Countering The Cobain Case

Kurt Cobain was an American singer and guitarist of the rock band Nirvana. On 8th April 1994, Cobain's dead body was found by an electrician named Gary Smith who came to install security system in his Lake Washington House at Seattle, Washington. The Seattle Police arrived and investigated the scene. Their investigation resulted in the conclusion that Cobain died from suicide three days before his body was found. Reports state that Cobain was found holding the barrel of a shotgun in his left hand, a suicide note was found at the scene and 1.52mg/L of morphine with traces of valium (Diazepam) were detected in his blood.

Prior to the discovery of his dead body, Cobain was at a rehabilitation center called Exodus Recovery Center in L.A., California. On 1st April 1994, he was reported to have left the place at evening by climbing the wall at the back of the rehab center. Then he took a flight to Seattle and arrived the next morning. His wife, Courtney Love, was informed that Cobain has gone missing. On 3rd April 1994, she hired a private investigator, Tom Grant, to find her husband who she suspected was having an affair with a drug dealer called Caitlin Moore. Then on 4th April 1994, Courtney filed a missing person report to the police to find Cobain. Though she suspected her husband was having an affair, she was also worried that he was suicidal and would do something to harm himself.

Tom Grant would later suspect that Cobain was murdered and that his wife is the one responsible for his death. He suspects she hired someone to kill Cobain and stage his death as suicide. Later on, he would create a website called Cobain Case to discuss this theory.

The theory that Kurt Cobain was murdered is also called the conspiracy theory, the murder theory and the alternative theory. The theory claims that Cobain was injected with a heavy dose of heroin before being shot with the shotgun by the murderer. Many claim that the amount of morphine found in his blood is abnormally high. According to Tom Grant, Cobain had 3 times the lethal dose of heroin based on a study in the book Heroin Addiction written by Jerome J. Platt. He suggests that Cobain could not have shot himself with the shotgun after injecting himself with heroin, stating that he could not have survived with that much amount of heroin in his system. And so he alleges that Cobain did not commit suicide and was murdered. He mainly suspects Cobain's wife, Courtney Love. 

Grant isn't the only one who has suspicions and doubts that Courtney Love had conspired and got her husband killed. Many others share his views on this case, having a strong belief that Cobain was murdered. These include writers like Ian Halperin and Max Wallace, YouTube channels like AmericanSpyFox and hundred thousands of fans worldwide. 

The theory is mainly supported by misconceived evidences claimed to prove that Cobain was murdered. In this blog, I will clarify all the misconceptions I find in this conspiracy theory. 

I should give a brief description about myself and how I got into this theory. 

I'll like my identity to be private, so I won't disclose my name. I can tell you that I am from India, my gender is female, I was born in the year 1993 and the religion I follow is Islam. If you want to call me by a name then I suggest to call me Indya. It's pronounced the same as India. There is a YouTuber called Misha Bodnar who has a channel called Lord Kreiden. He calls me India instead of my YouTube channel name because he doesn't likes the name. Then I thought I'll use the name he calls me as my alias. I changed the spelling to make it distinguishable.

I first found the band Nirvana in early 2013. In late 2018, I learned about the conspiracy theory and shortly afterwards I started doing research around the case. I will admit that for a short period of time, I did have my doubts and considered the possibility that Cobain was murdered but eventually after doing my research and gathering all the facts that I could, I realized that the evidences were misconceived. I no longer have any doubt and agree with the official verdict of suicide.

In late 2021 I started making text videos where I gave my explanations as to why Cobain was not murdered. I uploaded the videos on my YouTube channel called MissDerpina2606. I am not a skilled video editor and the quality of my videos are not that great. I eventually realized that it might be better for me to make a blog. And so here I am.

I will start with Tom Grant's website, Cobain Case. I will counter any claims he made in his Case Outline which are supposed to prove that Cobain was murdered by his wife but actually they don't.

1. Someone was using Kurt's credit card.

When Grant was initially hired by Courtney Love, she hired him to find who was using her husband's missing credit card. Courtney authorized Grant to receive the credit card's transaction record from the bank. Grant observed that transactions were made with the card between 5th April 1994 to 8th April 1994. Cobain died on 5th April 1994. This leads the question as to who was using the credit card. People who support the conspiracy theory suspect it was the murderer.

From what I have gathered, whatever transactions were made didn't have the credit card present and each transaction was rejected because Courtney had cancelled all of Kurt's credit cards. 

(I suggest to watch this video from Cadomo Sting which shows the full transaction records. Just to clarify, he supports the conspiracy theory. Despite being on different sides we respect each other for our personal views on this case. I could put an image of the screenshot here but I think it's best if you go to the source directly. I also suggest my video, The Missing Credit Card.)

