Courtney Love asked Seattle police to hand over the entire investigative file into Kurt Cobain’s death—and later sought assurances that no records or copies would remain with the department, documents reported Monday show. The extraordinary request is resurfacing as fresh homicide theories swirl around the Nirvana frontman’s 1994 death, even though Seattle police still stand by the suicide ruling.
According to New York Post, the request came through attorney Bryan Coluccio, who represented Love and Cobain’s estate, in an October 20, 1995, letter to then-Chief Norm Stamper. The letter sought the complete Seattle Police Department investigation file, while a later request asked that the department retain no records or copies. The documents also indicate that Love and the estate accepted the department’s final determination that Cobain died by suicide.
The Request Came Amid Fears Of Leaked Death-Scene Images
That request followed a separate fight over the most sensitive part of the file: crime-scene photography. An internal memo from Sgt. Don Cameron, reviewed by AOL, said Love had asked through lawyer Seth Lichtenstein that the photos be destroyed over concerns they could be leaked; Cameron wrote that doing so would make the department look “foolish and unprofessional.”
Cameron said the 35mm film had not yet been developed and that Polaroid photos were being held as evidence under restricted access. The memo portrayed Love’s concern as a preservation and security issue, not as a request to reopen the death investigation.
Seattle Police Still Calls The Case Closed
Seattle police’s own 2014 review did not produce a new mystery. Cold-case Detective Mike Ciesynski pulled the full file from storage, found four undeveloped rolls of film, reviewed the evidence and said the original conclusion was correct, according to the Seattle Police Department. The department described the case in blunt terms: “This is a closed case.”
The Records Fight Reached Washington Courts
Washington Court of Appeals records show the dispute later became a public-records case. Cobain was found dead in the greenhouse at his Seattle home on April 8, 1994, and the city concluded he died from a self-inflicted shotgun wound; in 2018, the court upheld an order permanently blocking release of death-scene photos that had not previously been disclosed.
The city had provided a requester with 37 photographs and the remaining documents in the investigative file, along with an exemption log explaining redactions and withheld material. The Washington Court of Appeals also upheld protections for other sensitive records, including portions of the autopsy file and personal identifying information.
Fresh Homicide Claims Have Not Moved Seattle
The newly resurfaced documents are arriving alongside a new wave of outside claims about Cobain’s death. KIRO 7 reported in February that a private forensic team called the death a homicide, but quoted SPD saying its detective’s suicide conclusion remains the department’s position; the King County Medical Examiner’s Office likewise said it had seen nothing warranting a reopening.
Nothing in the records described in the latest report changes Seattle’s official finding or establishes a new police determination that Love was involved in a crime. Instead, they add another strange chapter to a Seattle case where the public’s hunger for every clue has repeatedly collided with a family’s demand to keep the most intimate evidence out of circulation.
