NASHVILLE - Steve McNair and his wife were selling their Nashville home to buy another one, not to prepare for a divorce, said the longtime friend who called 911 after McNair's bloodied body was found Saturday.
P class=inside-copy>Robert Gaddy said talk that the former Tennessee Titans quarterback and his wife, Mechelle, were splitting is off base.
"People need to quit talking about what they don't know. Mac never said anything to me about he was going to get a divorce, and ever since this has all happened everybody is trying to paint a certain picture and they need to talk about what they know," Gaddy said Tuesday. He has been friends with McNair for nearly 20 years, dating to their playing days in college.
On Wednesday, a state medical examiner said that preliminary testing from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation points to the likely conclusion of murder-suicide in the deaths of McNair and Sahel Kazemi, his 20-year-old mistress.
Feng Li, the assistant medical examiner who conducted the autopsies, said he will wait for the investigation to be closed before he completes Kazemi?s death certificate to reflect that she died of suicide.
"The results were very consistent in supporting our decision," Li said. Gunshot residue and ballistics testing are also consistent with a ruling of murder-suicide, Li said.
Also, a McNair associate told the Associated Press on Wednesday that Mechelle McNair didn't know about Kazemi before the woman was found dead with her husband on the Fourth of July.
Mike Mu, who has worked with McNair's charitable foundation for years, said Mechelle McNair "didn't know who this girl is."
Nashville police have called a news conference for Wednesday afternoon to update the status of the deaths.
Mechelle McNair, who has not spoken publicly since the shooting, has been described as very upset and distraught. Agent Bus Cook said McNair's wife was "in and out" of it in the hours after the shooting.
Kazemi's family told reporters that the woman was so confident McNair was divorcing his wife of 12 years that she was preparing to sell her furniture and move in with the former quarterback.
Police haven't classified the deaths as a murder-suicide, though state medical examiner Bruce Levy has said it's a likely scenario based on the evidence.
Kazemi's sister, Sepideh Salmani, had said that Kazemi heard from McNair that he would be divorcing his wife.
Gaddy said the McNairs' house in the Green Hills section of Nashville is on the market because they were moving somewhere else together. A local real estate agent said he showed another house to the McNairs more than six months ago.
"People can have all the theories they want, but we haven't even put my man to rest yet or put him in the ground," Gaddy said. "Show some respect for the family. It's crazy."
Gaddy also defended another friend's decision not to immediately call police after first arriving at the crime scene on Saturday. "The man just panicked," Gaddy said of Wayne Neely, who rented the condominium with McNair.
Police say Neely called Gaddy after he discovered the bodies around 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Gaddy called 911 around 1:35 p.m.
Metro Police spokesman Don Aaron said Monday that detectives were concerned about the length of time it took for police to be called.
Aaron said police do not believe the bodies were moved. When asked if other evidence may have been moved, he said he couldn't comment./>