In chapter 9 of the book Kurt Cobain by Christopher Sandford, the author wrote that on 6th April (1994), a woman from Seattle attempted to charge a $1,517 cash advance on Cobain's credit card to settle his unpaid drug bills. It is likely this woman was a drug dealer.

I have no way to confirm this but it seems like Cobain's credit card details were given around to different people, most likely his drug dealers. It is possible that these people were the ones who were using his missing credit card.

If these people are drug dealers, then it is unlikely that they will come out and confess. They will get into legal trouble when they do. 

2. Cobain was in fear of his life.

That seems to be true however, I don't think it was Courtney he was in fear of. From one interview I found in the website Live Nirvana, Cobain mentioned that he and the other band members of Nirvana received assassination threats on a few shows for their Heart-shaped Box music video. 

Cobain also said in few other interviews that he liked to keep guns for protection. In chapter 11 of the book Come As You Are, it was stated that one night Kurt and Courtney thought an intruder was in their house. Kurt took a handgun he borrowed from Dylan Carlson and looked around the house. They didn't find anyone. On 31st March 1994, Cobain went to a gun shop with Dylan where he told him that he wanted a gun for protection because there were prowlers around his house before Dylan bought and gave the shotgun Cobain would end up using to kill himself.

Point is, yes, Cobain was in fear of his life but it wasn't his wife he was in fear of.

3. There was no "suicide" note!

Some people do not agree that the note found on the scene was a suicide note. Some think the entire note was forged, others think only the last four lines in large letters were written by the murderer. 

(You can check the photo copy of the note here.)

Grant claims that the note was a retirement letter written by Cobain to his fans telling them that he is quitting the music business. He also alleges that there is nothing written on the note where Cobain said that he was going to kill himself. 

Nothing was written on the note where Cobain said he was retiring and quitting the music business either. 

The note wasn't addressed to his fans. It was initially addressed to 'Boddah', Cobain's childhood imaginary friend. Then in the end he addressed to his wife and daughter, telling them that he'll be at their altar.

I don't know if this is a common tradition in the west but here in India, I know some Hindus have a tradition to put photos of their deceased family members on the wall with a garland of flowers. A few online search results tells me that some Christians do something similar for their deceased loved ones. They build an altar for them. It is called memorial altar.

Cobain did not say anything about killing himself but in one line he wrote about an altar which he expects his wife and daughter to make after his death in remembrance of him. If he wasn't going to kill himself why was he expecting his wife and daughter to make such an altar of him?

Other than that the line 'I don't have the passion anymore, and so, remember, it's better to burn out than fade away.' sounds depressing. I usually hear suicidal people say they don't have the passion anymore. Maybe reading this online article can help you understand the signs and behaviour of a potential suicide victim. 

4. Cobain was injected with 3 times a lethal dose of heroin!

Many who support this murder theory claim that the 1.52mg/L of morphine found in Cobain's blood is 3 times the lethal dose. This claim is based on a study from a book called Heroin Addiction written by Jerome J. Platt. The author wrote that for a 150 pound male, 75mg-80mg of heroin is the lethal dose and that this amount will result in 0.5mg/L of morphine in blood.

I'll make another post with a detailed explanation about Cobain's morphine levels explaining heroin and its metabolism.

(Update: Read the post here.)

For now, I'll give a short explanation.

There is no fixed lethal dose. How much of heroin can be lethal depends on the age, gender, health and drug tolerance of the person. People who are new to heroin may get an overdose with 75mg of heroin but regular users of heroin would build up tolerance and can take around 300mg to 500mg of heroin a day. Severe addicts can tolerate up to to 2,000mg a day. 

Grant claims that Cobain took 225mg of heroin to end up with 1.52mg/L of morphine in his blood. Heroin gets metabolized into morphine. Through the process of elimination half-life and glucuronidation, morphine would gradually decrease in amount.

Morphine has a half-life of 2 to 3 hours. With 225mg of heroin, it would take 5 half-lives to get 1.52mg/L of morphine in the blood for Cobain who is estimated to have weighted 135 pound at the time of his death. Each half-life would take 2-3 hours. 5 half-lives would take between 10 to 15 hours.

If Grant's claim is correct then Cobain took 225mg of heroin 10 to 15 hours before he died. This is enough time for him to recover from the effects of the drug (which can last for up to 6 hours), pen down a note and kill himself with the shotgun. Keep in mind that Cobain needs to be alive for his body to metabolize and cleanse the drug out of his system. 

In short, 1.52mg/L of morphine does not prove that Cobain died from a lethal dose or was incapacitated for the murderer to kill him. Cobain was in a normal state when he committed suicide. He took heroin several hours before he died. He did not immediately killed himself after taking heroin as I hear the Seattle Police say.

