- George Kyriazidis
The FBI Releases Kurt Cobain File for the First Time, 27 Years After His Death
The accumulation (up to today) of theories and speculations surrounding Kurt Cobain’s death in 1994, has led the Federal Bureau of Investigation to release a case file regarding the perplexing circumstances surrounding the music star’s apparent suicide.
Kurt Cobain was found dead at his house in Seattle 27 years ago, him also being 27 at the time. According to the police, the Nirvana front man had killed himself with a single shotgun blast to the head, leaving a note by his body. Like every other famous artist’s death, this one too made international news, with millions of fans having since taken to the internet to exchange conspiracy theories about their favorite star’s sudden passing. Many of them wrote on blogs, social media, some even sent actual letters to the FBI’s office in Seattle, (which the Bureau has now made public), urging for further investigation of the case, as the predominant belief among these fans seems to be that the Nirvana lead singer did not kill himself but, rather, was murdered.
Unfortunately, other than asking for justice to be appointed, senders did not seem to provide any real evidence at the time. The Bureau responded to the above-mentioned letters in the exact same way, stating the following (per NBC Chicago): "In order for the FBI to initiate an investigation of any complaint we receive, specific facts must be present to indicate that a violation of federal law within our investigative jurisdiction has occurred. Based on the information you provided, we are unable to identify any violation of federal law within the investigative jurisdiction of the FBI. We are, therefore, unable to take any investigative action in this case."
The file now released by the FBI includes part of a fax, sent in 1997 by Cosgrove/Meurer Productions, the production company of the TV series “Unsolved Mysteries”, which had also aired an episode that examined the perplexing circumstances of Cobain’s death. The fax includes a short summary about the singer’s death, the theories, and reports about him and his wife’s whereabouts in the days prior to his suicide, along with the note that was found next to his body. In the fax is also written that (per NBC Chicago) "private investigator and former L.A. County Sheriff's deputy Tom Grant "strongly disagrees" that the "All Apologies" singer took his own life and "believes he has found a number of inconsistencies, including questions about the alleged suicide note itself," which he thinks is "actually a retirement letter to Cobain's fans." Grant was featured in the above-mentioned TV episode and has also documented his theories about the case online, numerous times.
While Rolling Stone was the first magazine to report about the unearthed documents, which span around 10 pages, nobody seems to understand the reason for the FBI’s decision to release the file today, more than two decades after the music idol’s death. It is mentioned by the platform that the Bureau has not specified a reason regarding the timing of the file's release, although speculations among fans still considering it an unsolved murder case seem to be bursting yet again.
Overall, it is certainly too early to reach any conclusion. Nevertheless, as more and more old cases, considered closed, tend to resurface, one can only acknowledge the tremendous impact that today’s online communities can have on almost any given matter, and how that is going to shape the future of crime solving.