Married ex-NFL superstar Steve McNair — who was found shot to death next to the body of his girlfriend — had promised her he would get a divorce, her sister has revealed.
But there’s no known record of the former Tennessee Titan filing for a divorce from his wife, Mechelle.
The quarterback was shot twice in the head and twice in the chest, an autopsy showed, and his death has formally been ruled a homicide. His girlfriend, Sahel Kazemi, had a single gunshot wound to her head.
McNair, 36, had vowed to Kazemi, 20, that his marriage “was going to be finished, the whole divorce was going to be done, two weeks from yesterday,” her sister, Sepideh Salmani, told The Tennessean newspaper.
Cops yesterday described evidence supporting the theory of a murder-suicide with Kazemi as the killer — but police refused to rule out other theories about the bloody scene at the Nashville love-shack condo McNair rented with a pal. The autopsy showed McNair, whose body was found on a sofa Saturday afternoon, was shot four times with a semiautomatic pistol, said police spokesman Don Aaron.
Kazemi, whose body was lying on the floor close to McNair, was struck by one bullet.
A semiautomatic pistol was found under her body as cops prepared to move it, police said.
Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were investigating whether the pistol belonged to McNair, who was licensed to carry a gun in the state, according to The Tennessean. He had been busted once with a weapon, although charges were dropped.
There is no doubt McNair, who had four sons, was murdered, but authorities stopped short of ruling Kazemi’s death a suicide. No signs of forced entry were found, and McNair’s friend, who discovered the bodies, had to use a key to enter the condo, police said.
They are not searching for any other suspects but were questioning friends of the couple, as well as Kazemi’s ex-boyfriend.
Salmani insisted: “She would never kill anyone, ever. Or anything. Not even a little bug. I want people to know that . . . I believe there is a third person involved.”
Kazemi was happy dating McNair, a father of four, Salmani told The Tennessean.
The two met at a local Dave & Buster’s restaurant — where Kazemi worked and McNair often took his family.
“He started to talk to her a little,” Salmani said. “They exchanged phone numbers and started dating from there.
“That’s why she was like, ‘OK, now you’re divorcing. We can date,’ ” Salmani said.
Aaron said yesterday that McNair and Kazemi had had a “dating relationship” for months.
Kazemi had been arrested Thursday night for allegedly driving intoxicated in Nashville. She was pulled over in a 2007 Cadillac Escalade registered to her and McNair, who also was in the SUV.
He bailed out Kazemi — who had told cops she was high, not drunk.
Meanwhile, the Web site TMZ posted pictures of the football star smiling at Kazemi as they sat on a boat preparing to go parasailing three months ago. It was not clear where the pictures were taken.
One of Kazemi’s neighbors told The Post that McNair “wasn’t hiding” his relationship with the petite beauty, who openly called him her “boyfriend.”
She said Kazemi occasionally would be dropped off at her residence at 3 a.m. by a limo. Debra Bacher, who moved into the apartment directly below Kazemi’s on Wednesday, said, “I saw her Thursday night when she left out of here between 9 and 10 [o’clock]. It’s like she was mad, and she just slammed off in that” Escalade.
Bacher said she never again saw the Escalade, which cops said was sitting outside McNair’s condo when he got home early Saturday.
Police said they know that before he arrived home that morning, he had visited two local watering holes: the Blue Moon Lagoon and Loser’s Bar and Grill.