NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Text messages show a woman asked
former NFL quarterback Steve McNair to transfer $2,000 into her bank account
hours before police say she shot him to death, then turned the gun on herself.
Nashville police released the text messages Monday night
as part of a case summary and detailed the exchanges between the two hours
before the July 4 murder-suicide.
Sahel Kazemi texted McNair on
July 3 to say she was so stressed she might have a breakdown and asked for money
to pay cell phone bills. One text said she might need to go to a hospital
because she could hardly breathe.
Police say texts show McNair had someone transfer the
money. The texts also show Kazemi meeting McNair at the Nashville condominium
where he was shot. He asked her to leave the front door open for him.
Spokesman Don Aaron said he has been working to summarize
the case for weeks and denied it was a response to a two-part report on CBS' The Early Show questioning the original investigation.
"If anyone has information that needs to come to the
attention of the police department, we'll be happy to receive it as part of this
investigation," Aaron told The Associated Press. "But at this juncture, there
has been nothing uncovered that suggests this is not a murder-suicide."
The CBS report Monday interviewed friends portraying
Kazemi as happy and showed that she had approximately $2,500 in her bank account
at the time of her death.
But the 50 text messages from the cell phones of both
Kazemi and McNair released Tuesday night support the police's contention that
she was spiraling out of control.
Kazemi's texts to McNair talk of her showing furniture
she planned to sell to some people and how she was at a store "trying to fix"
her phone. She wanted to pay bills before going to work. When she said she could
hardly breathe, McNair asked if she wanted him to come over. She said she would
take a nap.
McNair texted her that afternoon, saying he had someone
transfer the money.
Kazemi later texted McNair three times asking to be with
him that night. He said he was having trouble getting his sons to sleep. But at
that time, McNair was seen at a restaurant with friends. Kazemi texted she was
going to his condo. He texted back at 12:38 a.m. that he was on his way and
asked her to open the front door at 12:52 a.m. Kazemi told him at 1:14 a.m. it
was open.
The last text was at 2:23 with Kazemi saying, "I am
going to the store." But police say the message received by McNair's phone
seemed oddly placed in the stream of messages and out of sync. A T-Mobile
specialist told police it could be a service or technical problem that caused a
delay in the delivery of the message.
The summary also details how police checked video
footage from businesses in the area and found a law firm camera caught the
backside of the condo where their bodies were found later July 4. The footage
did not show any suspicious activity or departure in the early hours of that
morning.
Police also list the shift manager at the restaurant
where Kazemi worked who told officers something seemed to be bothering Kazemi on
July 3. Sonya New said she asked Kazemi if everything was all right when the
server told her of her DUI arrest on July 2. The manager also knew of Kazemi's
roommate moving and asked about McNair's divorce.
"And she [Kazemi] just rolled her eyes," New said. At the
end of the conversation, Kazemi said, "My life is just [awful] and I should end
it."
Business was slow that night when Kazemi asked if she
could leave early. She clocked out at 10:07 p.m.
The summary also includes new information from the woman
Kazemi followed from McNair's condo, suspicious that he was involved with
someone else.
Police also say Leah Ignagni confirmed she was dating
McNair and recalled seeing a woman in a black Cadillac Escalade parked outside
his condo two or three weeks before his murder. Ignagni saw the woman follow her
and later saw the Escalade circling her block or parked outside her apartment a
week or two later. A 2007 black Escalade was co-registered both to Kazemi and
McNair.
Ignagni told police McNair visited her around 4 a.m. on
July 2 — a couple hours after Kazemi's arrest — to tell her "Jenni" had been
arrested for DUI. McNair then spent the night of July 2 at Ignagni's apartment
but left early July 3.