Forensic Experts Conclude Cobain Death Was Homicide

Nearly three decades after Kurt Cobain's death, a team of private forensic experts has concluded that the Nirvana frontman's passing was a homicide, not the suicide long ruled by authorities. The review, based on a reexamination of autopsy reports and crime scene evidence, suggests assailants forced a heroin overdose on the 27-year-old musician before shooting him in the head and staging the scene to mimic self-inflicted death.

Cobain was discovered dead on April 5, 1994, in the greenhouse of his Seattle home. The King County Medical Examiner's Office determined he died from a self-inflicted wound by a Remington Model 11 20-gauge shotgun, with a suicide note found nearby. Toxicology results showed he had injected a dose of heroin far exceeding what even a habitual user might administer, leading investigators at the time to attribute the death to suicide amid Cobain's struggles with addiction and depression.

The new analysis, conducted by an independent group of forensic scientists, challenges these findings. Led by specialist Brian Burnett, who has experience with cases involving overdoses followed by gunshot wounds, and researcher Michelle Wilkins, the team spent three days...