashville's assistant medical examiner says gunpowder residue was found on the hands of Steve McNair's girlfriend, who was found dead alongside the slain former NFL star. Assistant medical examiner Feng Li said Wednesday the test results make it even more likely that 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi shot McNair and herself, but he stopped short of confirming it was a murder-suicide.
The two were found dead on Saturday. McNair had been shot four times, while Kazemi had a single gunshot wound to the head. A gun bought two days earlier by Kazemi was found under her body.
Results of ballistics tests on the gun and toxicologies are still pending.
Nashville's police chief is holding a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ??? An associate said Wednesday that the wife of ex-NFL quarterback Steve McNair didn't know about Sahel Kazemi before the 20-year-old woman was found dead alongside her husband on the Fourth of July.
McNair, 36, was shot four times in what the medical examiner has said is likely a murder-suicide, though police haven't confirmed that Kazemi was responsible.
Mike Mu, who has worked with McNair's charitable foundation for years, said Mechelle McNair "didn't know who this girl is."
Mechelle McNair, who has not spoken publicly since the shooting, has been described by people close to her as being very upset and distraught. Agent Bus Cook said McNair's wife was "in and out" of it in the hours after the shooting.
Kazemi's family told reporters that the woman was so confident McNair was divorcing his wife of 12 years that she was preparing to sell her furniture and move in with the former quarterback.
Mu is handling media inquiries for Thursday night's memorial service in Nashville. A funeral service will be held Saturday in Mississippi.
The close friend who reported McNair's death to 911 defended his friend since their days playing football at Alcorn State to The Tennessean. Robert Gaddy, who did not immediately return a text message to his cell phone from The Associated Press on Wednesday, said the the McNairs' Nashville home was on the market because they were looking for a new house.
"People need to quit talking about what they don't know. Mac never said anything to me about he was going to get a divorce, and ever since this has all happened everybody is trying to paint a certain picture and they need to talk about what they know," Gaddy told newspaper.
The four-time Pro Bowl quarterback was being remembered Wednesday at the stadium where he played much of his career. The Tennessee Titans opened LP Field for fans to watch video highlights of McNair's 13-year NFL career, look at photos of the quarterback and had a book for them to write messages that will be given to the family.
The McNairs married in 1997, and Mechelle is the mother of two of his four sons. She met McNair while both were students at Alcorn State, though she also studied nursing in Nashville and became a nurse while he played for the Titans.
Mechelle McNair tended his numerous injuries at home, changing bandages and even helping with intravenous fluids in 2001 when her husband needed I.V. antibiotics for an infection that developed after shoulder surgery. [/b]
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- At just 19 years old, Sahel Kazemi thought she had it all: She was dating former NFL star Steve McNair, partying in VIP rooms and vacationing in Las Vegas.
When her family visited Nashville for her 20th birthday less than two months ago, they said she was very happy and planning to move in with McNair. She thought he was in the final stages of a divorce from his wife of 12 years.
Only there was no divorce. And Kazemi's happiness soon changed into something much darker.
Kazemi was laid to rest Friday in a private, 30-minute ceremony attended by about 30 family members and friends at Jacksonville Memory Gardens. Cemetery officials prevented reporters and photographers from covering the graveside service.
Nashville police say in the days leading up to the murder-suicide, Kazemi saw another young woman leaving the condominium where she and McNair would soon be found dead. Kazemi also was worried about money.
??? 'We've been dating for eight months and we've been on all kinds of vacations, but lately he acts like he doesn't want to spend time with me and I don't know what to do.'
??? -- Vera Mosley Buckner, relating what Sahel Kazemi told her during a conversation
On Thursday, July 2, the same day she was arrested for DUI, Kazemi purchased a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol for $100 from a man in the parking lot of the mall where she worked.
About two weeks before Kazemi killed McNair and herself, police say, she poured out her troubles in a chance meeting with Vera Mosley Buckner, a customer at the Dave and Buster's restaurant where Kazemi worked. The young waitress asked Buckner, a stranger, if she could talk to her.
"She sat down in the booth in front of me and the first thing she said was, 'Have you ever been in love?' " said Buckner, of Decatur, Ala.
