On April 2, 1994, Kurt Cobain escaped from the Exodus Treatment Center in Los Angeles. Police received a missing person report on April 4 and found him on April 8, dead after a shotgun blast to the head. Although Seattle Police quickly ruled his death a suicide, evidence suggests Cobain was murdered by his wife, Courtney Love.

On March 2, 1994, Kurt Cobain checked into the Excelsior Hotel in Rome while on tour with his band, Nirvana. The next day, Courtney Love, Cobain's wife as well as singer and guitarist from the band Hole, flew in from London to see him for the first time in a month. The couple celebrated the reunion by drinking champagne (Sanz 27). Love awoke the next morning to find Cobain lying on the floor in a coma. Paramedics discovered the prescription tranquilizer Rohypnol, also known as the "date-rape drug," in Cobain's bloodstream. This, combined with the champagne from the night before, induced the coma (Sanz 27). A characteristic of Rohypnol is the victim suffers amnesia. Thus, Cobain couldn't remember the previous night. The media reported the story as a "failed suicide attempt," which set people up to believe when he died the cause was suicide.

Courtney Love realized she was losing her control over Kurt Cobain. Less than two months before his death, Lollapalooza--an annual Woodstock with modern bands--offered him 9.5 million dollars to headline the tour, which he declined ("Goodbye"). He was also in the process of leaving Love ("Kurt Cobain Murder Investigation"). She knew he was in the process of filing for divorce, so she called one of her attorneys, Rosemary Carrol, and told her to find the "meanest, most vicious divorce lawyer" she could find ("Kurt Cobain Murder Investigation").

The day after Kurt escaped from the Exodus Treatment Center, Love hired Tom Grant, a California licensed private investigator and former detective with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, to find Cobain. After Cobain was found dead, Grant began to suspect Love was involved. He published his findings in 1997, which collected from the time Love hired him, which lead to Love as the one ultimately responsible for Cobain's death. Grant, who has appeared on "Unsolved Mysteries," CNN and Fox News discussing the Cobain case, believes Courtney Love had Kurt Cobain assassinated after she discovered he was leaving her. Kurt knew his life was in danger when he escaped from rehabilitation. According to Dave Thompson, author of Never Fade Away, after Cobain escaped from rehabilitation, he asked his longtime friend Dylan Carson to purchase a shotgun. Cobain wanted to protect himself (13). Police found the shotgun at the scene, with two shells still loaded, suggesting Kurt had loaded it for protection as he said, not to commit suicide ("Kurt Cobain Murder Investigation"). Also police never found any legible fingerprints on the gun. In fact, they did not check for fingerprints until May 6, a month after Cobain died. Cobain was injected with a lethal dose of heroin before his death. His heroin blood level was 1.52 mgs per liter, which would require a minimum dose of 225 milligrams of heroin, three times the lethal dose for ever a hardcore addict. The amount of heroin injected into his bloodstream would have immediately incapacitated him, so he could not have picked up the shotgun and pulled the trigger ("Kurt Cobain Murder Investigation"). However, this did not appear on the death certificate ("Death Certificate"). Dr. Nikolas J. Hartshorne, the assistant medical examiner who performed the autopsy and signed the death certificate, is a close friend of Love.

The death of Kurt Cobain came at a convenient time for Courtney Love. She inherited their thirty-million-dollar estate. Also, her band's major-label debut was released four days after his death. Hole's previous releases had little commercial success but "Live Through This," the CD released just days after Cobain's death, debuted at Number 1 on then Billboard chart and was named Album of The Year by Rolling Stone. Perhaps coincidentally, Hole's own bass player, Kristen Pfaff, died of an overdose shortly after the release. Nirvana planned to release a double-CD of acoustic and live songs in May, but unlike Courtney, the surviving members delayed the release six months.

