NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The star quarterback and the waitress met 6 months ago, at a restaurant where she worked and his family often ate. He was married and 16 years older, but she seemed happy and eager to build a life with him.
Steve McNair retired from the NFL last year and was spending time again in Nashville, where he had spent the best years of his career. Sahel Kazemi was 20 years old and swept up: He gave her a Cadillac Escalade for her birthday and took her on trips to Las Vegas and Key West, Fla.
"She just had it made, you know, this guy taking care of everything," her nephew, Farzin Abdi, said yesterday.
They were found dead on the Fourth of July - McNair from two gunshots each to the head and chest, Kazemi from a single shot. Kazemi bought the handgun found under her body less than 2 days before the shooting, police said. They haven't yet linked the weapon to the shootings.
Yesterday, as mourners remembered McNair as the the face of the Tennessee Titans and police continued their investigation, more details of the relationship came to light.
Kazemi appeared confident the pair would last and had introduced her family to McNair, her nephew said. Abdi quoted her as saying that McNair was divorcing his wife and that it would be finalized soon.
"I think she had already put her stuff up for sale on Craigslist," Abdi said.
The first sign of trouble was early Thursday morning. Police stopped Kazemi on Broadway in Nashville. She was driving the Escalade that McNair gave her for her birthday in May.
According to an arrest affidavit, Kazemi had bloodshot eyes and alcohol on her breath. She refused a breath test and told an officer "she was not drunk, she was high." She was charged with DUI.
McNair was with her, but not charged. He later posted her bail.
The two then apparently spent some time apart.
McNair wasn't with Kazemi when she bought the semiautomatic pistol that was found at the scene, police spokesman Don Aaron said. Police declined to release the caliber or the name of the person who sold it.
The next night, McNair was out late with friends, but he and Kazemi got together soon after at a downtown condo within sight of the Titans stadium, a pad McNair shared with a friend. A witness told police the quarterback arrived between 1:30 and 2 a.m. Her car was already there.
When McNair's roommate, Wayne Neeley, got to the condo at midday, what he thought he saw was his friend sitting on the couch and Kazemi lying on the floor. So he went into the kitchen. Then he saw the blood, police said.
Officers said they found a gun under her body. There were no signs of forced entry into the condo. Police labeled McNair's death a homicide Sunday, but said they were reviewing every possibility before labeling Kazemi's death.
Mechelle McNair, his wife of 12 years and mother of two of his four sons born between 1991 and 2004, has been described by police as very distraught and has not commented on it.
No court records of divorce proceedings have surfaced so far. The strongest public evidence that the McNairs might have been estranged is that their 14,000-square-foot Nashville home has been up for sale recently, listed at $3 million.
Some close to McNair - his brother, Fred, and his agent, Bus Cook - have said they knew nothing of Kazemi before the shootings.
Aaron said a solution to the case, now awaiting ballistics and gunpowder residue tests, might not be as neatly resolved as people would like.
"It may be we'll never know exactly why this happened," he said. *
