I was in junior high, on spring break, when Kurt Cobain committed suicide. My dad broke the news to me. I watched MTV News for the next two days straight, transfixed. Obviously I wasn’t alone.
Almost 20 years later, the story still has plenty of legs, as KIRO 7 is proving. Under the headline, “ONLY ON KIRO 7: Seattle police re-examine Kurt Cobain death,” Casey McNerthney and Amy Clancy report that Seattle police recently developed four rolls of 35 mm film from the scene that had been sitting in an evidence vault for two decades. Last month the photos were “processed by the King County Sheriff’s Office photo lab under high security,” according to KIRO, and they depict …
Well, you’ll have to tune in to KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Eleven at 11.
The story, posted online this morning and already having been shared on Facebook over 10.1K times, also indicates that KIRO 7 got its hands on a photo from the scene that “has not previously been made public.” Investigators involved with the case have explained to KIRO “why police wanted to examine it as part of the investigation,” according to the story. Curious? Of course you are …
Well, you’ll have to tune in to KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Eleven at 11.
Adding further intrigue, KIRO reports that the heroin kit that Cobain used to inject a “lethal dose” of smack before, as police concluded at the time, he shot himself has been kept in evidence for all these years. According to KIRO, along with the previously undeveloped film the kit served as the basis for the case’s reexamination. Why was it kept in evidence for almost 20 years, despite the fact, as KIRO reports, the initial investigation determined it was a suicide?
You guessed it …
You’ll have to tune in to KIRO 7 Eyewitness News Eleven at 11.
Where’s Kurt Loder when you need him?
Perhaps this would be a good time to read our recent cover story on the impact of Cobain’s suicide on Nirvana fans, written by Charles R. Cross and taken from his recent book, Here We Are Now: The Lasting Impact of Kurt Cobain.
UPDATE:
The AP wasn’t such a tease:
Police spokeswoman Renee Witt said Thursday the review found nothing new. But while looking over the files, the detective found several rolls of undeveloped film, Witt said. Seattle police plan to release one image from that discovery later Thursday.”There was nothing earth-shattering in any of these images,” Witt said.Police took another look at the Cobain suicide to be ready to answer questions in connection with next month’s anniversary, she said.”There’s still a lot of interest in this case,” Witt said. “The detective went into the case files to refresh himself. The outcome of the case has not changed.”
UPDATE: Now there’s this:
Despite an erroneous news report, we have not “reopened” the investigation into the suicide of Kurt Cobain.
— Seattle Police Dept. (@SeattlePD) March 20, 2014