Kurt Cobain | Murder or Suicide?

The official story:
Modern rock icon Kurt Cobain died by suicide on April 5, 1994. His body was discovered inside his home in Seattle, Washington, three days later by Gary Smith, an electrician, who was installing a security system in the house.

Courtney Love hired Tom Grant to find her missing husband Kurt Cobain.
On April 3, 1994, Easter Sunday 5 days before Kurt’s death Courtney calls Tom and has him meet her at The Peninsula Hotel 1st thing she said to them was “You leak this to the press I’ll sue the F*** out of you.” She stated that Kurt came from rehab a couple of days ago. He bought a ticket back to Seattle but nobody has seen him since he got back. Tom stated that most of the time that he met with her she was strung out on drugs. She also stated that she canceled his credit cards to cut him off from any temptations and she stated that Kurt escaped from rehab and bought a shotgun and she was concerned that something bad was going to happen to him. She keeps mentioning how suicidal he is and everyone thinks he is going to commit suicide. Tom stated that she started off lying to him the 1st time they spoke saying the reason she wanted to hire him. 
On April 4th, 1994 Tom met with Courtney again and she stated that she called the credit card company and they told her that Kurt had bought 2 tickets on United Airlines but was not sure where the ticket’s destinations were, she mentioned that she thought that Kurt wanted a divorce due to a note he left her in Rome. She thought that Kurt was having an affair with Kristen Pfaff her bassist in her band and also Caitlin her drug dealer. She mentioned that she wanted to go to the press and make up a story that she had OD’ed and that she was in the hospital thinking that this would draw Kurt out and he would call her. Tom stated that she might regret going to the press with that story. Courtney then proceeded to file a missing persons report with Seattle police under the name of Wendy Oconner Kurt’s mother. 
Courtney told Tom that Kurt liked to stay at fancy Hotels under the name Bill Bailey
The next day on Monday Tom calls all the big hotels without any success then starts calling the smaller motels and finds a motel with a Bill Bailey when telling this info to Courtney she stops Tom from sending someone over and only wants him to watch the motel because she does not want Kurt to think she is looking for him. She did not want her house on surveillance because she said she did not need it because Cali was there and would tell her if Kurt showed up. 
(Michael “Cali” Dewitt was a live-in nanny for Frances Bean the Cobain’s only child, Cali was also a long-time friend and former boyfriend of Courtney Love) 
Wednesday – April 6th, 1994, Tom was preparing to leave for Seattle to search for Kurt, and Courtney told Tom about Kurt’s best friend Dylan Carlson, and how he knew all of the hang-out spots that Kurt would go to. So Tom reached out to Dylan before his flight to Seattle, when asked if Kurt was suicidal Dylan said no and he was not sure why Kurt married Courtney. And the thing that happened in Rome was an accident. (On March 4, 1994, Cobain was hospitalized in Rome following an overdose of benzodiazepines and alcohol. His management agency, Gold Mountain Records, said that the overdose was accidental and that he was suffering from influenza and fatigue.) Dylan confirmed that Kurt bought the shotgun the day he got out of rehab due to a burglary at the house. No one close to him saw any suicidal tendencies, Courtney was the only one close to him who kept stating he was suicidal and after his death, she amped up this narrative.  

Thursday – April 7, 1994 (1 day before they found Kurt dead)
Dylan Carlson and Tom Grant went to Seattle together, when Tom informed Dylan what Courtney said about Kurl loving fancy hotels, Dylan laughed and said that it was ridiculous he hates fancy anything. Dyan would always call Courtney and update Tom through Dylan, after looking at numerous hotels Dylan called Courtney to check in and reported back to Tom that she had been arrested and admitted to a hospital and wanted them to go look for the shotgun in a hidden compartment in the closet at the house. They got to the house and found a note on the stairs written by Cali, but the note did not make sense. “Kurt, I can’t believe you managed to be in this house without me noticing you’re a F****** A**Hole for not calling Courtney and at least letting her know you’re ok, she is in a lot of pain Kurt and this morning she had another accident and now shes in the hospital again shes your wife, she loves you and you have a child together get it together to at least tell her you are ok or she is going to die it’s not fair man do something now” 

They looked in the hidden compartment but no shotgun. 
(Rosemary Carroll was a close friend to Kurt and Courtney, who also served as their attorney)
When Tom informs Rosemary Carroll about the letter from Cali she states that she thought Cali wrote the letter because he knew Kurt was dead.
Dylan Carlson and Tom Grant entered Kurt’s home through a window looking for Kurt and looking for a shotgun.