Poor police work marred the Cobain death investigation. On April 4, Seattle police received a missing person report. Although Wendy Connor, Cobain's mother, was supposed to have filed the police report, Courtney Love actually notified police ("Cobain Investigation Update). The missing person report reads: "Mr. Cobain ran away from California facility and flew back to Seattle. He also bought a shotgun and may be suicidal. Mr. Cobain may be at =====, location for narcotics. Det. Terry SPD/Narcotics has further info." Although the report is accurate, it is worded awkwardly. It sounds as if Cob am left rehabilitation and then bought a shotgun, which set the police up for what they would later observe. A body, a shotgun, and a note would normally point to a suicide. However, Kurt purchased the shotgun before he left for rehabilitation. The Cobain Death Investigation report, dated April 8, also suggests poor police work ("Cobain Investigation Update"). Officer Levandowski, listed on the Seattle police report without a first name, narrated the report, which says an electrician, hired by Courtney Love, "observed a dead male on the floor" of the room above the garage. The door leading to this room was locked, as the report states, but that doesn't mean Cobain locked himself in the room. The doors had a simple push and twist lock and could be locked from either side of the door. The report also says, "Seattle Fire Department asked for I.D. from the nearby wallet and (Officer Levandowski) opened the wallet which was within a couple of feet from the victim's body," ("Cobain Investigation Update"). This contradicts reports by MTV and the Seattle Rocket who both said Kurt left the wallet open and identification exposed. Levandowski also says he photographed the scene with a Polaroid while two other officers used 35-mm cameras, but police never used these pictures for evidence. Sgt. Cameron, also listed without a first name, said the police "haven't developed the photographs and probably never would." The report concludes with Levandowski saying, "The note was apparently written by Cobain to his wife and daughter explaining why he had killed himself." Cobain actually wrote the note to his fans explaining his retirement and why he was leaving Love ("Grant Interviews Part One").

The police report of the scene, documented by Detectives Jim Yoshida and Steve Kirkland, is also inconsistent. The report says the doors leading into the room where the electrician found Cobain were closed, "but there is a stool with a box of gardening supplies on it in front of the door," ("Cobain Investigation Update"). The stool was not blocking the entrance. It was in front of a door leading to the balcony. The report also says police found a box containing twenty-two live shells, which meant three were missing. Two of the missing shells were loaded in the shotgun and one spent shell was on top of a brown corduroy jacket. The report concludes with Yoshida and Kirkland stating that Dr. Hartshorne, who performed the autopsy, discovered "puncture marks on the inside of the left and right elbows," ("Cobain Investigation Update"). This means someone could have injected enough heroin in Cobain to incapacitate him, but Hartshorne did not perform a toxicology report until after police ruled Cobain's death a suicide. The toxicology report revealed Kurt was, in fact, injected with three times the lethal dose of heroin ("Cobain Investigation Update"). Police also failed to provide adequate protection for people who testified against Courtney Love. Shortly after Cobain's death, a man known as '~l Duce" told police Courtney Love had offered him fifty thousand dollars to "whack Kurt Cobain," (Gleiberman 40). A week after El Duce passed a lie detector test, he was run over by a train.

The most obvious evidence indicating Cobain's death was a suicide was the note found at the scene. While Courtney Love and the Seattle Police claim it was a suicide note, it was actually a retirement note ("Grant Interviews Part One"). "There was nothing in the note that mentions suicide," said Tom Grant. "It was obviously written to Kurt's fans, simply saying he was retiring. There was a small footnote to Courtney and Frances, Kurt and Courtney's daughter. There's nothing in the note about killing himself." The note was addressed to Boddah, an imaginary childhood friend of Cobain's ("Sad Little"). The majority of the note explains how Kurt lost his passion for music and felt "the worst...would be to pull people off by faking it," (Azerrad 348). Kurt also wrote, "I have it good-very good-and I'm grateful." This does not sound like a man ready to take his own life.

Perhaps the most convincing argument, though, is how people who were close to Cobain reacted to his death. According to Tom Grant, Courtney Love flew to Arizona with her ex-boyfriend Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins ("Grant Interviews Part Two"). At a memorial, where she read excerpts of the note Cobain left, she encouraged the crowd to call Cobain an "asshole." During Hole concerts, she would simulate his suicide. Those who truly loved Cobain remembered him more respectfully. Tori Amos, in a recorded interview, said Nirvana's music inspired me to and play. That's how you know music really touches you, when you want to go to your instrument and dive off a cliff with what you're hearing" (Michael). "Smells Like Teen Spirit," Nirvana's biggest hit, was part of Amos's concerts before Cobain's death. Afterward, she added part of Don McLean's "American Pie:"

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Sanz, Cynthia. 'Hardly Nirvana." People 21 March 1994: 27-8.

Thompson, David. Never Fade Away. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1994.