Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain was the victim of homicide and did not kill himself, according to media reports citing a new investigation.
The grunge superstar died on April 5, 1994, aged 27, in his Seattle home. The official police probe concluded that Cobain had died of a shotgun wound to the head and ruled his death a suicide.
The murder conclusion follows a review of autopsy findings and crime scene materials by a team of independent forensic scientists, launched and financed by Nirvana fan Michelle Wilkins, the leader of the “Who Killed Kurt?” research group.
The evidence suggests that Cobain, who had struggled with a drug addiction, was incapacitated by a heroin overdose before being shot and the scene staged, Wilkins told the Daily Mail on Tuesday. Autopsy findings showed brain and liver necrosis consistent with oxygen deprivation from overdose, she said.
“The necrosis of the brain and liver happens in an overdose,” Wilkins said. “It doesn’t happen in a shotgun death.”
The team noted that Cobain’s left hand, wrapped around the gun’s barrel, was clean of blood, and blood staining on his shirt hem suggested that his body may have been moved. Investigators also concluded that the shotgun would not eject a shell with his hand on the forward barrel, yet a spent shell lay opposite the expected ejection direction.
The Sun also cited an alleged eyewitness who claimed he saw Cobain “being manhandled by three men into the greenhouse” before hearing a gunshot half an hour later.
The team has called on Seattle authorities to change Cobain’s cause of death to “undetermined” and reopen the investigation.
Public challenges to the suicide ruling emerged within days of Cobain’s death. Critics claim the rock star could not have injected the lethal heroin doze and then shot himself.
Cobain was survived by his wife, musician Courtney Love, and their daughter, Frances Bean, who was 20 months old at the time.
As Cobain died without a will, his estate passed in full to Love and the child. At the time of his death, the estate was valued at approximately $50 million, comprising songwriting royalties, publishing rights, and personal assets, equivalent to about $109 million in today's money.
