Questions Linger After Cobain Suicide

Credit Card Activity, Details of Last Days Intrigue Investigators
by Linda Keene, Duff Wilson, Ferdinand M. De Leon, Vanessa Ho, Patrick MacDonald, Mery Murakami, Peyton Whitley
Kurt Cobain抯 death a month ago wasn抰 the open-and-shut suicide case Seattle police originally indicated.
Only now are police finally satisfied the Seattle rock star spent his final hours alone and died from a self-inflicted gunshot would without the possibility of foul play.
Detectives have spent more than 200 hours interviewing Cobain抯 family and friends, his reputed heroin dealer and others. They even hired a handwriting expert to review the note found by Cobain抯 body to make sure it was authentic.
揥e went to some pretty remarkable ends to come to this conclusion, to eliminate any questions in the future,� said Sgt. Don Cameron of the Seattle Police Department homicide squad.

Even so, some people close to the case, including a private investigator hired by Cobain抯 wife to look for him when he was missing, say there are unanswered questions about the death of Nirvana抯 lead singer.
Among them:
� Where did Cobain spend his final 80 hours, and who was with him? Cameron said police believe he was staying alone in a house in a secluded area near Carnation, but there was no confirmed sighting of him there or in Seattle.
� What role did heroin play, and where did Cobain get it?
� Who was trying to use Cobain抯 credit card - a card that had been canceled by Cobain抯 wife, Courtney Love - for days after he died?
� Why wasn抰 the body found by friends familiar with the Seattle house and who were there during the time Cobain was missing?
Cobain, 27, spent his final days eluding Love and the friends, police and private investigator she had called to help find him when he uncharacteristically cut off contact.
He had been despondent and defiant and locked in combat with his wife.
Cobain抯 actions are hard to trace, fueling speculation there was more to his suicide than the public, press or police know.
Here is much of what is known, gathered from police records and interviews with people who knew or came into contact with Cobain during the last weeks of his life:
Evidence of Cobain抯 self-destructive behavior surfaced in early March when he overdosed on pills and champagne while in Rome.
Love later said it was a suicide attempt. Cobain, when he came out of his coma, insisted it had been an accident.
Was it? Cobain抯 despair over his unwanted stardom and his growing reliance on drugs prompted friends to say he was depressed, but few thought he was suicidal.
On March 18, Love called Seattle police to report that her husband was armed and suicidal after he locked himself in a room with a gun in their home in Seattle抯 Madrona neighborhood, overlooking Lade Washington. But when Cobain talked to police, he said he had just been trying to get away from Love and hadn抰 known there was a gun in the room.
Four days later, a Graytop Taxi was called to the couple抯 home. The driver, Leon Hasson, said the two quarreled viciously in the back seat while en route to a used-car lot at Westlake and Denny Way.
After giving him a generous tip, they departed and resumed their argument in front of the owner and an employee at the American Dream used car lot. Love had wanted Cobain to keep a Lexus they had purchased Jan. 2 but returned a few days later: Cobain was more comfortable with something less luxurious.
Joe Kenney, owner of the car lot where the couple purchased a �Dodge Dart for $2,500, said Love appeared unstable and dropped a handful of pills while heading into a restroom. Kenney says he and the employee commented to each other that they should ask Cobain to autograph his CDs soon, because it didn抰 look like neither one of them would be around much longer.
Time for 慣ough Love�
Three days later, on March 25, Love surprised Cobain with a 搕ough love� intervention concerning his drug use. About 10 people took part, including four record company executives, some musician friends and Cobain抯 best friend, Dylan Carlson.
The intervention was tense. Danny Goldberg, a former Nirvana manager and Atlantic Records vice president, said Cobain was 揺xtremely reluctant: and 揹enied that he was doing anything self-destructive.�
By meeting抯 end, people thought Cobain had softened and had been persuaded to seek drug treatment. He agreed to leave for a detox program in Los Angeles that day.
Also that day, Love took a chartered jet from Boeing Field to San Francisco and then flew to Los Angeles the following day. She checked into the plush Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills to undergo drug treatment in an outpatient setting, under the twice-a-day care of a psychiatrist in her $500-a-day suite.
