Friend of Jovan Belcher Reveals How His Relationship, Alcohol and Painkillers Played a Role in Yesterday's Murder-Suicide

There's always two sides to every story.

It will probably always be a mystery as to what led the Chiefs' Jovan Belcher to kill his girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, and himself on that fateful Saturday morning. However, one day removed from the wild events, a friend of Belcher's reached out to Deadspin in an effort to shed some light on the still confusing situation. 

According to Belcher's friend, the linebacker "was dazed and suffering from short-term memory loss" after taking a few hits to the head and he "could not remember the events that had taken place prior to that game or what he had said to get Kasi [Kasandra Perkins] to return home" after his team's game against the Cincinnati Bengals on November 18th. Still, that was only a small portion of the many problems effecting Belcher prior to yesterday's murder-suicide. 

Even though the Kansas City Star points to a Trey Songz show as being the potential catalyst for Belcher's actions, his friend indicates that the concert was more likely a tipping point for their strained relationship. At one point in their tumultuous affair, Kasandra left and took the linebacker's daughter, Zoe, to a relative's house without his consent and refused to come home. She also was attempting to contact a lawyer that would "get as much money as possible" out of Belcher.

In addition to taking Zoe without Belcher's knowing, Kasi was failing her college courses, which Jovan was actually paying for after she quit her retail job where "she worked two 4 hour shifts a week." Because of all these troubles, Belcher turned to a lethal combination of alcohol and painkillers where he supposedly drank on a nightly basis.

Before yesterday's events, Belcher and Kasi had been separated for two weeks.      

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[via Deadspin]

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