On April 8, 1994, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle, USA. The police concluded that he committed suicide three days earlier, but the case still has many unresolved questions.
1) MYSTERIOUS TRIGGER
The gun that killed Kurt had been purchased by him «for protection». There are several mysteries about it: 1) the ejection port is on the right, but the bullet casing was found on the left, 2) the object was only checked for fingerprints a month after the case, and none were identified, and 3) the The gun’s trigger position was apparently beyond Kurt’s reach.
2) TRACES OF ROME
On March 4th, about a month before he died, Kurt overdosed on heroin. He was in Rome resting from touring with Nirvana. His wife, Courtney Love, had just joined him. After the death, she claimed that the affair in Rome had been a suicide attempt, although Kurt himself denied this rumor. Other acquaintances denied that he was suicidal.
3) IT’S IN THE BLOOD
One of the main arguments of the murder theory is that the amount of heroin in Kurt’s blood (1.52 milligrams per liter) was too much for him to be able to pull a trigger. There are several toxicologists who corroborate this thesis. The problem is that the number is not official: it comes from a report in a Seattle newspaper, not the police – whose report is confidential.
4) FAMILY CASES
It is known that Kurt was about to divorce Courtney Love, lead singer of Hole. The musician’s will was not ready when he died, and it is suspected that he was going to exclude Love from the document. Upon her husband’s death, Love inherited most of Kurt’s possessions, as well as the rights to nearly all of Nirvana’s material.
5) WHERE IS THE BODY?
About a month before he died, Kurt ran away from rehab. Love, who was in Los Angeles, hired private detective Tom Grant to look for her husband. Grant even went inside the house twice after Kurt, but he didn’t find the body, because it was in a greenhouse above the garage – a room whose existence Love did not inform Grant.
6) SUSPICIOUS CHARACTERS
Today, Grant points out inconsistencies in the behavior of two other regulars at Kurt and Courtney’s house. Michael DeWitt, a nanny who provided services to the couple, told police that he met the rocker at the scene after he escaped from rehab, but that he did not notice anything unusual. The other was Kurt’s friend Dylan Carlson, who even came to search the house along with Grant on one of the detective’s visits.
7) DEAD FILE
Many of those who support the murder theory point out that the suicide note has two different handwritings: the first part, which would have been Kurt’s, only covered what would have been a letter from the singer to Courtney announcing the divorce. The second, supposedly added by someone, had the most dramatic part, which indicated suicide. Had someone killed Kurt and tampered with the letter?
EXPLAINING THE TRUTH
There is no evidence pointing to murder
– Kurt suffered from depression and had already thought about suicide, as can be seen in his diaries. At his request, the set of the Nirvana Unplugged concert was decorated “like a funeral”.
– None of the key suspicious evidence, like the unprinted gun, the double handwriting and the heroin, directly points to murder. Nothing indicates a second person in the greenhouse.
– Courtney Love, the main “suspect”, did not try to interfere with the police investigation or that of Tom Grant. By Grant’s own admission, she kept him hired for months after Kurt’s death to pursue the case.
– Several books and documentaries have already reviewed the case. No concrete information refuting the suicide thesis was found.
SOURCES Justice for Kurt and Cobain Case websites, Kurt Cobain books by Christopher Sandford and Rock Shrines by Thomas H. Green