Rosemary Carroll, Love entertainment industry attorney in Beverly Hills, said Love was trying to support Cobain抯 treatment by getting treatment herself. (Love has declined to be interviewed.)
Cobain, though, never made it to Los Angeles that day. Although friends took him to the airport, he changed his mind and went back to Seattle, according to a Capitol Hill friend who is also a heroin dealer. The dealer, who did not want to be identified, said Cobain visited her apartment that evening.
She said Cobain said to her: 揥here are my friends when I need them? Why are my friends against me?� The woman recalled, 揌e just felt like, 慦hat抯 wrong here, you know? Why am I the wrong one?挃
Cobain was upset, but was he suicidal? Some friends and family members didn抰 think so.
His paternal grandmother, Iris Cobain, said 揺verything seemed fine� when she and her husband last talked to Cobain in late March.
揥e never really asked him about Rome. He said it was an accident.�
In that last conversation, Cobain confirmed plans to go fishing in April with his grandfather. 揥hen he talked to me he seemed to be happy,� Iris Cobain said.
After the intervention, Cobain hung around Seattle for five days until Wednesday, March 30, when he finally agreed to go to the Exodus Treatment Center in Los Angeles. But before he left, he visited Carlson in Seattle抯 Lake City neighborhood.
Cobain wanted to buy a shotgun, said Carlson, who had been at the drug intervention five days before.
揌e complained there were prowlers damaging his house,� explained Carlson. 揑 had no reason not to believe him.�
Carlson said Cobain gave him the money to buy a Remington Model 11 20-gauge shotgun at Stan抯 Gun Shop. The salesman remembers Carlson and knew he was with someone else, but the other person hung back and wasn抰 identifiable. Why Cobain didn抰 buy the shotgun himself isn抰 known. There抯 no registration or waiting period for shotguns.
Cobain was no stranger to guns. Three guns were taken from his home by police after a June 1993 domestic disturbance, and four guns were taken after the March 18 call.
Cobain Heads for L.A.
Cobain apparently brought the shotgun home, put it in a closet and caught a flight to Los Angeles, where he checked into the Exodus Recovery Center.
At Exodus, Cobain was visited by his daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, and her nanny. It would be the child抯 last visit with her father. Love apparently did not visit but talked to Cobain by phone many times, the last time about 6 p.m. on his second day there, Friday, April1. Without explanation, Cobain left Exodus an hour later, telling staff member he wanted to go outside to smoke a cigarette.
Instead, he went to the airport, where he reportedly signed autographs at a ticket counter before boarding the 10:20 p.m. Delta Airlines flight to Seattle. He arrived at 1 a.m.
When Love learned that day that Cobain had left the detox program, she immediately canceled Cobain抯 Seafirst credit card. She told Tom Grant, the private investigator she had hired to find him, that she hoped it would help her track him in order to help him.
As it turned out, though, canceling the card made it more difficult to track Cobain because the bank stopped recording the precise location of the attempted charges. It only recorded the category of business and amount of money that the card holder attempted to charge.
Attempts Made to Use Card
In the next few days, numerous unsuccessful attempts were made to use the card for cash, flowers and other unspecified purposes - including two mysterious charge attempts well after the medical examiner says Cobain died. Police are still unsure who was trying to use the card.
After arriving in Seattle early Saturday morning, April 2, Cobain returned to his Madrona home. His appearance there surprised and concerned Michael DeWitt, a friend who was staying at the house and who worked as a nanny for Cobain抯 and Love抯 daughter.
Dylan Carlson said he received a call from DeWitt saying Cobain had shown up at the house and that he 搇ooked bad; was acting weird.�
揑 told the nanny to confiscate the gun if he knew where it was,� Carlson said. 揃y that time, I was sufficiently alarmed.�
And for good reason. Graytop Taxi supervisor Paul Szaly says Cobain was driven to a gun shop that morning to buy shotgun shells.
