The wife of slain quarterback Steve McNair may have only learned about the gridiron star's affair with a gorgeous young woman after the clandestine couple's grisly deaths, sources close to the football player said Sunday.
"She's blindsided by this," one source said of Mechelle McNair, who was holed up in her family's home just 6 miles from the condo her husband used to bed his mistress. "She's crushed. Her whole world is shattered."
Nashville cops confirmed that Steve McNair, 36, was killed by four bullets fired at close range, two of which hit him in the head, and ruled his death a homicide.
His lover, Sahel Kazemi, 20, died of a single gunshot from the same semiautomatic found on the floor under her body, police also said.
They stopped short of calling the slayings a murder-suicide carried out by Kazemi, but said they are not looking for any suspects.
Cops ruled McNair's death a homicide and have not ruled on Kazemi's death, citing the need for more tests.
Kazemi and McNair, a dad of four boys, were dating for several months, friends told cops; McNair apparently kept the affair a secret from his wife.
Photos obtained by TMZ.com show a smiling McNair parasailing on a recent tropical vacation with the curvy Kazemi, whom he met as she waitressed at a Dave & Buster's sports bar.
"He started to talk to her a little," Kazemi's aunt Sepideh Salmani told The Tennessean newspaper. "They exchanged phone numbers, and started dating from there."
Salmani said her beautiful, raven-haired niece believed that McNair was in the process of getting a divorce.
Kazemi's sister told The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville that Kazemi had expected to wed McNair.
"She said they were planning to get married," Soheyla Kazemi told the paper."
County records do not indicate that a divorce is pending, but the McNair family home is up for sale for $3 million.
Investigators said McNair had been drinking at a pair of Nashville bars - Blue Moon Lagoon Bar and Loser's Bar - into the early-morning hours of Saturday and then returned to the downtown condo he shared with a pal.
Although neighbors have not reported hearing gunshots, cops believe McNair and Kazemi died about 2 a.m., nearly 12 hours before their bodies were found.
There was no sign of forced entry at the condo, and investigators are checking whether the couple had been having a "lovers' quarrel," cops said.
It was not immediately known whom the pistol belonged to, although McNair did have a permit to carry a gun, police said.
Kazemi, who was raised by an aunt in Florida after her parents were killed in Iran, moved to Nashville with her ex-boyfriend, Keith Norfleet.
Norfleet, whom investigators want to interview, had a "volatile" relationship with Kazemi but was trying to win her back from McNair, Norfleet's stepmother said.
"They had a lot of jealousy in their relationship and they'd fight and break up a lot," said Trudie Norfleet. "He loved her. ... He's awful torn up about it."
The quarterback, renowned in Nashville for his extensive work in the community, rented the condo overlooking the Titans stadium with sporting goods dealer Wayne Neeley, who called McNair's best friend after seeing the bodies sprawled on a couch.
"It's a picture I'll never get out of my head," a weeping Robert Gaddy told the Daily News. "It's the most terrible sight I've ever seen."
"This was a great man, a man who'd do anything for you," said Gaddy, who had been friends with the Heisman finalist since meeting him at Alcorn State University.
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