Those were claims from Tom Grant's website Cobain Case.

Below are claims from the fans who support this theory and from books written about the conspiracy theory that I have gathered. After some consideration and research, I concluded the claims do not prove the theory.  

1. Illegible fingerprints means fingerprints were wiped out.

Some fans misunderstand illegible fingerprints to mean that no fingerprints were found. The Seattle Police found 4 latent fingerprints on the shotgun. However, they were illegible, meaning they were not clear enough to read. The fingerprints weren't wiped out.

Why were the fingerprints illegible?

I can think of 2 reasons.

1. Considering that Cobain was a musician who played the guitar, his fingerprint ridges were worn out from playing the guitar. He may also have callouses on his fingertips. This would prevent him to leave any legible fingerprints.
2. The fingerprints may have gotten smudged after firing the shotgun because of the gun recoil. 

2. The misplaced shotgun shell.

Cobain held the shotgun inverted. A spent shotgun shell was located to his left. The shotgun that Cobain held was a 20 gauge Remington M11. In the book The Mysterious Death of Kurt Cobain written by Matthew Richer and Tom Grant, Grant points out that the inverted position of the shotgun would have the ejection port face to the right side. After firing the gun, the spent shell would be ejected from the gun to Cobain's right side. Instead it was found on his left side.

In one podcast episode from Murder Was The Case by Lee Mellor which I first found on YouTube, retired homicide detective Mike Ciesynski explained that it could be possible that the shell was moved by the wind during the 3 days Cobain was lying dead.

Another explanation I found was from this video where it was explained that Cobain was sitting on the floor with his knees up when he shot himself. After firing the gun, the ejected shell hit his right knee and bounced to the left side. And that's how it got placed there.

3. Cobain was holding the shotgun.

Typically, a person who killed themselves with a shotgun won't be found holding the gun. The recoil would push the gun away from their hands. In Cobain's case, he was found holding the barrel of the shotgun in his left hand. This caused people to claim that the shotgun was placed in his hand by the murderer.

However, the shotgun Cobain used was a 20 gauge one. Shotguns with 10 gauge or 12 gauge have stronger recoil than a 20 gauge one. It could be possible that in Cobain's case the recoil wasn't strong enough for the gun to be pushed away from his hand.

Another reason I think he was holding the gun was the type of shells used. The gun was loaded with bird shot shells. This type of shell has low damage. Though a gunshot with bird shell in the mouth will be fatal, it is likely that Cobain didn't die instantly after shooting himself. He may have been conscious for a few minutes. After firing the gun he was gripping the barrel of the shotgun tightly in shock and in pain. Then the internal injuries he received caused him to lose consciousness as he passed away. This may be one reason why he was found holding the shotgun.

4. Valium (Diazepam) was given to Cobain by the murderer.

I think this claim originally came from Denise Marshall, a coroner from Colorado with whom Ian Halperin and Max Wallace consulted with for their book Love and Death. Marshall claims that the beer found at the scene may have been mixed with valium by the murderer. According to her, valium exacerbates the effects of heroin. She suggests the murderer gave valium to Cobain so that he would get incapacitated faster. 

Cobain was known to be a heavy heroin addict who had a high tolerance. Addicts with high tolerance require a heavy dose of the drug for it to work on them. The Seattle Police usually cite his tolerance whenever the question of his morphine levels rises. Marshall's claim supports the idea that Cobain was incapacitated with heroin despite having a high tolerance.

From what I have researched about valium, now known as diazepam, it has a long half-life, about 48 to 50 hours and its metabolites have even longer half-life, up to 200 hours. It would take 10 days for diazepam to leave the blood. Its metabolites can stay in the blood for over a month.

There is no information given as to how much valium (diazepam) was found in his blood. I have only read that the toxicology report said traces of valium were found implying that very low amounts of the drug or its metabolites were found.

It is likely Cobain may have taken diazepam days before he died. He didn't take the drug when he took heroin.

Interestingly, valium and rohypnol (now known as flunitrazepam) come from the same family of benzodiazepine. A month before Cobain died he was at Rome and had an overdose with champagne and rohypnol. I don't know what the traces of valium the report found were but I have a doubt that this may be related to the overdose Cobain had at Rome. 

I need more information to confirm this.

5. Courtney Love hasn't taken any legal action against Tom Grant

Tom Grant claims he has a tape recording containing evidence that can prove Courtney is guilty of murdering Cobain. The tape recording hasn't been revealed yet. In one interview Tom said he'd love Courtney to sue him. Basically, he wants Courtney to take him to court so that he will reveal the tape recordings.

This caused some fans to suspect that Courtney is not taking legal action because she fears Tom will reveal the tape recording that will send her to jail. 