A receipt for the ammunition was later found at Cobain抯 house.
After that, Cobain抯 trail disappears. There are unconfirmed sightings of the thin, blond man, but nobody seems to know where he was from that Saturday until his death, which the medical examiner says occurred three days later - sometime after noon on April 5.
Police think Cobain had been to the secluded property that he and Love owned in Carnation. It features a ramshackle cabin and a newer house, overlooking woods and a pond.
But nobody reported seeing Cobain there in the final days of his life.
On Sunday, April 3, Cobain, or someone else with access to his credit-card number, attempted several charges. Bank records show that a $1,100 charge was denied mid-afternoon, followed by a series of rejected attempts ranging from $2,500 to $5,000, apparently to try to get cash. On Monday morning, April 4, there were two unsuccessful attempts to get $86.60 worth of flowers.
Later on Monday, Cobain抯 mother or Love, or both, called the Seattle Police Department to file a missing persons report as the search for Nirvana抯 lead singer intensified.
Some sightings put him on Capitol Hill, spending time with the woman friend who was also a heroin dealer. At least two people say she told them Cobain had come by her apartment Tuesday night, April 5. But the woman denies it, and the date conflicts with the medical examiner抯 estimation that Cobain died sometime that day.
The following morning, April 6, someone tried to charge $1,517.56 for a cash advance on Cobain抯 credit card at 7:07 a.m.
Seafirst Mastercard records indicate the card was not present, so it may have been a phone charge or an in person attempt without the card. No other information was saved by the bank.
Tom Grant, the former deputy sheriff hired by Love, arrived in Seattle and began his search for Cobain on Thursday, April 7. He and Dylan Carlson checked Cobain抯 Madrona house at 3:30a.m. and again at 9:45 p.m. They saw no sign of the missing musician.
They didn抰 look in the greenhouse room atop the detached garage.
That抯 where Cobain抯 body lay, undiscovered, according to the medical examiner抯 estimated time of death.
Grant said he felt 揳 little foolish� that he and Carlson hadn抰 looked in the greenhouse, but he said it was dark and raining and he hadn抰 been seen the room.
Still, he was surprised Cobain抯 best friend didn抰 suggest they look there.
But Carlson said he didn抰 know about the room. 揊or all the times I抎 been there, I didn抰 even realize there was a room above it associated with the house,� he said.
Grant and Carlson spent the rest of their time checking the Carnation property, the heroin dealer抯 apartment and other locations.
Meanwhile, Love was rushed to a Los Angeles hospital on April 7 for what her lawyer said was an allergic reaction to prescription drugs. Police arrested her for suspected heroin possession, but prosecutor抯 later said the substance was legal and declined to file charges.
Also that day, at 4 p.m., DeWitt, the nanny who was staying at the Madrona home, took a taxi to the airport and flew to Los Angeles. That left the house empty. DeWitt has said he never knew Cobain抯 body was lying in the room above the garage.
And on Friday, April 8, at 1:35 a.m., yet another unexplained charge was attempted on Cobain抯 credit card, for $43.29.
Later that morning, Cobain抯 body was found by an electrician who was installing an outdoor security light. The Remington shotgun rested on Cobain抯 chest, and next to the body was a cigar box filled with heroin paraphernalia.
The cigar box looked like something used by street addicts, not by a millionaire. 揟he shooting kit next to him looked like an alley downtown,� said Police Capt. Larry Farrar. 揑t was just as dirty a stinking drug box as I抳e ever seen.�
Also next to the body was a note, stuck into a plant container with a ballpoint pen. It appeared to have been written in two parts.
The top of the note was written in smaller handwriting and, while it reflected unhappiness, never clearly referred to suicide. The bottom of the note, in much larger writing, ended: 揚lease keep going Courtney. for Frances. for her life which will be so much happier without me. I LOVE YOU. I LOVE YOU.�
The note piqued police curiosity, and they hired an expert to examine it. When the expert concluded both parts were written entirely by Cobain, it seemed to resolve any suspicions about his death.
There抯 been no foul play, police said - just an early death that no one could fully explain.