Love & Death: The Murder of Kurt Cobain by Max Wallace & Ian Halperin

Author:Max Wallace & Ian Halperin [Wallace, Max]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Atria Books
Published: 2004-04-08T16:00:00+00:00

Friday, April 15

In 1997, Seattle Police Department spokesman Sean O’Donnell told NBC’sUnsolved Mysteries of the monthlong investigation his department had conducted into the circumstances of Kurt’s death. His detectives, he said, originally began the investigation with the premise that Kurt had been murdered before officially ruling out the possibility: “That’s the way they conducted this investigation, so that there was a very thorough, comprehensive investigation done from the very beginning, and everything that the detectives encountered indicated to them that this was a suicide. We actually found nothing to indicate that this was anything but a suicide.”

But a long trail of evidence suggests investigators never seriously contemplated the idea that Kurt was murdered at all. Indeed, a Seattle Police Department source familiar with the investigation told us in 1996 that Sergeant Cameron made it clear at the time that the so-called homicide investigation was just a show: “We weren’t supposed to take it seriously.” The source, who said he didn’t necessarily believe Cobain was murdered, described a “shoddy investigation” in which Cameron didn’t even bother to develop the photographs taken at the scene. He said an outside law enforcement agency should reinvestigate the circumstances because “Cameron will never admit he made a mistake. He is very concerned about his reputation.”

The police reports we obtained under Washington State’s Freedom of Information laws appear to reinforce his charge that the homicide unit never took their investigation seriously. According to the initial incident report filed by homicide detectives, they had been summoned to the Lake Washington estate by a patrol officer at 9:50A.M. on April 8, a little more than an hour after Cobain’s body was found. The dispatcher informed detectives that uniformed officers “are on the scene of a suicide. There is a note present, and the gun is also in place.” In their official incident report, filed later the same day, the SPD homicide detectives wrote “Suicide” in the box on the form indicating “Type of incident.” This is a clear contradiction of the SPD spokesman’s assertion that the incident was investigated as a homicide from the very beginning. It proves that from the earliest hours of April 8, each unit of the Seattle Police Department had alreadyofficially labeled the death a suicide.

Certainly, Grant’s own attempts to share information with Cameron did not inspire confidence. Grant had already spent considerable time in the greenhouse, photographing the interior and exterior from every angle. One detail in particular stood out for him. The doors had a simple push-in-and-twist-type lock. On April 8, Cameron had informed him over the phone that Kurt was “locked inside the room,” suggesting that nobody could have been inside with him. This appeared to suggest that suicide was the only possible scenario. Now, face-to-face with Cameron for the first time, Grant asks the veteran homicide detective why he had told him the door was locked from the inside. (Ever since Grant had actually seen and photographed the lock, he realized that the detective’s statement was irrelevant.)

“Anyone could have pulled that door shut after locking it,” Grant says.

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