Explosive New Riddle in Kurt Cobain's Suicide Note Suggests Rock Legend May Not Have Taken His Own Life, Claims Leading Investigator

HAVING combed through every file on Kurt Cobain’s tragic death, Neil Low is convinced the rock superstar didn’t take his own life – and it all hinges on his suicide note.

Today, the retired Seattle police captain – who carried out an audit of the Cobain case in 2005 – reveals a bombshell new riddle surrounding the crucial piece of evidence which blows open the growing campaign to revisit the official ruling that the Nirvana frontman took his own life.

Kurt Cobain died in April 1994, but mystery surrounds his death Credit: Getty – Contributor The Nirvana legend’s infamous suicide note Credit: Seattle Police Department Kurt with wife Courtney Love and daughter Frances Bean Cobain Credit: Getty

was aged just 27 when he was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head in a greenhouse at his home in Seattle in April 1994.

Within hours of his body being found, investigators declared it a suicide after finding a handwritten note in a nearby potted plant.

In recent months, a – who are campaigning for the case to be reopened – have cast fresh doubts over the authenticity of the note.

Now former SPD captain Neil Low, who spent 50 years with the force, has slammed cops after uncovering a document that suggests the original note was NOT kept by investigators.

Instead, it appears to have been handed over to Cobain’s widow in June 1994 by Steve Kirkland, one of the original case detectives who has since passed away.

Crucially, Low explains, this means that if the note was to be re-examined by handwriting experts, any findings would not be admissible in court as they had not studied the original copy, hampering efforts to clear up the enduring mystery about its authenticity.

In turn, he says, questions must be asked about why standard police protocol was not followed – and what the motivations were behind the decision to hand the note back.

Low – who was not involved in the original 1994 investigation into Cobain’s death – has described it as “botched” and said he believes it was a homicide.

He told The Sun: “I found the form while cleaning up my files. I thought I had been assured that SPD would have the original note in its files, but that is clearly mistaken.

“This receipt for evidence form shows that Detective Steve Kirkland released the original to Courtney Love in June 1994, just over two months after Kurt died.

Former SPD captain Neil Low has slammed cops after uncovering this document, which suggests the original note was not kept by investigators Credit: Neil Low

“That was a stupid, ignorant move on his part. It violates what is known as the ‘best evidence rule’ regarding what evidence should be retained by investigators.”

Also known as the original document rule, the best evidence rule is a legal doctrine that requires original documents be retained in order to be able to prove their contents in court.

The SPD receipt for evidence dated June 17, 1994, lists two items described as “ENVELOPE S/C HANDWRITTEN LETTER SK”.

It appears to show Courtney Love’s signature below a declaration which reads: “I received the above described property from the Seattle Department.”

Notes riddles

Two notes were found at Cobain’s home after his death – the alleged suicide note and a separate handwritten note found on the staircase, which has been described as his “final gasp of poetry”.

Investigators with Who Killed Kurt? have argued that his death was a homicide staged to look like a suicide.

The group claims that Cobain had already been killed by a lethal dose of heroin before suffering the gunshot wound to his head and could therefore not have shot himself.

In a new review of the available evidence by forensics experts, which they handed to the authorities in November last year, they claimed that the handwritten note’s “physical presentation and internal stylistic contradictions require critical reexamination”.

Cobain’s heroin prep cigar box found at the scene Credit: whokilledkurt.org

They argue that only the last four lines of the letter reference suicidal intent, adding: “Their tone is dramatically different from the body of the text above, which reads like a farewell to the music industry rather than a personal goodbye to loved ones.”

And they also point to two court-qualified forensic handwriting experts who expressed concerns in a 1997 TV programme that the note may have been authored by more than one person.

Low, who retired from the police in 2018 and two years later published a fictionalised account of the Cobain case titled Crazy Love, said: “Not having the original copy of the note really messes with the case.

“If anyone wanted to do a new handwriting analysis, it would not be admissible in court because you have to have the original.”

‘Case closed’

In January, Who Killed Kurt? lead investigator Michelle Wilkins and legal advisor Mark Larson met with the Seattle chief of police and wrote to the King County medical examiner to present their findings and ask for the case to be reopened.

The SPD responded in January by saying: “After careful review and thorough consideration, we have decided not to reopen the Cobain case.”

The King County medical examiner’s office declined to change Cobain’s manner of death to “undetermined”.

It added in a statement released to the media: “Our office is always open to revisiting its conclusions if new evidence comes to light, but we’ve seen nothing to date that would warrant re-opening of this case and our previous determination of death.”

Not having the original copy of the note really messes with the case

Neil Low

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

Cobain’s final months

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 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 Rome 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.

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 after only two days.

Cobain performing on stage Credit: Redferns