Former NFL star Steve McNair was murdered by his mistress Sahel Kazemi: Deadly Recall investigates

Steve McNair was a former NFL quarterback who had plied his trade mostly with the Houston Oilers, who later became the Tennessee Titans. He also spent time with the Baltimore Ravens.

On July 4, 2009, he was gunned down in an apartment in Nashville within view of the Titans stadium, where McNair spent most of his 13-seasons.

He was found by a close friend shot dead in a condominium complex along with a young woman. McNair had been shot four times, twice in the head and twice in the chest. The woman had a single shot to the temple.

It would later transpire that the young woman was his mistress, 20-year-old Sahel Kazemi, and she had murdered the former Titan before turning the gun on herself.

Police believe the 36-year-old former NFL star was likely sleeping on a sofa when Kazemi turned the gun on him. She then fired one shot into her head. Her body was found lying next to McNair. She had purchased the pistol just two days earlier.

Police believe that Kazemi was struggling financially; on the day he was murdered, McNair had agreed to transfer $2,000 to his mistress. However, the cops think she was becoming more and more desperate and that she also feared her relationship with McNair was coming to an end.

Sahel Kazemi believed Steve McNair was cheating on her

Kazemi had told friends that she believed McNair, who was already a married father of four, was seeing yet another woman on the side. McNair’s wife said she was unaware of any other women.

McNair was leading something of a double life; he did have a second mistress, 25-year-old Leah Ignagni, on the side. The apartment in which he died was rented by McNair and his friend as a place they could bring young women away from the prying eyes of their families.

Friends of Kazemi said that her relationship with McNair had become increasingly troubled and that she had followed a woman leaving McNair’s home.

More from Investigation Discovery.

Follow the links to read about more murders profiled on ID.

In another case involving a high profile NFL player, Aaron Hernandez had just signed a $40 million contract with the New England Patriots when he was accused of murdering his friend Odin Lloyd. He subsequently hanged himself with a bedsheet in his cell.

An ID Murder Mystery examined the case of three murdered 8-year old cub scouts who were hogtied and left in an Arkansas ditch. Instead of finding justice for the three boys, authorities scapegoated and convicted three teenagers in a blatant miscarriage of justice.

Watch Deadly Recall on April 15, at 10/9c on Investigation Discovery.