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The Crime Scene of Kurt Cobain

By Elliot Turner And Josiah Meidl

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Kurt Cobain

Rock legend and frontman for the band Nirvana, Kurt Cobain was found dead after an electrician stumbled upon his dead body in the greenhouse of his Seattle home. Cause of death: “Self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head”. With a wife, daughter, and an estate worth more than 100 million, Kurt had everything going for him; So why did he kill himself?

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The Crime Scene

Kurt Cobain was found dead due to an alleged shotgun blast to the head in his Lake Washington home on April 5th 1994. The body was found in the greenhouse which was located above the garage, which has since been torn down.

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Crime Scene Evidence

Shotgun

Toxicology / Heroin kit

Suicide note

Courtney’s Practice Sheet

Wallet

Stool

All are physical evidence (individual class)

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Shotgun

“Seattle police reports indicate that Kurt Cobain was found with a shougun upside down, with his left hand around the barrel in a vice-like grip known as a cadaveric spasm, cadaveric spasm is a form of muscular stiffening that only occurs in death. This occurrence is indispensable to forensic investigation, as it clearly shows the precise orientation of the deceased at the EXACT moment of death...” as Tom Grant states. He then goes on to say “Now this all seems straightforward until you take into account that the shotgun shell was found to Cobain’s LEFT side, opposite of where one would expect to find a shell, on his right side...” But of course Seattle PD has an explanation for this as well, they claim that the gun was fired right side up; but then flipped, COMPLETELY disregarding the legitimacy of the cadaveric spasm. And that the only way that that would make sense would be if his wrist twisted at an impossible rate which then caused the shotgun to be flipped upside down. As a people who have shot shotguns we can say that when that shell gets ejected it really flies, so the only explanation we can think up is someone or some kind of disruption was to Cobain's right causing the shotgun shell to ricochet and land on his left side.

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Toxicology

The toxicology report from the autopsy shows a heroin blood level of .125 milligrams per liter, which is three times the amount to be considered lethal. But even with that amount of incapacitating heroin in his bloodstream the Seattle PD claims he still had time to roll back down his sleeve, put away the heroin kit, pick up and position the shotgun, then pull the trigger. Now one could argue that he shot himself before he was incapacitated from the heroin. Dr Cyril H. Wecht - President of the American Academy of Forensic Science brings up an interesting point “Why would he (Kurt) then shoot himself before the drug has time to take effect” he then goes on to say “I cannot think of a case in which I have had someone inject himself with a large amount of heroin and then proceed to kill himself...” All these questions could be answered if the Seattle coroner's office would make public the autopsy report in which somehow they don’t legally have to make public.

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Note

The most relevant piece of evidence towards the ruling of a suicide would have to be the note. Norm Stamper, Chief of police at the time of the investigation says “The fact that the handwriting looks to my untrained eye, different at the bottom of that note than it does during the body certainly does suggest that putting that note in the hands of a trained documents examiner or someone who really understands a lot more than we do as cops...” Carole Chaski a forensic linguist gives her thoughts on the note “one of the perhaps surprising characteristics of this note is that the largest section of the note talks so much about his relationship to music, and it's only the very small part, the last few lines that actually talk about his relationship to his family. But there's another linguistically interesting thing about the second to, and final four lines of the note, and that is that; that is what most of us would consider a stereotypical suicide note...”. In our personal opinions, the note looks and sounds phony and according to the experts, we’re not the only ones.

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Wallet

Kurt’s wallet was found by medical examiners and re-positioned for a picture of his driver’s license. The wallet was NOT left by Kurt in this position.

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Stool / Door

The stool was another piece of evidence that was used in the favor of the suicide theory. The media, and one of the police reports state that stool was propped up against the door to be used as some sort of lock when that was not the case. John Fisk, First responder on the scene says when he arrived the door was locked, but simply by twisting the lock shut and closing the door behind them the door could easily be locked by someone not inside the room.

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Recent News

Pictures of the shotgun found at the crime scene were released from the Seattle police department in March of this year with the hopes of the case finally being put to rest.

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Unreliable Detective

In addition to the evidence found at the crime scene Norman Stamper, Seattle PD Chief of Police says “Detective Cameron (Sgt. Donald Cameron lead detective on the Cobain case) resigned when he had learned that I was planning to fire him. He had colluded with one of his own detectives to replant evidence that had been stolen by a homicide detective at a homicide scene.”

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Conviction

There was no conviction for this case because it was almost instantly ruled as a suicide by the police. Although many questions can be raised about this case on how the police processed and investigated it.

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Works cited

Works Cited

Grant, Tom. "Index Page to Cobaincase.com - The Kurt Cobain Murder Investigation by Tom Grant." Index Page to Cobaincase.com - The Kurt Cobain Murder Investigation by Tom Grant. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 June 2016.

Grant, Tom. "Shotgun Photo Release 3 - The Kurt Cobain Murder Investigation by Tom Grant." Shotgun Photo Release 3 - The Kurt Cobain Murder Investigation by Tom Grant. Tom Grant, 29 Mar. 2016. Web. 12 May 2016.

Parco, Nicholas. "Courtney Love 'conspired' in Kurt Cobain's Death: Ex-PI." NY Daily News. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 June 2016.

Soaked in Bleach. Dir. Benjamin Statler. Perf. Tom Grant, Daniel Roebuck, August Emerson. 2015. Netflix Doc.