Editor’s note: The Advance/SILive.com typically limits reporting on suicides to those that occur in crowded public places, involve public figures or, in special circumstances, where there is a larger public impact. If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.
An unofficial team of forensic researchers has concluded that Kurt Cobain’s 1994 death was a homicide, directly challenging the longstanding determination by the Seattle Police Department that the Nirvana frontman died by suicide.
According to a report by the Daily Mail, the private team reviewed Cobain’s autopsy findings and crime scene evidence and brought in specialist Brian Burnett, who has previously worked on investigations involving drug overdoses followed by gunshot trauma.
After three days examining the material, independent researcher Michelle Wilkins said Burnett concluded: “This is a homicide. We’ve got to do something about this.”
The group theorizes that assailants confronted Cobain, forcibly injected him with a fatal dose of heroin to incapacitate him and then shot him in the head. They further contend the shotgun was placed in his hands and a suicide note was staged to make the death appear self-inflicted.
Wilkins questioned whether the medical evidence supports an instantaneous death from a gunshot wound, telling the Daily Mail that organ damage described in the autopsy report was more consistent with oxygen deprivation associated with an overdose.
“The necrosis of the brain and liver happens in an overdose. It doesn’t happen in a shotgun death,” she said.
She also raised concerns about the crime scene, pointing to what she characterized as unusual details, including receipts for the gun and ammunition found in Cobain’s pocket and shotgun shells lined up at his feet.
“To me, it looks like someone staged a movie and wanted you to be absolutely certain this was a suicide,” Wilkins said.
Both the King County Medical Examiner’s Office and the Seattle Police Department maintain their original conclusions.
A spokesperson for the King County Medical Examiner’s Office told the Daily Mail that the office conducted a full autopsy in coordination with law enforcement and followed established procedures in determining the manner of death as suicide.
The office added that it is open to revisiting its conclusions if new evidence emerges but has seen nothing to date that would warrant reopening the case.
A spokesperson for the Seattle Police Department said the department’s position remains unchanged: detectives concluded Cobain died by suicide.
Cobain was found dead on Friday, April 8, 1994, at his Lake Washington Boulevard home in Seattle. An electrician discovered his body in a greenhouse above the garage. A note addressed to his childhood imaginary friend, Boddah, was recovered at the scene.
The coroner’s report estimated that Cobain died by suicide on April 5, 1994. He was 27.
Editor’s note: Suicidal thoughts and behaviors can be reduced with the proper mental health support and treatment. If you are in crisis, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741.