More news today for you in the Sahel Kazemi/Steve McNair murder mystery.
The TENNESSEAN reports this morning that Kazemi bought a semi-automatic pistol in haste last week - immediately after being bailed out by McNair for her DUI charge in his Escalade. The same pistol was discovered under the body of Kazemi at the crime scene and was used in both shootings.
(Sahel Kazemi, 20-year-old mistress of Steve McNair)
The Nashville paper also notes the generic nature of the condo where killings occured. How it resembled a sterile timeshare. (I think we all know what that means.) Additionally, numerous liquor bottles were found in the dwelling, which of course could indicate alcohol was involved in the crime. Every person who claimed to know Kazemi well has said she was quiet and wouldn’t hurt a fly. You wonder if her personality though would change when fueled by alcohol and the drugs that made her “high” when she was popped for DUI.
It also makes one wonder about what else could’ve been removed from McNair’s condo by friend Wayne Neely, who didn’t report the crime scene to police for an hour after discovering the bodies.
More important though is new, candid comments from Tennessee State Medical Examiner Bruce Levy to the newspaper.
Police still aren’t classifying the deaths as a murder-suicide, though state medical examiner Bruce Levy said it’s a likely scenario based on the evidence. McNair was found dead on the couch with four gunshot wounds — one bullet in each temple, and two in the chest — Levy said. The autopsy showed that three of the shots were fired from at least three feet away. One, to the head, was shot at close range, he said.
We’re also now getting more details about McNair’s whereabouts hours before he was killed. Nashville’s WTVF-TV reports that McNair spent all day fishing with his two sons on the day of his death. That’s somewhat interesting in that McNair’s wife Mechelle has previously claimed she hadn’t seen husband Steve for two days prior to his death.
And the BALTIMORE SUN notes that Kazemi spent the day before the shootings with her ex-boyfriend, Keith Norfleet. That could indicate that she knew her relationship with McNair was on the wane.
The final piece in this puzzle seems to be the forthcoming report on gun residue. If it indicates that Kazemi was the primary handler of the firearm that night, then the case will likely be closed and ruled a murder-suicide. But I’m also still interested to find out why no one in the condo building heard the gun fire that night.
And what about the two bars McNair visited, without Kazemi, the night of his death. McNair reportedly had his life threatened at one of the establishments. We know police are still investigating those matters, and information will mostly likely come to light shortly.
With the evidence that has surfaced, I’m starting to think the rest of the investigation is a formality. But to the credit of Nashville police, they’ve been thorough. A national spotlight certainly helps in that regard.
For real time updates and observations, keep refreshing SbB and bookmark this page. And you can also follow my Twitter for real time observations on the case not included on SbB.
8:47 am on July 7th, 2009
RIP - Steve McNair. But you messed up. You thought you were bigger than you are and fooled around on your wife with a 20 year old crazy Iranian wannabe socialite and you paid the ultimate price for it.
8:50 am on July 7th, 2009
A made for TV movie, The Steve McNair Story
Steve McNair will be played by….?
8:53 am on July 7th, 2009
ok so commnting on the jett jackson myspace, who knows, but he may have been online still when you copied that page. i have had a myspace since october of 04 and know exactly how it works now. the last login does not show up until the moment you log out. so, although you do not see the online now icon, which he could’ve had hidden as i do myself on my myspace, there is a chance he was online still when you copied the page. only time & investigations will tell.
and why would mechelle lie?? shes in on it somehow also, sounds like to me…..this has turned out to be crazy!!!
i can’t wait to hear the end conclusion.
10:14 am on July 7th, 2009
Maybe she got pissed when McNair made her take the fall on the DUI?
