30 years later, forensic scientist Brian Burnett challenges the initial suicide ruling.
Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s death rocked the world in 1994. Ruled a suicide by the King County Medical Examiner at the time, theories of foul-play have persisted ever since.
At 27-years-old, Cobain died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound. Burnett’s forensic analysis of bloodstain patterns, recently released autopsy and shotgun performance concludes Cobain was in fact a victim of homicide.
The paper suggests Cobain was confronted by one or more people who forcibly injected a lethal dose of heroin to debilitate Cobain.
He was then allegedly shot in the head, the gun placed in his arms and the addition of 4 extra lines were added to existing writing from Cobain to misconstrue it as a suicide note.
Burnett’s extensive study of crime scene photos reveals inconsistencies in blood patterns, stating that if a bloodstain analyst were at the scene “they would necessarily have concluded that Cobain did not kill himself.
No one recognised that the bloodstains on Cobain’s shirt and lower left pant leg could only have been put there by someone else after the gunshot blast” Burnett stated.
The stains on the bottom of his shirt are also consistent with Cobain’s body being lifted and his head down.
There is no blood on his hands or the rest of his shirt.
Also contributing to the peer-reviewed paper, Michelle Wilkins stated the team’s conclusion of homicide comes after an extensive toxicology review.
Autopsy findings reveal inconsistencies with an instantaneous gunshot death.
“The necrosis of the brain and liver happens in an overdose. It doesn’t happen in a shotgun death” said Wilkins. She continues to add doubt, stating “we’re supposed to believe he capped the needles and put everything back in order after shooting up three times, because that’s what someone does while they’re dying.”
Journalist Ian Halperin additionally argues that with 70 times the legal dose of heroin in his system, Cobain would physically have not been able to commit the act.
Burnett, Wilkins and their team have handed in their investigation to Seattle’s deputy mayor Tim Burgess, additionally providing a ballistics report to chief medical examiner for King County, Dr J. Matthew Lacy.
A spokesperson for the Medical Examiner’s Office maintains Cobain “died by suicide … and followed all of its procedures in coming to the determination of the manner of death.”
Requests to re-open the case have been declined.