Kazemi then opened her heart.
"She said, 'I date Steve McNair.' ... And she said, 'We've been dating for eight months and we've been on all kinds of vacations, but lately he acts like he doesn't want to spend time with me and I don't know what to do.' "
By sometime in the early hours of the Fourth of July, she had made up her mind.
Police say when McNair went to his downtown condo sometime between 1:30 and 2 a.m. on Saturday, Kazemi's car was already there. He was sitting on the sofa, likely asleep, when she shot him twice in the head and twice in the chest. Then she sat down next to him, positioning herself so that she would fall into his lap, and shot herself.
Family and friends were shocked at the news, describing Kazemi as a sweet girl who did not have it in her to kill someone. They also said she would not have wanted to kill herself.
"She was enjoying her life," said her nephew, Farzin Abdi. "She just had it made, you know, [with] this guy taking care of everything."
Abdi said Kazemi, who went by the name "Jenni," met McNair while working as a waitress at Dave and Buster's.
Restaurant manager Chris Truelove said of Kazemi, "She was pretty outgoing. A lot of the guests liked being around her, and she liked being around the guests."
She was also slender and curvy, with long black hair and an olive complexion. Her looks were compelling enough that Buckner's two daughters asked Kazemi to take a picture with them.
Sahel Kazemi apparently met Steve McNair while working as a waitress at a sports bar and restaurant. Kazemi told relatives that she refused McNair's advances at first. But soon they began dating, and before long he was at her apartment a couple of nights a week -- so often that neighbors thought he might be living there.
Abdi says McNair took Kazemi on vacations to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Key West, Fla., and his home state of Mississippi. Pictures of the two parasailing together have surfaced on the celebrity Web site TMZ.com.
All that would have been exciting for any young woman, but it must have seemed unbelievable for Kazemi, who dropped out of high school and moved to Nashville from Florida with a boyfriend at age 17, sometimes working two or three jobs to support herself.
Born in Iran, she and her family were persecuted for their Baha'i faith, Abdi said.
When Kazemi was 9, her mother was murdered, according to an account her ex-boyfriend gave The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville. After that, the family fled to Turkey before settling in Florida.
Despite the tragedy of her childhood, she was relentlessly upbeat.
Asked to describe her personality, Abdi said, "She was a very energetic girl. She never got tired. She wanted to have fun all the time."
She was proud of the fact that she did not have to ask her family for money, and from what she told Abdi, McNair also liked her independence.
"He liked her so much because they would go shopping and stuff and she would want to spend her own money," Abdi said. "The reason he said he loves her is because she's not trying to use him like other girls. She was different from other girls he had been with."
But police say Kazemi was spiraling out of control in the days just before killing McNair and taking her own life -- although there was no suicide note.
Police said she had recently begun to suspect McNair was seeing another young woman. Kazemi had even followed that woman home, although she did not confront her.
And she was starting to get into financial trouble. Her roommate had recently moved out, doubling her rent. And she was making payments on a Kia as well as a Cadillac Escalade that she had said was a gift from McNair. The title was in both of their names.
She had been pulled over for DUI in that Escalade two days before the Fourth of July. She had posted an ad on Craigslist to sell her furniture because, according to Abdi, she planned to move in with McNair.
Later that Thursday, Kazemi bought the gun. According to police, the next day she told an associate, "My life is a ball of s--- and I should just end it."
That may be the last clue as to what motivated her actions after she left work early and ended up at McNair's condo.
As police chief Ronal Serpas said, "It will never be known exactly what was on Kazemi's mind early Saturday morning."
Comments
WW
maybe she got the gun to protect herself because she was getting threats from McNair's wife? I don't know... just a thought.
Her ex's myspace profile:
The first song on his playlist: J5 "I Want You Back"
Three of the four shots to McNair were from some distance, the fourth to his head at close range.
The shot to her was with the barrel pressed against her head.
The gun she purchased two days prior was the same make as the gun the shots came from.
The gun was found under her body.
