It’s been 32 years since Kurt Cobain was found dead inside his home in Aberdeen, Washington.
And while the investigation into his death initially seemed to be open and shut — Cobain left a suicide note and appeared to have succumbed to a self-inflicted gunshot wound — many now believe there’s more to the story.
One of those people is forensic scientist Brian Burnett, who firmly believes that Cobain was murdered.
Burnett recently published a peer-reviewed paper exploring “10 points of evidence” regarding Cobain’s death.
And he says his findings couldn’t be more concrete.
“This is a homicide,” Burnett remarked to fellow researcher Michelle Wilkins (via The Daily Mail).
“We’ve got to do something about this.”
Wilkins went on to share some of the details of Burnett’s findings:
“There are things in the autopsy that go, well, wait, this person didn’t die very quickly of a gunshot blast,” Wilkins told the Mail.
“The necrosis of the brain and liver happens in an overdose. It doesn’t happen in a shotgun death.”
She went on to say that given his level of intoxication, it would have been impossible for Cobain to compose a suicide note or handle a gun in his final hours.
“He’s dying of an overdose, and so he can barely breathe, his blood isn’t pumping very much […] I mean, he’s in a coma, and he’s holding this up to be able to reach the trigger to get it in his mouth. It’s crazy.”
While numerous conspiracy theorists have suggested that Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, played a role in his death, no one from Burnett’s research team has gone so far as to single out any suspects.
The team says their only goal is to convince the Seattle Police Department to re-open the investigation.
“If we’re wrong, just prove it to us. That’s all we asked them to do,” says Wilkins.
“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,” said the King’s County Medical Examiner’s Office in a statement.
We will have further updates on this developing story as new information becomes available.