UPDATE! In anticipation of the 20th anniversary of the suicide of Seattle icon Kurt Cobain, Seattle Police Department Cold Case Detective Mike Ciesynski reviewed the case file in anticipation of media inquiries about Cobain’s death, and the many conspiracy theories surrounding the case. Ciesynski reviewed the case—including statements and evidence photos—but did not re-investigate or re-open what is considered a closed case.

According to a report from the Associated Press:

One was an image showing a box containing a spoon and what appear to be needles on the floor next to a cigarette and sunglasses. The other showed the paraphernalia box closed, next to cash and a wallet that appears to show Cobain’s identification.

After pulling the full case file out of storage at SPD’s Evidence Unit, Ciesynski did find something left undone in the 20 year old investigation—four rolls of crime scene photos, which were never developed by investigator as they “felt it was a suicide and already had polaroids and photos from the medical examiner,” Ciesynski says.

While it’s unusual for SPD to store evidence from a closed case for two decades, Ciesynski says that because of the high profile of the case, detectives put the Cobain file into storage. “There were so many conspiracy theories out there, it was good judgement on their behalf to hold to this,” he says.

While Ciesynski didn’t come up with any new theories about the case, he does have a theory about why questions about Cobain’s death have persisted after all these years. “Sometimes people believe what they read—some of the disinformation from some of the books, that this was a conspiracy. That’s completely inaccurate,” he says. “It’s a suicide. This is a closed case.”

These two images were released to the media on Thursday afternoon.

Original post:

Nearly 20 years after Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain was found dead in his home near Lake Washington, Seattle police have reexamined the case. Last month, police developed four rolls of film that had been sitting for years in a Seattle police evidence vault. The 35 mm film was processed by the King County Sheriff’s Office photo lab under high security. Though the pictures have a slight green tint because of deterioration, police say they more clearly show the scene than the earlier Polaroid photos taken by investigators. The final investigation report has not been completed, and the images of Cobain dead at the scene will not be released, police say.

The morning of April 8, 1994, Veca Electric employee Gary Smith went to Cobain’s home at 171 Lake Washington Boulevard East to do electrical work.

“I noticed something on the floor and I thought it was a manikin,” Smith told KIRO 7 at the time. “So I looked a little closer and geez, that’s a person. I looked a little closer and I could see blood and an ear and a weapon laying on his chest.”

The medical examiner determined Cobain had killed himself three days earlier – only days after he had left a rehab facility. Before he was shot, police said Cobain had a lethal dose of heroin. The syringes Cobain used and the heroin kit was kept in the Seattle police evidence unit and was part of the re-investigation along with the previously undeveloped film.

Smith, the electrician, found a suspected suicide note atop planting soil in the greenhouse.

“I only read the bottom lines,” Smith told KIRO 7 in 1994. The “bottom two lines said, ‘I love you, I love you’ to someone.”

On March 18, 1994 – less than a month before Cobain was found dead – Seattle police were called to the Lake Washington home after Kurt “locked himself in a room,” and said he was going to kill himself, according to a police report. Police were also told he “had a gun in the room.”

But Cobain told police he was not suicidal and didn’t want to kill himself. However, police said after the 1994 investigation that his death was clearly a suicide.

[Source]