The death of iconic Tennessee Titans quarterback Steve McNair shook the sports world to its core back in 2009.
Now, Investigation Discovery is revisiting McNair’s murder, ruled a murder-suicide, in the premiere of the second season of “Deadly Recall”.
The show is hosted by Detective Pat Postiglione, who worked on the case. Postiglione retired from the Metro Nashville Police Department in 2013 after a career of 25 years as a homicide detective.
Obviously, McNair’s death occurred over decade ago, so it’s pretty far back in the history books. Postiglione says he believes the audience will walk away from the show with a good feel for the depth of the investigation.
“You know, you’re dealing with the murder of Steve McNair, a celebrity,” he told me this week. “There was a very in-depth investigation, and all the guys involved on my team were highly experienced and highly trained detectives. I think the main thing we want to put out there is that it was thoroughly investigated.”
And there’s a reason for that. Several have questioned the merit of the case being ruled a murder-suicide, given the amount of circumstantial evidence that has emerged to the point that many believe the case should be re-opened.
Postiglione didn’t seem to find any of that surprising though, given the nature of the case.
“In my experience, any time you have a high-profile case, that happens,” he said. “But the detectives, they’re bound by the evidence. They follow the evidence.”
One of the most prominent claims among those who believe Sahel “Jenni” Kazemi did not kill McNair and then took her life is that Adrian Gilliam Jr. — whose alibi has been “contradicted” — was to blame.
“Some of the things that are said, and some of the things that are implied are so outrageous that there’s absolutely no merit to it,” Postiglione said. “And even though you’re able to substantiate it with proof, the rumors continue. So yeah, it does get a little frustrating, but at the same time, we understand what our job is.”
Postiglione says that verifying Gilliam’s alibi was “no different than any other,” though questions still remain considering that no video surveillance has ever been produced of the gun sale said to have occurred between Gilliam and Kazemi.
“You interview a person of interest, possible suspect, and then you break it down,” he said. “You do cell phone research. You confirm that he was with his cell phone during the times in question, you do cell tower pinging and determine if his cell phone was pinging anywhere near where the crime scene was. You conduct in-depth interviews as well. You interview people well-connected to him and know him. You corroborate what he tells you by going to the people he gives you, and then you’re able to corroborate it through cell phone technology and that kind of thing. That’s precisely what we did with Adrian Gilliam.”
Rumors of McNair’s potential involvement in drugs as a part of his double life have made their rounds, and police did look into this angle. But Postiglione insists there is no merit to it, despite the rap sheets of some of the shady people McNair brushed shoulders with.
“In this case, we had heard some of those rumors,” he said. “But there’s absolutely nothing to substantiate any drug connection or anything involving Steve and drugs or anything along those lines.”
People like Postiglione will forever remember McNair as a beloved and admired figure in the community.
“I would say Steve was the most high-profile case that I’ve been on, mainly because of his celebrity status,” he said. “He was well-known, he was well-loved in the city of Nashville. He would hold training camps every year for kids in the Nashville area. He was well-liked, well-respected, so I would say, along those lines, it’s way up there at the top. We’ve had other high-profile cases, but I don’t think any as high in terms of Steve’s notoriety.”
[wpvideo tAaGt2Pz]
This “Air McNair” episode will air on Wednesday, April 15, at 9 p.m. CT.
[lawrence-related id=30554,30516,30439]
[vertical-gallery id=30574]