The ballistics aren't in yet, but this was either a murder/suicide, or somebody's making a hell of an effort to make it look that way.
sounds to me like she was afraid of someone...crazy ex or Mcnair's wife
What if Steve really did tell wifey he was leaving ? She has enough money to send some folks over there
not saying murder-suicide isn't possible ..obviously this young girl was a bit looney ...just seems a little fishy
By TERESA M. WALKER, AP Sports Writer Teresa M. Walker, Ap Sports Writer ??? 11 mins ago
NASHVILLE, Tenn. ??? Nashville's assistant medical examiner says gunpowder residue was found on the hands of Steve McNair's girlfriend, who was found dead alongside the slain former NFL star. Assistant medical examiner Feng Li said Wednesday the test results make it even more likely that 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi shot McNair and herself, but he stopped short of confirming it was a murder-suicide.
The two were found dead on Saturday. McNair had been shot four times, while Kazemi had a single gunshot wound to the head. A gun bought two days earlier by Kazemi was found under her body.
Results of ballistics tests on the gun and toxicologies are still pending.
Nashville's police chief is holding a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) ??? An associate said Wednesday that the wife of ex-NFL quarterback Steve McNair didn't know about Sahel Kazemi before the 20-year-old woman was found dead alongside her husband on the Fourth of July.
McNair, 36, was shot four times in what the medical examiner has said is likely a murder-suicide, though police haven't confirmed that Kazemi was responsible.
Mike Mu, who has worked with McNair's charitable foundation for years, said Mechelle McNair "didn't know who this girl is."
Mechelle McNair, who has not spoken publicly since the shooting, has been described by people close to her as being very upset and distraught. Agent Bus Cook said McNair's wife was "in and out" of it in the hours after the shooting.
Kazemi's family told reporters that the woman was so confident McNair was divorcing his wife of 12 years that she was preparing to sell her furniture and move in with the former quarterback.
Mu is handling media inquiries for Thursday night's memorial service in Nashville. A funeral service will be held Saturday in Mississippi.
The close friend who reported McNair's death to 911 defended his friend since their days playing football at Alcorn State to The Tennessean. Robert Gaddy, who did not immediately return a text message to his cell phone from The Associated Press on Wednesday, said the the McNairs' Nashville home was on the market because they were looking for a new house.
"People need to quit talking about what they don't know. Mac never said anything to me about he was going to get a divorce, and ever since this has all happened everybody is trying to paint a certain picture and they need to talk about what they know," Gaddy told newspaper.
The four-time Pro Bowl quarterback was being remembered Wednesday at the stadium where he played much of his career. The Tennessee Titans opened LP Field for fans to watch video highlights of McNair's 13-year NFL career, look at photos of the quarterback and had a book for them to write messages that will be given to the family.
The McNairs married in 1997, and Mechelle is the mother of two of his four sons. She met McNair while both were students at Alcorn State, though she also studied nursing in Nashville and became a nurse while he played for the Titans.
Mechelle McNair tended his numerous injuries at home, changing bandages and even helping with intravenous fluids in 2001 when her husband needed I.V. antibiotics for an infection that developed after shoulder surgery.
[/b]
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/09/sports/football/09mcnair.html?ref=sports
...or is it?!
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- At just 19 years old, Sahel Kazemi thought she had it all: She was dating former NFL star Steve McNair, partying in VIP rooms and vacationing in Las Vegas.
When her family visited Nashville for her 20th birthday less than two months ago, they said she was very happy and planning to move in with McNair. She thought he was in the final stages of a divorce from his wife of 12 years.
Only there was no divorce. And Kazemi's happiness soon changed into something much darker.
Kazemi was laid to rest Friday in a private, 30-minute ceremony attended by about 30 family members and friends at Jacksonville Memory Gardens. Cemetery officials prevented reporters and photographers from covering the graveside service.
Nashville police say in the days leading up to the murder-suicide, Kazemi saw another young woman leaving the condominium where she and McNair would soon be found dead. Kazemi also was worried about money.
???
'We've been dating for eight months and we've been on all kinds of vacations, but lately he acts like he doesn't want to spend time with me and I don't know what to do.'
???
-- Vera Mosley Buckner, relating what Sahel Kazemi told her during a conversation
On Thursday, July 2, the same day she was arrested for DUI, Kazemi purchased a 9 mm semiautomatic pistol for $100 from a man in the parking lot of the mall where she worked.
