By: James Daniels

Listen to any rock station on the radio and you may think Nirvana is alive and well. Their hits are still playing widely across most major radio stations. Likewise, you can still find their albums at any major retailer. Thus, to any Nirvana fan out there, it may be hard to believe that April 8^th, 2013 will mark the nineteenth anniversary of the discovery of Kurt Cobain’s body in his Lake Washington house.

The death of Mr. Cobain came as a shock to the music world. As the lead singer of perhaps the most popular band on Earth at the time, Kurt seemed to have it all. Nirvana’s second album, Nevermind, was released in 1991 and propelled the band into worldwide fame. Nirvana also released their album In Utero in September of 1993, which debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 chart. Little did everyone know that Kurt Kobain, and Nirvana, would meet their demise within seven months.

The events surrounding Kurt’s death have been a hot topic ever since that fateful day. On April 8^th, 1994, an electrical worker discovered his body in a spare room above his garage. The worker also found an apparent suicide note. Kurt was found with a shotgun resting on his chest. His death was officially ruled a suicide. He was estimated to have died on April 5^th, 1994.

There were several factors that supported the ruling of a suicide. Kurt was known to abuse drugs heavily, had clinical depression, and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Also, two of his uncles committed suicide with guns and Kurt was alleged to have attempted suicide in the past. Add in the handwritten suicide note and it appeared to be a slam-dunk case. However, many are not so sure that the official ruling is accurate.

Seattle public access host Richard Lee was the first to publicly object to the suicide ruling. He noted that the amount of blood at the scene was not consistent with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. Others have come forward with similar claims, as well.

A private investigator named Tom Grant noted that the toxicology report of Kurt’s death indicated that the level of heroin in his blood was listed at 1.52 milligrams per liter. He argued that Kurt could not have injected himself with that level of heroin and still have been able to pull the trigger. However, in 2004, five medical examiners were interviewed by Dateline NBC, two of which indicated that Kurt’s tolerance to heroin could have been built up to still pull the trigger. The other three said that the results were inconclusive.

The suicide note is another issue that Tom Grant found alarming. It appears that a few lines at the bottom of the note are the only ones that reference suicide, and the writing appears to be different in those lines. Most experts that have been consulted regarding this note have found that the results of whether or not Kurt wrote this letter are inconclusive.

In addition, the fingerprints, and lack thereof, at the scene have been a source of controversy. Kurt’s left hand was wrapped around the barrel of the shotgun at the time of the police report. There were fingerprints found on the shotgun. However, none of them were legible. Perhaps most strikingly, no prints were found on the trigger. Also, the pen and apparent suicide note found on the scene did not contain any finger prints. No gloves were found on Mr. Cobain at the scene.

Perhaps the most public aspect of this controversy has been claims of Courtney Love’s involvement in the case. Love was Kurt’s wife at the time of his death. It is alleged that Kurt asked his attorney to draw up a will for him that excluded his wife, as he was planning to file for divorce. Perhaps the most damning evidence to support Love’s possible involvement was a claim by El Duce, the leader of a band named Mentors, that Love offered him $50,000 to kill Mr. Cobain, a claim which was substantiated by his passing of a polygraph test.

Many of Kurt’s friends and Courtney Love’s first husband also suspected that he did not commit suicide. Her first husband, James Moreland, mentioned that Love had threatened him with violence in the past and liked the idea of paying someone else to do her dirty work. Most of the claims by such people, however, were based on opinions with little to no substantiated evidence to support them.

What truly happened on that fateful day in April of 1994 may forever rest with Kurt Cobain, who is now long gone. However, he lives on through his music. The Nevermind album alone has sold 26 million copies worldwide. In total, over 50 million Nirvana albums have been sold across the globe. I’m sure that Nirvana fans all over the world hope that, seventeen years later, Kurt is resting in peace. Maybe Kurt would want people to continue researching his death or maybe, as he was known to be reclusive, he’d say “Nevermind.”