New probe, same result in Cobain suicide
Conspiracy tales inaccurate, detective says
The suicide death of grunge king Kurt Cobain almost 20 years ago spawned a miniindustry of conspiracy theories, finger-pointing and speculation.
Was the Nirvana guitarist murdered? Who wanted him dead? Who would gain?
More often than not, the conspiracy theories focused on the motives of Cobain’s volatile widow, Courtney Love.
The high-profile case had been the subject of countless books, articles, rumours over the past two decades and the Seattle Police Department’s media office wanted someone to have a thorough understanding of the facts.
“There’s still a lot of interest in this case,” police spokeswoman Renee Witt said. “The detective went into the case files to refresh himself. The outcome of the case has not changed.”
The initial investigation determined that a few days before his body was discovered by electrician Gary Smith, Cobain had gone into the greenhouse of his large home and taken a massive dose of heroin.
He then shot himself with a 20-gauge shotgun.
Smith said he found a suicide note from Cobain that ended: “I love you, I love you.”
The singer — who helped popularize the Seattle grunge sound of the early 1990s — suffered from severe stomach and digestive problems that often left him in agonizing pain.
Earlier that same year Cobain had tried to kill himself in Rome by taking an overdose of tranquillizers.
Cold-case Det. Michael Ciesynski told the Seattle Times all he discovered were four canisters of undeveloped 35mm film that were included in the case file but unprocessed.
He emphasized the case was not being reopened.
“Sometimes people believe what they read — some of the disinformation from some of the books, that this was a conspiracy. That’s completely inaccurate,” Ciesynski said. “It’s a suicide. This is a closed case.”
The photos include one of a narcotics user’s kit — a cigar box filled with syringes, cotton, a spoon and suspected heroin. It was nearly identical to a similar Polaroid image of the kit that previously had been released, police said.
The second photo shows the closed cigar box, as well as sunglasses, a pack of cigarettes, a cap, cash, wallet and lighter.
“There was nothing earthshattering in any of these images,” Witt said.
Ciesynski said that by releasing some of the photos and taking another look at the Cobain tragedy he would put the conspiracy theories to rest for once and all. He’s convinced the rock icon’s death was suicide.
In police reports issued after his death, it was revealed the singer had purchased a shotgun, fled a drug rehab centre, fought bitterly with Love and frequently threatened to kill himself.
On April 5, 1994 he kept his word. He was just 27.
After his death, thousands of young people converged on Seattle Center, near the Space Needle, for a public memorial.
Cobain grew up in the logging town of Aberdeen, Wash., about two hours southwest of Seattle. A riverfront park there is dedicated to his memory.