About two weeks before Kazemi killed McNair and herself, police say, she poured out her troubles in a chance meeting with Vera Mosley Buckner, a customer at the Dave and Buster's restaurant where Kazemi worked. The young waitress asked Buckner, a stranger, if she could talk to her.
"She sat down in the booth in front of me and the first thing she said was, 'Have you ever been in love?' " said Buckner, of Decatur, Ala.
Kazemi then opened her heart.
"She said, 'I date Steve McNair.' ... And she said, 'We've been dating for eight months and we've been on all kinds of vacations, but lately he acts like he doesn't want to spend time with me and I don't know what to do.' "
By sometime in the early hours of the Fourth of July, she had made up her mind.
Police say when McNair went to his downtown condo sometime between 1:30 and 2 a.m. on Saturday, Kazemi's car was already there. He was sitting on the sofa, likely asleep, when she shot him twice in the head and twice in the chest. Then she sat down next to him, positioning herself so that she would fall into his lap, and shot herself.
Family and friends were shocked at the news, describing Kazemi as a sweet girl who did not have it in her to kill someone. They also said she would not have wanted to kill herself.
"She was enjoying her life," said her nephew, Farzin Abdi. "She just had it made, you know, [with] this guy taking care of everything."
Abdi said Kazemi, who went by the name "Jenni," met McNair while working as a waitress at Dave and Buster's.
Restaurant manager Chris Truelove said of Kazemi, "She was pretty outgoing. A lot of the guests liked being around her, and she liked being around the guests."
She was also slender and curvy, with long black hair and an olive complexion. Her looks were compelling enough that Buckner's two daughters asked Kazemi to take a picture with them.
Sahel Kazemi apparently met Steve McNair while working as a waitress at a sports bar and restaurant.
Kazemi told relatives that she refused McNair's advances at first. But soon they began dating, and before long he was at her apartment a couple of nights a week -- so often that neighbors thought he might be living there.
Abdi says McNair took Kazemi on vacations to Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Key West, Fla., and his home state of Mississippi. Pictures of the two parasailing together have surfaced on the celebrity Web site TMZ.com.
All that would have been exciting for any young woman, but it must have seemed unbelievable for Kazemi, who dropped out of high school and moved to Nashville from Florida with a boyfriend at age 17, sometimes working two or three jobs to support herself.
Born in Iran, she and her family were persecuted for their Baha'i faith, Abdi said.
When Kazemi was 9, her mother was murdered, according to an account her ex-boyfriend gave The Tennessean newspaper in Nashville. After that, the family fled to Turkey before settling in Florida.
Despite the tragedy of her childhood, she was relentlessly upbeat.
Asked to describe her personality, Abdi said, "She was a very energetic girl. She never got tired. She wanted to have fun all the time."
She was proud of the fact that she did not have to ask her family for money, and from what she told Abdi, McNair also liked her independence.
"He liked her so much because they would go shopping and stuff and she would want to spend her own money," Abdi said. "The reason he said he loves her is because she's not trying to use him like other girls. She was different from other girls he had been with."
But police say Kazemi was spiraling out of control in the days just before killing McNair and taking her own life -- although there was no suicide note.
Police said she had recently begun to suspect McNair was seeing another young woman. Kazemi had even followed that woman home, although she did not confront her.
And she was starting to get into financial trouble. Her roommate had recently moved out, doubling her rent. And she was making payments on a Kia as well as a Cadillac Escalade that she had said was a gift from McNair. The title was in both of their names.
She had been pulled over for DUI in that Escalade two days before the Fourth of July. She had posted an ad on Craigslist to sell her furniture because, according to Abdi, she planned to move in with McNair.
Later that Thursday, Kazemi bought the gun. According to police, the next day she told an associate, "My life is a ball of s--- and I should just end it."
That may be the last clue as to what motivated her actions after she left work early and ended up at McNair's condo.
As police chief Ronal Serpas said, "It will never be known exactly what was on Kazemi's mind early Saturday morning."
I take back what I said in the "eau de toilette" thread!