"After Years of Fighting, I Finally Have the Evidence to Show Kurt Cobain Didn't Take His Own Life!"

WHEN Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain was found dead with a shotgun wound to the head and an apparent suicide note near his Seattle home in 1994, it sent shockwaves around the world.

and the medical examiner quickly decided the grunge superstar had killed himself. But now, 31 years later, The Sun can reveal that authorities have received a new report which claims was murdered.

Kurt Cobain was found dead with a shotgun wound to the head and an apparent suicide noteCredit: Getty Michelle Wilkins has battled for years to prove Kurt Cobain didn’t take his own lifeCredit: Supplied The ‘evidence’ collected by the Who Killed Kurt? group of sleuths – which was presented the police in SeattleCredit: whokilledkurt.org

Over the last two years a group of online researchers – known as Who Killed Kurt? – have spent tens of thousands of dollars getting the available evidence looked at by experts.

It came after they were put in touch with an .

The group compiled a forensics report published earlier this month in a peer-reviewed forensics journal.

Based on a leaked autopsy report which is missing two pages, the complete firearms report, and the publicly available pics of the scene, it .

The group argues there is evidence Cobain had already died of a heroin overdose when he was shot and that bloodstain patterns show his body was moved after he died on April 5, 1994.

They believe he was given a lethal dose of heroin against his will and then shot to make it look like a suicide – and speculate that the reason for staging a suicide by shotgun after killing him with heroin is because a shooting scenario would be a bigger media story, which is what his killer wanted.

Its leader Michelle Wilkins and legal advisor, former top Seattle prosecutor Mark Larson, presented their findings during a 50-minute meeting with Seattle Police Department chief Shon Barnes and assistant chief of investigations Nicole Powell at SPD headquarters on November 4.

During the meeting, which was set up by the city’s deputy mayor Tim Burgess, they handed in a 181-page document providing new ballistics and handwriting findings which they says contradict the official suicide scenario.

The following day they delivered a package with ballistics evidence to the chief medical examiner for King County, Dr J. Matthew Lacy.

And they are calling on the authorities to change Cobain’s cause of death to “undetermined” and reopen the investigation.

Wilkins, 50, a specialist from Vancouver, BC, , says she fell down the Cobain death rabbit hole after stumbling on a Nirvana video during Halloween in 2023.

Explaining how she has gone from a sleuth to a top level meeting at SPD headquarters, Michelle said: “I was a pretty big Nirvana fan growing up and was 19 when Kurt died, so I was interested in the case back then but it’s not like it’s haunted my adult life.

“A couple of years ago I just happened to catch a video of Nirvana playing live on Halloween in Seattle when it came up on , and I was like, whatever happened with this?

“I realised I live quite close to where Kurt grew up in Aberdeen, .

“I started poking around and tried and talk to some of Kurt’s family and that’s when we got the autopsy report.

“Then someone got in touch with me to let me know there was a witness named Joe Burns who had allegedly been at the house the night Kurt died.

“Joe says he saw Kurt being manhandled by three men into the greenhouse before hearing a gunshot about half an hour later.

“We got an interview with him and everything just kind of rolled from there.

“We hired a few different lawyers before we found Mark Larson, a former deputy prosecuting attorney for Seattle for 35 years.

“Mark’s an absolute rock star in Seattle and knows all the right people, that’s why we were able to get the meeting.”

Michelle Wilkins with the group’s legal advisor, former Seattle prosecutor Mark LarsonCredit: Supplied Cobain’s heroin prep cigar box found at the sceneCredit: whokilledkurt.org Kurt Cobain’s suicide noteCredit: Seattle Police Department An alleged ‘practice sheet’ used to practice the hand printing of the last four lines of Cobain’s suicide noteCredit: whokilledkurt.org

Wilkins and her team’s efforts are far from the first time that questions have been raised over Cobain’s death, although they have repeatedly been dismissed by the authorities as .

Just one week after he was found dead on April 8, 1994, at his home in the Denny-Blaine neighbourhood of Seattle, a local public access TV host began airing a series called Kurt Cobain Was Murdered.

Since then, documentaries, , a movie, Cobain’s own grandfather and former private detective Tom Grant, who was hired by Cobain’s widow Courtney Love to find him in the lead up to his death, have questioned the suicide theory.

Ahead of the 20th anniversary of Cobain’s death in 2014, Seattle Police Department cold case detective Mike Ciesynski was tasked with reviewing the Cobain file.

Ciesynski said he took into account the conspiracy theories surrounding Cobain’s death and found them “interesting”.

But ultimately he declared he had found nothing to make him think it was anything other than a suicide.

Cobain’s widow Courtney Love, now 61, and other close relatives and friends have repeatedly backed the official version of events.

Cobain had publicly stated that issues he experienced with stomach pain had made him suicidal during Nirvana’s 1991 European tour.

In the month before his death, he overdosed on sleeping pills and booze while in in what his wife later described as a suicide attempt.

Two weeks later, on March 18, police were called to Cobain and Love’s home after she reported he had locked himself in a room with a gun and was threatening to kill himself.

Michelle Wilkins says she fell down the Cobain death rabbit hole after stumbling on a Nirvana video during Halloween in 2023Credit: Supplied Kurt Cobain performing on stageCredit: Redferns Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love and their daughter Frances Bean at 1993 MTV Music Video Awards in Los AngelesCredit: Getty American singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain died in 1994Credit: Getty – Contributor

Cobain denied being suicidal to officers, who confiscated guns, ammunition and a bottle of pills.

And the week before his death, associates staged an intervention due to concerns over Cobain’s drug abuse and he agreed to check into rehab but left only two days later.

Supporters of the suicide theory also point to claims that two of Cobain’s great uncles, Burle and Kenneth Cobain, killed themselves using guns.

But Wilkins insists there is no evidence Cobain was depressed, that the Rome incident was an accident and Cobain had put his stomach pain issues behind him by the time he died.

As she and her group wait for the authorities to respond to their forensics analysis, she warned: “There’s no universe where we’re leaving this alone.

“If we don’t hear from them we will reach out to the medical examiner and lead detective again and go from there.

“But right now we’re confident that they are actually looking into it.

“There are at least 80 kids, including one a year and a half ago, who we know have taken their own lives in copycat suicides.

“They’re doing it because they believe their hero Kurt Cobain did this and that needs to stop.

“This is something that still affects people today, people are still dying because of it.”

The Sun reached out to the Seattle Police Department and Seattle Deputy Mayor Tim Burgess asking for comment.

A spokeswoman for the Seattle and King County Medical Examiner’s Office said: “I can confirm that our Medical Examiner’s Office received the delivery you referenced.

“In the death examination for Kurt Cobain, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office worked with the local enforcement agency, conducted a full autopsy, and followed all of its procedures in coming to the determination of the manner of death as a suicide.

“We’re not able to provide specific details about what informed our conclusion, as the autopsy records are private under state law and can only be released by the next of kin.”

Wilkins insists there is no evidence Cobain was depressedCredit: Getty Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain got married in 1992 in HawaiiCredit: Getty Courtney Love pictured in 2018 in Paris, FranceCredit: Getty