Naman Shrestha
In 2009, when a couple of friends found the legendary former NFL quarterback, Steve McNair, dead in his Nashville condominium, the entire community was left shell-shocked. What made the case all the more complicated was the fact that another body lay right in front of the couch where his body was found. The authorities identified this other victim to be Sahel “Jenni” Kazemi, who was deemed to be the killer. Netflix’s ‘Untold: The Murder of Air McNair’ is a documentary film about the rise and tragic death of the former NFL superstar, detailing all aspects of his demise. Helmed by the duo of Rodney Lucas and Taylor Alexander Ward, the documentary also focuses on the perpetrator, Sahel, sparking more questions about her motives.
Iran Native Sahel “Jenni” Kazemi Was Steve McNair’s Girlfriend
Born and raised in Tehran, Iran, Sahel “Jenni” Kazemi lost her mother when she was only nine years old. A few years after the tragedy, she moved away from Iran and tried to start afresh in Jacksonville, Florida. At 16, she moved to Nashville and started dating Keith Norfleet, aged 20. By December 2008, their relationship had come to an end, and she met Steve McNair, the former NFL player, at her workplace — the Dave & Busters at Opry Mills. It didn’t take long for the two to start seeing each other, despite the latter being married to Mechelle for more than ten years.
As they got closer, Sahel and Steve went on trips to Las Vegas as well as Florida before also meeting each other’s loved ones. As per reports, her friends and family were informed that he was in the process of getting a divorce and planning to marry his younger girlfriend. On her 20th birthday, in May 2009, the couple even co-signed on a black 2007 Cadillac Escalade. Soon, she found herself in the middle of a financial crisis as her roommate moved out of their shared apartment, leaving her to cover the full rent. Moreover, the payments on the new car, as well as her old car, put significant pressure on her.
What made the situation even worse was when she found used condoms in Steve’s apartment on July 1, 2009, discovering that he had been seeing other women behind her back. With her life slowly falling apart, she even got in trouble with the law on July 2 while being the one behind the wheel, with Steve in the passenger seat and one of his friends in the back seat. Refusing to take a breath test, she was taken into custody for DUI charges, and the other two passengers were allowed to leave the scene. Later, the former NFL player bailed his girlfriend out of jail, but she got angry as he did not pick her up.
Infidelity and Money Problems Supposedly Led Sahel to Break
The following day, Sahel “Jenni” Kazemi reached out to a convicted killer named Adrian Gilliam for the purchase of a gun. After much persistence, she convinced him to come by Dave & Buster’s and sell her the gun between 5 pm and 6 pm. After getting her hands on the lethal weapon, she texted Steve and asked him to meet her. When they met in Steve’s Nashville condominium on July 4, 2009, she reportedly shot him four times, twice on the body and twice in his head, before sitting next to him and shooting herself in the head. When the authorities arrived at the crime scene, they found her body on the floor in front of the 36-year-old former athlete.
According to the Metro Nashville Police Department investigators, the stressful issues on the relationship front and money front supposedly drove Sahel to execute this murder-suicide. Still not entirely sure of the motive, Police Chief Ronal Serpas stated, “We may never know exactly what drove Miss Kazemi to make that decision on that Saturday morning.” A retired FBI Agent named Gregg McCrary also gave his opinion on the case to The Tennessean, “It’s the compilation I think of all those sorts of stressors that probably was the precipitating factor – the confluence of all that – that led up to this tragedy,” he said. “I think it seems to be a pretty clear picture of a woman who was pretty stressed.”
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