Friday, April 8, 1994 (The Day Kurt’s Body was discovered)
Bruce William – Supervisor, Veca Electric stated that he got a phone call from Gary Smith one of his electricians who was doing some security lighting for a house that belonged to a rock star in Seattle not sure who it was and looked through a window paned door that was locked and saw a body and he said I think he shot himself. Then Bruce calls the radio station and tells them what happened. Marty Riemer the DJ at the station took the call and Bruce told them what Gary had witnessed. 
Tom and Dylan were heading out to the town of Carnation just outside of Seattle to check to see if Kurt had been at the 2 cabins that they owned. They were halfway there and stopped for gas when Dylan made a phone call Tom assumed it was to Courtney. But Dylan got back in the car and told Tom that a friend of Dylan’s said he just heard they found a body at Kurt’s house. Tom turned on the radio and it was being announced over the air that Kurt Cobain was dead. When Tom heard the announcer state that they found Kurt in the greenhouse he asked Dylan what that was and Dylan said it was just a dirty little room above the garage.
John Fisk paramedic Seattle FD was the first in the room where Kurt’s body was. Shotgun in the lap with a significant amount of blood by the head. 
When Tom drove back to the house he could see the greenhouse it was so tall and stuck out and wondered why Dylan did not point this room out to him when they were there earlier. When Tom got to the crime scene he made his presence known and how he was involved in tracking down Kurt but the police were not interested. 

Dr. Cyril H. Wecht – a Forensic Pathologist has been involved in thousands of cases performed over 18,000 autopsies. stated that the police work done on this case was not protocol. You have to do a death investigation not assume from a visual account of the scene to determine cause of death.  

Tom Grant does not believe that the police were involved in a conspiracy with Kurt’s death but he does believe Courtney set up the police to go with this narrative by the missing persons report that she filed. 
The police reports were inconsistent stating things like he barricaded himself in the room, a stool was wedged against the door, where also in the report it stated that the stool was across the room. 
John Fisk 1st on the scene stated that there was no stool blocking the door
The lead detective Cameron told Tom that they don’t develop crime scene photos of suicides. Other expert homicide detectives said they had never heard of this protocol you always develop all photos of a crime scene. 
Detective Cameron resigned when he learned that Norm Stamper was going to fire him for colluding with one of his detectives to replant evidence at a crime scene that had been stolen by a homicide detective which was 10,000 dollars.
The photographs remain to this day in the possession of the Seattle P.D.
Detective Kirkland SPD stated to Tom that if a patrol officer thinks it’s a suicide and feels good about it then it was good enough for him. “If it appeared to be a suicide then it was a suicide”
Toms’s personal opinion is that you don’t allow a patrol officer who has no homicide investigation experience to determine whether a scene is a suicide or not. In 1994 they did not look at anything case closed. 

Through their negligent death investigation, the Seattle Police:
– allowed Kurt Cobain to be cremated 6 days after being discovered.
– waited 30 days to process the shotgun for fingerprints.
– gave Courtney Love the shotgun to have it melted down.
– allowed the Greenhouse crime scene to be torn down and destroyed.

The toxicology report from Kurt Cobain’s autopsy indicated a heroin blood level of 1.52 Milligrams per liter. 
5 mg will produce a level of 0.035 Mg, most users even heavy users will only use up to 40 to 60 mg in one hit, 60 mg of heroin will produce a level of 0.420 mg in the blood. So to reach 1.52 mg you would have to inject 225 mg of heroin which is 3 times the amount that is considered lethal.

Max Wallace states that no case has been seen in 18 years or to date where this level of heroin was found in Kurt’s body and that person remains conscious.

The Shotgun Shell – Ok I am going to get a little wordy and sciency for a sec so bear with me. 

The police reports indicate that Kurt was found with a shotgun upside down with his left hand grasping the barrel in a vice-like grip known as a cadaveric spasm which is a form of muscular stiffening and only occurs in death. This occurrence is indispensable to the forensic investigation as it clearly shows the precise orientation of the deceased at the exact moment of death; in this case, Kurt’s left hand gripping the barrel upside down as he was found. This seems pretty straightforward until you take into account that the shotgun shell was found on the left side of his body instead of the right side where the exit chamber was facing. Seattle PD explained this discrepancy by concluding that the shotgun was fired right side up and twisted upside down as it was fired. But this proposed scenario is impossible because shotguns don’t flip over when fired and this ignores the cadaveric spasm which would have locked the grip dictating the precise orientation when fired. The only way the shell could have ended up on the left side of the body is if something had to hit the shell as it exited the chamber. The crime scene clearly shows there was no such obstruction, the only explanation would have to be his right hand, wrist or arm hit the shell as his body fell back to the floor. (Not sure if that is plausible)

Rosemary was adamant that Kurt was not suicidal and stated that Courtney called her a couple of weeks ago and said Kurt was leaving her and wanted her to find the meanest most vicious divorce lawyer that I could find, and wanted to know if there was any way to avoid their prenup. Kurt had also called Rosemary from Munich Germany on March 1st, 1994, and asked her if she could have Courtney’s name taken out of the will moments before going on stage for the last time. Two days later, as a result of new fatal levels of Rohypnol dissolved in champagne, Kurt was rushed to a hospital in Rome. 

