Who Was Sahel Kazemi? The McNair Shooting and Police Findings

Sahel Kazemi was a 20-year-old Iranian-born refugee and Nashville waitress who, on July 4, 2009, was found shot to death alongside former NFL quarterback Steve McNair in a condominium McNair rented in the city. The Metro Nashville Police Department concluded she had shot McNair four times as he sat on a sofa and then killed herself with a single shot to her right temple.¹ She was known to friends as Jenni. Her family and a small group of independent investigators have disputed that conclusion ever since.

A Refugee Childhood From Tehran to Jacksonville

Kazemi was born in Tehran into a Baha’i family, a religious minority that has faced systematic persecution in Iran.² She was one of five children. Her older sister Azadeh had been barred from Iranian universities because of the family’s faith and had already relocated to Australia, and the family’s plan was for Sahel and her mother Ghodsyeh to follow.

That did not happen. On the day they were packed to leave, Ghodsyeh went home alone while nine-year-old Sahel stayed to play at another sister’s house. Ghodsyeh was killed during a robbery or home invasion. When police arrived, they reportedly left abruptly on learning the family was not Muslim.²

Kazemi eventually left Iran for Turkey and spent roughly two years there before arriving in the United States on August 29, 2002, as a 13-year-old refugee.² She settled in Jacksonville, Florida, with her older sister Soheyla, who became her legal guardian and later said she had raised Sahel as a daughter.³ She attended Englewood High School and Orange Park High School but dropped out. A relative later described behavioral difficulties during her teenage years.⁴

Moving to Nashville and Meeting McNair

At 16, Kazemi left Jacksonville for Nashville with her boyfriend, Keith Norfleet.² She worked multiple jobs, including as a waitress at a Dave & Buster’s restaurant. It was there, in December 2008, that she met Steve McNair; his family had been regular customers.⁵

By early 2009 the two had begun a secret affair. They met at a Nashville condo McNair rented with a friend and traveled together to Florida, California, Hawaii, Las Vegas, and McNair’s farm in Mississippi.⁵ For her 20th birthday in May 2009, McNair co-signed her purchase of a black Cadillac Escalade.⁶

Kazemi told relatives she believed McNair was going to divorce his wife, Mechelle, and marry her. She told her nephew Farzin Abdi that the divorce would be finalized soon, and her sister Soheyla said Kazemi told her they were “planning to get married.”³ Mechelle McNair later said she knew nothing of the affair and that there were no divorce plans. McNair’s security team said he had grown “increasingly annoyed” with the relationship by mid-2009 and had decided to see her less often.⁵

The Days Before the Shooting

Investigators later mapped a stack of pressures that had built up in Kazemi’s life over just a few days. Her roommate was moving out, which was going to leave her responsible for $990 in rent plus utilities. She was behind on payments for a Kia she could not sell and carried an $800 monthly payment on the Escalade.⁴ On July 2 she tried to sell her furniture on Craigslist.

She had also begun to see that she was not the only woman in McNair’s life. She told an acquaintance on July 1 that she had watched another woman leave McNair’s condo and had found used condoms inside. To Keith Norfleet she said, “I know the truth about what he’s doing. … He’s been lying to me the whole time.”⁴

Early on July 2, Kazemi was pulled over for speeding on Broadway in Nashville and arrested for DUI. McNair was a passenger. Dashboard footage later showed her laughing and teasing the officer while a caller identified as “Steve” spoke to her on speakerphone, telling her not to say too much. McNair was not charged, left in a taxi without speaking to her, and later arranged her bail.⁷

That same day, Kazemi bought a loaded 9 mm semiautomatic pistol for $100 from Adrian Gilliam, a 33-year-old convicted felon she had met outside a Nashville club weeks earlier. Gilliam later said she told him she wanted it for protection against prowlers. The sale was illegal on two counts: he was a felon barred from possessing firearms, and federal law prohibits handgun sales by licensed dealers to people under 21.⁸ Gilliam later pleaded guilty in federal court and was sentenced to two and a half years. Police said he was never a suspect in the deaths themselves; cell records placed him 18 miles from the scene.⁹

On July 3, Kazemi sent McNair a string of anxious text messages. At 10:05 a.m.: “Baby I might have a break down Im so stressed.” Later she wrote that she could “hardly breath” and wanted “this pain in my chest to go away.” She asked him to transfer $2,000 to cover cell phone and hospital bills, and he agreed.¹⁰ That evening, during her shift at Dave & Buster’s, she told her manager: “My life is just shit and I should end it.”⁴

What Police Concluded About Her Death

The bodies were found inside the Nashville condo around 1 p.m. on July 4, 2009. McNair had been shot twice in the head and twice in the chest. Kazemi had one gunshot wound to her right temple, and the 9 mm pistol was under her body.¹¹

On July 8, Police Chief Ronal Serpas announced that the deaths were a murder-suicide. In the official account, McNair was seated on the sofa and probably asleep when Kazemi shot him in the right temple, then twice in the chest, and again in the left temple. She then sat down next to him and shot herself.¹ Gunshot residue was found on her left hand, and blood pooling around the weapon was said to be consistent with neither the gun nor the bodies having been moved.⁹ Adrian Gilliam and Keith Norfleet were both eliminated as suspects.

