Chapter 1: What happened on April 8, 1994, regarding Kurt Cobain?
On April 8, 1994, Kurt Cobain was found dead in a room above the garage of his Seattle home. Authorities later revealed that he had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. A handwritten note was discovered nearby. A 20-gauge shotgun was found resting across his body. The King County medical examiner ruled it a suicide. The Seattle police closed the case.
But almost from the beginning, doubts and conspiracy theories began to swirl about the note, the toxicology results, the position of the gun, and the blood at the scene. For more than 30 years, the debate never fully went away.
Chapter 2: What doubts and conspiracy theories emerged after Cobain's death?
Now, a new independent team of forensic researchers have reexamined the original autopsy and crime scene material. They say they identified five key pieces of evidence, from blood pattern analysis to drug levels, that they argue were inconsistent with the official account.
In this special episode of The Trial USA, we spoke to retired Seattle Police Captain Neil Lowe, a veteran of the force who was on duty when Kurt Cobain's death was first investigated.
Lowe explains why Cobain's death has suddenly returned to the headlines, what this new independent team of forensic experts is now examining, and why they believe the evidence points toward homicide rather than suicide. I'm Kayla Brantley, and this is our special investigation into the death of Kurt Cobain. We'll be back in just a moment with the interview.
Chapter 3: What new evidence has the independent forensic team uncovered?
And joining us now is former Chief Neal Lowe, who's a former investigator with the Seattle Police Department and has reviewed the evidence in Cobain's death. Neal, thank you for being here. This has been such a big story. You were a police officer in Seattle in 1994, right? when Kurt Cobain was found dead. Can you take us back to that time?
Walk us through the circumstances of his death and if at the time there was anything suspicious versus now with all of this new evidence that's come to light.
Well, I think there were things that were suspicious, just that nobody was there that gave it a hard look. I was in a different precinct. I had just made lieutenant. I was at South Precinct. And they had put out a notice to our roll calls, which read to the patrol officers before they go out on the streets. And it was that supposedly Kurt's mother... We'll come back to that.
Reporting that he was in town, possibly, and was possibly suicidal, and he escaped drug treatment. Pretty close to that. So that really didn't impact my precinct. Within a couple days that they found Curtin, he was dead, and it seemed to match up with the predicted story. I think that set the tone for what happened. When detectives finally got to Curtin, Kurt's house.
They went in there with the mindset, okay, here we have a, this is really during kind of like a heroin epidemic in Seattle. We have a rocker, he's done heroin and he's dead and end of story. So homicide detectives didn't really want to process it. It says there's no suspect here. He's laying on the floor. And our protocol was that patrol officers would handle everyday suicides.
And so they were trying to kick the case to patrol. And patrol was rightfully saying, this is a pretty big hot potato here. You guys investigate it. So Captain Larry Farrar brought up the big squad of detectives and they showed up. Well, I didn't like the photo I saw of them.
When you see them in the greenhouse up there and their arms are like this and they're leaning back and a couple of guys are working or helping, but all they're doing is helping patrol write the report.
They didn't collect evidence in the sense that they didn't scrape fingernails, they didn't bag his hands, and I have a real problem with what I saw in the photographs when they finally came out of Kurt's hand, the one that was supposedly holding the shotgun. You know, it's kind of gruesome, but I don't know how else to put it.
Have you ever shaken a Coke bottle or can and tried to drink it and had it come out your nose? imagine that happening if something goes in if you know physics something's got to come out The buckshot, it wasn't buckshot, it was birdshot that went into Kurt's brain, scrambled, and the pellets were contained in his skull.
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Chapter 4: Why has Kurt Cobain's case returned to the headlines?
If I put my hand over the screen and sprayed it like this, then took my hand up, you would see the negative pattern from where my hand had been. And I wanted to see if there was that on his clothing, like it had been sprayed there. Or could there have been another hand? And I wanted to see that spray pattern. But my own department referred me to the...
public disclosure process and that everything's been released. And I know the photos are, there are more photos and the medical examiner probably has more photos. I'd like to see those too and make a better determination.
And what are some of the other key evidence, whether it's in the photos or anything else that really points to this not being just an open and shut suicide case?
It starts with that letter that was found up there. I don't think that's a suicide letter, and I'm... Try to think of a tactful way to put it. The public information officer was not qualified to make that opinion.
A, she should not have released those details because let's assume that Courtney, she's down in L.A., she looks at the national news to find out that her husband's been killed or died up in Seattle. That's not the way it's done. Medical examiners are supposed to make this call, but the... PIO flipped that out that, oh, yeah, he was found with a shotgun, was in the room on a suicide note.
And I said, well, what kind of training do you have to determine that that's a suicide note? I've read that suicide note. I have a blowup of it hanging in my garage so I can look at it.
What does that suicide note convey to you?
To me, it was written in at least two different times, two different parts. He wrote that on an IHOP placemat. And if you've seen the original, that's what it is. It has the curly edges around it, as opposed to the photocopies, they don't have that. And the top part starts out with like a note to Bodhisattva. And I think it's Kurt saying, this is me leaving rock and roll. I can't perform anymore.
I'm not Freddie Mercury. This just doesn't do it for me. And then it looks like the bottom of the handwriting gets bigger and sloppier. And I still don't see in it Of course, I've taken a lot of writing and reading classes. I don't see it that this is a suicide note. I see it. Goodbye. I'm leaving. This is why I'm leaving. It doesn't say I'm killing myself.
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Chapter 5: What were the circumstances surrounding the original investigation?
This is why I'm leaving.
Leaving music. You're not leaving the world.
OK. Yeah. And in my thought, it was like, OK, he's going to run off and live in the mountains in Idaho or something like that. He is done with public performing. And this is about him missing Lollapalooza. And so he's having to write this out. I think somebody picked up the note and maybe finished the bottom. And so this part that keeps popping up is... Oh, Courtney's the best, blah, blah, blah.
And that was the same dribble that was found on the note on the stairs in the house. He may have taken dictation on it, but he didn't write that note. Supposedly the Kurt, the one found on the stairs. And then you have that same language used in the suicide note. No, there's a common author here and it's not Kurt. And so I would like the real note to be analyzed by real handwriting analysts.
And they're saying, oh, yeah, well, the note's been analyzed. Well, how could you analyze a note if it's not the real note?
If you have a photocopy of a photocopy, which... Right, you need the exact note, the original copy.
The paper, you need to see the pen under microscope, the indentations it makes. Is there hesitation? Is there drawing of letters and whatnot? I don't think the public information officer was qualified to make any of those decisions and comments, but she did. And that's the direction the investigation took. This is the party line and we're going to stick to it.
And I'm looking at this, you know, that was 30 years ago when this happens. Nobody's there yet. that it's going to reflect back on. Everybody's retired or moved on or died. Why don't you take another look? And I'm too old to solve it, by the way. I told Matt Bell that in an interview two years ago. It's over. I'm done. A new generation is going to have to do that.
Fortunately, it looks like people are stepping up.
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