In the first episode of his nine-part podcast series on the 2009 murder of former Tennessee Titans great Steve McNair, Sports Illustrated’s Tim Rohan takes us to the origins of the project and a fundamental question that must be asked: Can Vincent Hill be trusted?

Hill is the private detective and former Metro police officer who has made a life quest out of solving the murder of McNair, even though it is technically solved. Hill has written two books about the circumstances of an investigation he believes was wrapped hastily and concluded incorrectly.

“She didn’t do it,” Hill told The Tennessean back in 2010 of McNair’s girlfriend Sahel “Jenni” Kazemi, who was found dead next to him on July 4, 2009, and who, investigators ruled, shot McNair dead and then killed herself.

Hill is interviewed extensively on the podcast and tells of meeting with McNair’s mother, Lucille, in Mt. Olive, Miss., where he says she hired him for $1 in 2012 to investigate the murder and told him: “Vince, I don’t believe that little girl killed my son.”

“All I have right now is Vincent,” Rohan tells the listener on the first episode, which is largely devoted to examining Hill’s merits. “I don’t know if I can trust him. I don’t know what his motives are. But he’s spent nine years now investigating this case. He could at least tell me where to start looking.”

That’s where Rohan started in June of 2017. But he was far from finished, and more than 60 interviews later, he has something worthwhile in “Fall of a Titan: The Steve McNair Story” – something that continues to evolve. When I got Rohan on the phone recently to talk about the podcast, he had just spoken to someone who gave him new information on the case. Several folks have reached out, he said, since the first episode went live on Oct. 17.

He’s also heard from people who don’t want these things dredged up again, who want to remember McNair’s life and leave it at that, and I’ve heard that around Nashville as well. I get it. Anyone who followed this case closely from the start and has heard the theories is justified in wondering why we’re doing this again.

But I think there are legitimate questions around the outcome of this case. And I don’t think this is just an exploitative rehash of old work.

There’s a gruesome detail about the murder scene in the first episode that, if true, casts more doubt. This podcast must deliver more new information and a balanced, thorough look at the investigation to justify all this promotion; my sense after listening to the first two episodes is that it will.

In the second one (they will drop each Wednesday except for Thanksgiving week), McNair family confidant and unofficial family spokesman Dr. Alvin Simpson says of the investigation: “I don’t have any trust in any of them. I don’t have any trust in the medical examiner, I don’t have any trust in the detectives or anybody else. And I’m not ruling out anybody out in terms of being a participant in the conspiracy to murder Steve.”

Rohan told me a future episode will include the voices of the lead investigators on the case, who will explain why they believe it’s “a slam dunk, she did it, and why are we even having this discussion?”

“But the vast majority of people I spoke to, family and friends and teammates, they don’t believe (Kazemi) did it,” Rohan said.

That doesn’t mean they’re right. It does mean some of the people who would be most offended or hurt by a project like this are OK with its existence. The second episode, released Wednesday, gets into McNair’s Alcorn State days and dalliances with women. It is not as strong as the first, but for the listener who isn’t versed in McNair’s life story, it is educational.

This listener is hooked, and maybe that’s because I’m like much of the world outside Nashville – I heard the basics at the time of McNair’s tragic death and moved on. Those who have followed along closely are right to demand the story to be moved forward.

Rohan, who has earned a reputation as a tireless reporter, promises it will. That means going beyond the tidbits Hill has gathered and questions he has raised.

“We’re going to fact check Vincent and you’re going to know that we processed his information,” Rohan said. “We keep him at arm’s length and we don’t just let him talk unfiltered. … No matter how much you know about this case, there’s going to be new information and new context.”

And just maybe, as Hill clamored for long before he wrote a book on the subject, an official re-examination of this investigation.

Contact Joe Rexrode at jrexrode@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter @joerexrode.

More on the murder of Steve McNair

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Jenni Kazemi anticipated marriage to Titans quarterback

Steve McNair's best friend disputes allegations McNair accused him of theft

Ex-Metro cop wants Steve McNair case reopened

Grand jury won't reopen McNair case