11:10 am on July 7th, 2009
Maybe he picked the boys up and she didn’t see him…she could have been out shopping or anything…They were his kids he didn’t have to come look for her to take his kids fishing…
11:52 am on July 7th, 2009
Plenty of men who are divorced or otherwise not living at home might pick up the kids for an outing, without seeing the wife. He probably went to the house and honked, or if he went inside, she wasn’t there. So saying she hadn’t seen him would be true, but I do get the point that she should have mentioned ‘my sons just went fishing with him’ if that were the case, instead of acting like she was clueless as to where he was for two days. Weird.
12:48 pm on July 7th, 2009
Sahel Kazemi is definitely a troublemaker. Now she cannot make more touble and she did not pass the troublemaker DNA to another life. I also did not see her parents or relative show up. It’s God’s plan. God is great!
3:34 pm on July 7th, 2009
first,no one here should judge Mcnair or any other human being.that is for god.i dont know mcnair’s family situation but the reality is people break up and separate all the time.as a divorcee myself,my wife cheated on me and we separated for 2 yrs before getting a divorce.so peolpe get of your morale high horses because NO ONE on this earth is perfect.
6:00 pm on July 7th, 2009
I wouldn’t be surprised if the person who said he ’sold’ Kazemi the firearm wasn’t the same person who picked up her Escalade after the DUI.
It sure is convenient when cops tell you they found your gun on the premises of a double-homicide that you suddenly remember that you sold one of the victims a semiautomatic!!!
6:41 pm on July 7th, 2009
Man, hearing from the Jeezus freaks gets old fast…
12:52 am on July 8th, 2009
bozhogg..I’m curious about the firearm transaction too. I’m assuming the cops didn’t want to name who it was because that person’s life might be endangered by McNair fans. But if turns out Sahel’s ex-boyfriend was involved in the transaction, that would make things interesting. I tend to think he’s involved somehow in the transation, maybe she called him for a name to contact and he steered her to a certain person or maybe it was his gun that he sold to her.
I’m curious if the NPD….1) checked to see if Sahel is right handed or left handed. If she was right handed and her suicide shot was on the left side of her head with the bullet taking a goofy path, then that might make one think twice that she shot herself as the pistol would have had to been held in a really awkard position. I’m assuming rationally that most suicides to the head are done such that the shooter doesn’t contort their arm. Also the cops haven’t said anything about… 2)looking at cell phone, text, or e-mail records of hers, Steve’s, or anybody else relevant to the case, to try and piece things or timelines together. I’m assuming they have. Also am curious if NPD….3) talked to the third person in the Escalade when the DUI happened Thur night to see if that event changed the relationship any. Did Steve freak out and go off on Sahel? Was it no big deal to him? Did he threaten her with breaking things off if she screwed up like that again? etc. etc. Where’s an intrepid reporter when you need one?
This is either a straightforward case following Ockham’s Razor, although with lots of tantalzing traps to make you think otherwise, OR this was a pretty well thought out double murder, set-up to look like a murder-suicide. The powder burns and ballistics are the key, I think. If she had no powder burns on her hand, wow. If she did, it’s case closed, but still with lots of unsolved mysteries (why did nobody hear any shots, in cleaning up the apt before the cops came did Neeley destroy evidence, etc.)
12:38 pm on July 8th, 2009
Steve had two kids before he married Mechelle. He could have been with those kids. He got around.
2:51 pm on July 8th, 2009
what i cannot understand….steve was a strong person….why did he not overpower her with his strength prior to the first shot of the gun……my say…they have it wrong…..the ex and her set up to kill steve…the ex killed steve….then he put one shot into her and placed her fingerprints on the gun and placed the gun under the body…..i dont the small built female could have done this….but the ex looks guilty
2:26 am on July 9th, 2009
maybe Sahel was playing head games with the ex.. and she got the gun then gave it to her ex and talked him into killing mcnair.. then when he shot mcnair reality hit her and she started to freak out so he shot her too..
as far as his friends not calling 911 right away, maybe because they were his good friends, and knowing he was married , when they saw that the mistress was dead to they automatically knew it was going to look so bad for thier friend so they were trying to figure out what to do… it had to be awkward and shocking and horrible all the way around to see that..