Investigators pointed to the compounding pressures on Kazemi as motive: the money problems, the DUI, and the discovery that McNair was seeing other women. Retired FBI agent Gregg McCrary, analyzing the case for the media, described her as holding a “constricted view of her options” and read the four shots and the position of her body against McNair’s as rage followed by “symbolic possession.”⁴ Lead homicide detective Pat Postiglione said at a December 2009 press conference: “I think she had her mind set on killing the man that she could not live without. She figured if she couldn’t have him then nobody would.”⁹ Police released a 14-page case summary in October 2009 and closed the case that December.¹²

Her Family’s Doubts

Kazemi’s family has never accepted the police account. Her sister Soheyla said days after the deaths, “It’s not true. She loves Steve too much.”³ Her niece Sepidah Salmani said she believed a third person was involved and that Kazemi “would never kill anyone, ever. Or anything. Not even a little bug.”¹³ Friends said she was uncomfortable around guns; her friend Emily Andrews told ESPN that firearms “kind of wigged her out.”²

Her sister Azadeh told ESPN the family believes the truth is “entirely different” from the official conclusions, and said they had received threats and hateful messages: “I’m tired of being judged, tired of defending, tired of everything.”²

The most persistent outside challenge has come from Vincent Hill, a former Metro Nashville officer who left the department in 2006. In 2012, McNair’s mother, Lucille McNair, hired Hill to look into the deaths, reportedly saying, “Vince, I don’t believe that little girl killed my son.”¹⁴ Hill wrote a self-published book, Playbook to a Murder, and filed a 32-page grand jury complaint asking that the case be reopened.¹⁵ He pointed to inconsistencies in statements from Gilliam and from Wayne Neely, the friend who found the bodies; the fact that McNair had only $6 on him when friends said he usually carried thousands; and the argument that a novice with a firearm could not have placed four precise shots on a sleeping man and then killed herself.

The grand jury declined to reopen the case, finding insufficient new evidence.¹⁶ Police spokesman Don Aaron noted that Hill had resigned with disciplinary action pending and had never worked as a detective.¹⁵ A CBS News review found bank records showing Kazemi had more than $2,500 in her account on July 3 after McNair’s transfer, which the network said was “at odds” with the police theory that financial despair drove the killing.¹² Nashville police leadership has held firm. Chief Steve Anderson said: “Without any doubt, I remain confident in the murder-suicide conclusion.”² Postiglione, after his 2013 retirement, put it plainly: “We follow the evidence where it goes. It went to murder-suicide.”¹⁷

Kazemi was buried on July 10, 2009, in a private ceremony at Jacksonville Memory Gardens in Florida. About 30 friends and family members attended the 30-minute service, and cemetery officials barred reporters from the graveside.¹⁸

How Her Story Has Been Retold

Kazemi’s name has resurfaced with each new examination of the case. In 2018, Sports Illustrated released a nine-part podcast, Steve McNair: Fall of a Titan, reported by Tim Rohan, with interviews of Hill and former Nashville detectives Postiglione and Charles Robinson.¹⁹

In August 2024, Netflix released Untold: The Murder of Air McNair, a 58-minute documentary directed by Rodney Lucas and Taylor Ward. It featured former Titans coach Jeff Fisher, who said he has “questioned certain aspects” of McNair’s death, along with Robert Gaddy, Wayne Neely, and Keith Norfleet.²⁰ The filmmakers worked from more than 100 crime scene photos and complete case files provided by Robinson.²¹ Mechelle McNair and Adrian Gilliam both declined to participate. Reviews said the film added little new evidence and mostly revisited the conspiracy theories that have followed the case for more than 15 years.²²

1
WPLN. MNPD Determines Murder-Suicide in McNair Death
2
ESPN. ESPN Outside the Lines Report on Steve McNair and Sahel Kazemi
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Jacksonville.com. Woman Killed With McNair Reportedly Had First Coast Ties
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The Tennessean. Steve McNair Death Anniversary
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People. Who Killed Steve McNair
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NFL.com. Details About McNair’s Relationship With Kazemi Emerge
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CBS News. Caught on Tape: McNair’s Mistress DUI Video
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CBS News. Adrian Gilliam, Man Who Sold Gun That Killed McNair
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CBS News. McNair Case: Many Questions Remain
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CBS News. Sahel Kazemi and Steve McNair Final Texts
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Baltimore Ravens. Details on McNair Murder Come to Light
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CBS News. Cops Stand by McNair Death Conclusion
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NBC Sports. Report: Kazemi’s Family Thinks a Third Person Was Involved
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The Tennessean. Titans Steve McNair Podcast Sports Illustrated
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The Tennessean. Steve McNair Murder: Vincent Hill Podcast
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The Tennessean. Steve McNair, Sahel Jenny Kazemi: Anticipated Marriage
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The Tennessean. Steve McNair Death: Deadly Recall Season Two Premiere
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San Diego Union-Tribune. Family, Friends Mourn McNair’s Girlfriend Kazemi
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The New York Times Athletic. We May Finally Have the Last Word on Steve McNair’s Tragic Death
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The New York Times Athletic. Steve McNair Untold Netflix Documentary
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Sports Business Journal. Netflix Steve McNair Documentary
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The Guardian. Untold: The Murder of Air McNair Review