In 1998, Courtney was interviewed by Howard Stern in his show. During this time, a documentary called Kurt and Courtney and a book called Who Killed Kurt Cobain? were being released. It's said that people were talking about the conspiracy theory and suspected her. Howard asks her why she doesn't do anything about it. Courtney said that she is past libel and that it would cost a lot of money so she doesn't take any legal action against them.

Libel/defamation is a lawsuit done against a false statement which causes harm to the reputation of the claimant. Tom Grant and many others who are accusing Courtney Love of murdering Kurt Cobain when it hasn't been proven that Cobain was murdered are accountable for libel/defamation. However, there is something known as libel-proof or defamation-proof. It is said that if the claimant has a bad reputation then the defendant can get libel-proof/defamation-proof. Courtney saying that she is past libel means that her defendants have a high chance of getting immunity (libel-proof). Libel/defamation lawsuits are expensive. Kurt Cobain himself did a libel lawsuit against Lynn Hirschberg over her Vanity Fair article called Strange Love. From what I gathered, Cobain had spent up to $300,000 in the lawsuit. 

Point is, Courtney is not taking legal action because she doesn't wants to do an expensive lawsuit in which she has a low chance of winning. Also, her not taking legal action does not prove she is guilty. It's her personal decision if she wants to take a risk of spending hundred thousands of dollars to take legal action or not.

6. Kurt was not suicidal, Courtney implanted the idea he was suicidal.

There is a misconception that Cobain was not suicidal and that the idea of him being suicidal was something Courtney implanted. From what I have gathered, Cobain had spoken about suicide in a few of his interviews. 

Shockingly his suicidal thoughts began since his parent's divorce. Cobain was around the age of 8 or 9 when his parents got divorced.

In the interview with Robert Hilburn in July of 1993, Cobain said that his parent's divorce caused him to become a seriously depressed kid, every night he'd go to bed bawling his head off, he used to try to make his head explode by holding his breath thinking if he blew his head off they (his parents) would be sorry.

In the interview with Jim DeRogatis in 16th -17th July 1993, the interview mentioned that Cobain had told (Michael) Azerrad that he considered shooting himself after the article was published. The article is called Strange Love written by Lynn Hirschberg and published in the September 1992 issue of the magazine Vanity Fair. If you have read any biographies of Nirvana and Kurt Cobain, then you will know about Cobain losing custody of his daughter Frances Bean Cobain.

In chapter 12 of the book Come As You Are by Michael Azerrad, it is written that the article caused Kurt and Courtney to become suicidal. At one dark moment, they took a gun and considered taking their lives. In the end they put the gun down.

In the interview with Amy Raphael in 22nd-24th July 1993, Kurt said that he was suicidal throughout most of his life. Though he also said he is afraid of dying and doesn't want to leave his wife and daughter behind. Yet in the same interview he said he is not afraid of dying. The interview is a bit confusing.

In an interview with MTV in December 1993, Kurt said he had stomach pain which made him want to die and blow his head off. He also said that the pain is gone and he was doing fine. However, a few people doubt his stomach pain was gone. They think Kurt lied and that he continued to secretly medicate himself with heroin to make the pain go away.

The main point I am trying to make here is that Courtney did not spread the idea that Cobain was suicidal. Cobain himself had expressed his suicidal thoughts and that is why people think he was suicidal.

7. The syringes were capped and looked clean.

(Updated on 13th December 2022)

Image Source

The Seattle Police found a box at the scene containing two syringes, a few grams of black tar heroin and drug paraphernalia (pictured above). Many people have noted that the syringes were capped and looked clean. It's claimed that Cobain cleaned the syringes before he killed himself. It is assumed that those were the syringes he had used to take heroin before his death. The people who support the murder theory suspect that the syringes were not used and that the murderer had used another syringe to incapacitate or give a lethal dose to Cobain. I think I have already explained why that theory fails to convince me that he was murdered.

Personally, I am not sure if those syringes were used. It's likely Cobain used another syringe (maybe more than one) and discarded them. The ones found in the box were spare ones. I don't know if the Seattle Police had collected and inspected the garbage around the scene and the house. Still it could be possible that Cobain had taken heroin at another place and discarded the syringes around that area. I estimate that between 6 to 24 hours before his death, Cobain had taken heroin. It is not known exactly when he returned to his house. I know that he was seen in a restaurant on 3rd April 1994 but on 4th April 1994 his whereabouts are unclear. He is estimated to have died on 5th April 1994. 

To simply put, I do agree that there is a chance that the syringes in the box were not the ones Cobain had used to take heroin prior to his death. However, I don't agree with the theory that the murderer gave him a lethal dose and shortly afterwards killed him with the shotgun.

That's all for now. 

Please do check out the links. I'll update and make more posts if I find something relevant to the case.

-Indya