Seattle Police and Medical Examiner Refute New Kurt Cobain Homicide Theory

Seattle police and the King County Medical Examiner’s Office have refuted a new theory that claims that late Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was murdered. The new hypothesis stems from a private, unofficial investigation that was first reported by tabloid The Daily Mail earlier this week.

According to the tabloid, “an unofficial private sector team of forensic scientists has put fresh eyes on Cobain’s autopsy and crime scene materials,” adding that independent researcher Michelle Wilkins worked with the team and claimed, “This is a homicide. We’ve got to do something about this.”

Wilkins cited a peer-reviewed paper that presented 10 points of evidence suggesting Cobain was “confronted by one or more assailants who forced a heroin overdose to incapacitate him, before one of them shot him in the head, placed the gun in his arms and left behind a forged suicide note.”

“There are things in the autopsy that go, well, wait, this person didn’t die very quickly of a gunshot blast,'” Wilkins further told the tabloid, pointing to organ damage associated with oxygen deprivation. ‘The necrosis of the brain and liver happens in an overdose. It doesn’t happen in a shotgun death.'”

Now, Seattle police and the King County Medical Examiner’s Office have responded, refuting the report and sticking to their original findings.

“In the death examination for Kurt Cobain, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office worked with the local law enforcement agency, conducted a full autopsy, and followed all of its procedures in coming to the determination of the manner of death as a suicide,” a King County Public Health spokesperson told Newsweek. “We’re not able to provide specific details about what informed our conclusion, as the autopsy records are private under state law and can only be released by the next of kin.”

The statement added, “Our office is always open to revisiting its conclusions if new evidence comes to light, but we’ve seen nothing to date that would warrant re-opening of this case and our previous determination of death.”

In a separate statement to the Daily Mail, Seattle police shared, “Our detective concluded that he died by suicide and this continues to be the position held by this department.”

Kurt Cobain was found dead by an electrical contractor at his home on April 8th, 1994. Police said he had committed suicide by shotgun three days before he was found. The case has long been the point of scrutiny, inciting conspiracy theories that Cobain was murdered, or that his wife Courtney Love had some involvement in his death.