Kurt Cobain was the lead singer and guitarist of the American rock band Nirvana, one of the most influential bands of the 1990s.Image: Redferns
02/19/2026, 05:4502/19/2026, 05:45
On April 8, 1994, electrician Gary Smith actually just wanted to install security lighting on a mansion in Seattle. Then he discovered the lifeless Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain in the attached winter garden. The then 27-year-old Nirvana lead singer had been dead for three days at this point.
He had a severe shotgun wound to his head, a bag of drug paraphernalia lay next to him, and a handwritten letter punctured with a red ballpoint pen was in a nearby flowerpot. A few hours later, investigators declared his death a suicide.
A 1994 SPD report described a driver for the Seattle taxi company Gray Top Cabs picking up a passenger from Cobain’s residence.Image: Daily Mail
More than three decades later, Neil Low, a retired Seattle police captain, claims the physical evidence from the crime scene “doesn’t add up.” The British one Daily Mail reported about it.
“I just don’t believe that Kurt did this to himself,” explains Low, describing the investigation as “botched.” Low did not work on the original investigation, but in 2005 he was given full access to and examined Cobain’s file and evidence collected at the crime scene.
The inconsistencies
First, Cobain’s hands are unusually clean in the crime scene photos. According to Low, there should have been blood splatters because of the massive force of the shotgun.
Secondly, three times the amount of a fatal dose of heroin was found in Cobain’s body. Low doubts that after such an injection a person would still be physically capable of positioning a heavy shotgun, let alone pulling the trigger.
A box of injection supplies at Cobain’s home in Seattle, Washington State, USA, where the rock star was found dead on April 5, 1994.Image: EPA
Third, at least twelve officers reportedly entered the crime scene. Low criticizes this as “crime scene tourism”. Possible evidence such as DNA traces under the fingernails were never secured.
The mysterious fourth point comes from a 1994 police report about a taxi ride. The taxi driver said he had picked up a passenger from Cobain’s property who “didn’t look right with the house.” Together, the chauffeur and his passenger searched in vain for a shop to buy shotgun ammunition.
The ex-police officer then asks himself: Why should gun owner Cobain allow himself to be driven around aimlessly in his neighborhood looking for ammunition? This incident was completely omitted from a 2014 Seattle Police Department (SPD) follow-up report.
In this file photo from April 8, 1994, special investigators examine the body of Kurt Cobain.Image: AP Seattle Times
The attitude of the authorities
As a captain, Neil Low was once a high-ranking member of the Seattle Police Department. This still sticks with its official statement: “Kurt Cobain died by suicide in 1994. This continues to be the position of the department.” A so-called audit, like the one Low carried out in 2005, only serves to check processes, not to change a judgment.
“I have read the file and can tell you what the evidence says, because that was my job. And they say: no suicide.”
Neil Low, retired Seattle Police Department Captain
For Neil Low, however, the case is clear. “I have read the file and can tell you what the evidence says, because that was my job. And they say: no suicide.” The investigators came to the crime scene with a preconceived opinion. It remains extremely unlikely that the Cobain file will ever be reopened.