NFL Quarterback Steve McNair Was Killed by Sahel Jenni Kazemi — Where Is the Murderer Now?
Steve McNair was a player both on and off the field. It finally cost him his life.
Updated Aug. 20 2024, 9:32 a.m. ET
When NFL quarterback Steve McNair was found dead in an apartment complex in Nashville, Tenn., he was barely into his first year of retirement. The former footballer announced he was leaving the sport that he loved in 2008, and a little over a year later, he was dead. His loved ones were left heartbroken, confused, and angry.
With his murder came a lot of questions and some devastating revelations. In particular, police needed to know the identity of the woman who was also found at the scene of the crime. Where is Sahel Jenni Kazemi now? Here's what we know.
Where is Sahel Jenni Kazemi now? This was a murder-suicide.
According to The Tennessean, Kazemi worked as a server at Dave and Busters at Opry Mills. The 20-year-old would see McNair, who often went to the entertainment facility with friends. Her general manager believes that's where the two met. Kazemi's neighbors would later tell police that McNair visited her at her apartment multiple times. They sometimes heard two people arguing and assumed it was them.
Two days before McNair was killed, Kazemi was arrested and charged with driving under the influence. The black 2007 Cadillac Escalade she was driving was registered to McNair, who later bailed her out of jail. Kazemi's ex-boyfriend was worried about the fact that she was dating a married man. Keith Norfleet and Kazemi dated for four years before ending things a mere five months before McNair's death. It was Norfleet's hope that he and Kazemi would get back together. But that didn't happen.
In July 2009, Kazemi was found in McNair's apartment. After she killed him, she turned the gun on herself and took her own life. His body was on the living room sofa. There were "several gunshot wounds, including one to the head," reported The Tennessean. Kazemi was next to him on the floor.
Leah Ignani was another girl Steve McNair was having an affair with.
McNair had a reputation for being a player, both on and off the field, per NBC News. Kazemi wasn't the only girl he was cheating on his wife with. Leah Ignani, 25, was one of several young women who spoke up after his murder. "He said that they [McNair and his wife] were in the process of divorcing. They had been for the last two years," Ignani told Lester Holt during an interview in August 2009.
Their meetups happened at the very same apartment where McNair would take his last breath. She never liked going there because her friends called it a trap house. "Yeah, that’s where these athletes take their, you know, booties," she explained. Ignani didn't think of herself that way, despite understanding the situation.
Two months later, Ignani would be arrested for two felony drug offenses and one misdemeanor, per CBS News. She was busted trying to sell "150 pills of the prescription painkiller Lortab to a confidential informant who was wearing a wire on Aug. 18, 2009." A search of Ignani's house yielded 20 grams of marijuana.