Rosemary questioned Tom about why he did not see Kurt in the greenhouse the 1st night he was at the house. Tom informed Rosemary that he had never heard of the greenhouse until he heard about it on the radio when the body was discovered. Rosemary then informed Tom that she overheard Courtney tell Dylan to check the greenhouse. 

Now a lot of people are mocking Tom and his ability as a PI because of not finding the body 20 feet away upstairs. But some people have gone back to test this in the dark and it was not visible. 
At least 5 people – including Seattle PD, had been to the Lake Washington house searching for Kurt during daylight hours and failed to see Kurt already lying dead in the greenhouse.

Rosemary Carrol’s conclusion of the suicide note is that it is a forgery. 

After Kurt’s death, an increase of copycat suicides began all across the world that were fans of Kurt Cobain.

As of 2015 when this documentary came out there had been at least 68 known cases of copycat suicides related to the death of Kurt Cobain.

Tom informed Courtney that he was continuing the investigation with or without her cooperation. Tom spoke with Courtney and told her that he thought Dylan knew Kurt was dead on the 3rd of April. Then Tom tells Courtney that all she had to do to bring this to a quick end and solve everything was to deliver to him a copy of the coroner’s report and have Cali come and take a polygraph. Courtney agreed to bring Tom the coroner report on the 17th.

Courtney Love never met with Tom Grant on the 17th and never gave him the coroner’s report.

So let’s break this timeline down:
Wednesday – March 30, 1994, 9 days before Kurt’s body was discovered
After a recent burglary, Kurt buys a Remington M11 shotgun and is registered to Dylan Carlson.

Kurts takes a flight from Seattle to LA and goes to Exodus Rehab clinic – LA on Thursday, March 31, 1994, 8 days before Kurt’s body was discovered.

Nanny, Jackie Farry, and Frances Bean visit Kurt at Exodus

Same day at the Peninsula Hotel – Beverly Hills, Courtney Love made 13 unanswered calls to Kurt, Courtney tells Tom Grant she only made one call that day. 

5:30 pm Friday – April 1, 1994, he booked a flight while at Exodus leaves Exodus at 7:25 pm and arrives at the airport at 9:30 pm, Kurt boards Delta flight 788 to Seattle. He chose not to reunite with his wife Courtney who was less than 10 miles away.

12:47 am Saturday – April 2, 1994, Kurt arrives in Seattle and takes a cab to his Lake Washington house arrives at 1:30 am 

According to Cali Kurt visits him and his girlfriend, Jessica Hopper in Cali’s bedroom at Kurts Lake Washington house till about 6:05 am 

7:02 am Kurt left in a cab, Kurt was seen by Cali for the last time on Saturday, April 2nd, Phone records show Courtney spoke to Cali 8 times on April 2nd.

Courtney does not reveal Kurt was seen when she hires Tom Grant on April 3rd.

3 Months after this film was shot in 2015 the Seattle PD finally developed the death scene photographs. Some of the photos have been released to the public. However, they have not allowed any independent forensic experts the opportunity to examine all of the photos to offer expert opinions on possible evidence contained in the photos. 

SPD maintained that Kurt’s tolerance would have enabled him to inject the amount of heroin found in his system, not killing him – then proceed to kill himself with a fatal shotgun wound to the head. 

Dr. Cyril H. Wecht – Forensic Pathologist – Stated that any re-examination should not even be actively participated in by the Seattle PD, to expect them to conduct an objective, detached, unbiased investigation, and come back 20 years later and say hey we blew flies in the face of common sense. The Kurt Cobain death demands a re-opening by an objective set of experts and until that is done, then one cannot feel comfortable in saying Kurt Cobain’s death was a clear-cut suicide.

Max Wallace – An investigative Journalist stated that the most compelling piece of evidence that convinces me almost to a certainty that Kurt was murdered, was the level of heroin in his body. There’s never been a documented case in the history of law enforcement where somebody could have the level of heroin in their body that Kurt did remain conscious and still led to suicide. Max talked to an FBI expert and he said if you want to get away with murder “you kill a junkie” It’s very easy to make a murder look like an accidental overdose or a suicide. It’s the perfect crime and it happens all the time. 
We know they had a prenup, they were getting a divorce he was leaving her. If the divorce had gone through she would have received a very small settlement as the result of the prenup agreement. But when he died she co-inherited an estate worth possibly more than a billion dollars in future royalties, police are supposed to immediately look at the motive, well here’s the motive.

Norm Stamper – Chief of Police SPD 1994-2000 , states that if he were still the chief of Police SPD he would re-open this case in a heartbeat. 

Kurt Cobain 1967 – 1994 single-handedly changed the landscape of rock music in the 90’s.