Postmortem Gunshot theory debunked

 

According to Maureen Herman, in 1995, a mutual friend introduced her to Dylan Carlson who could apparently get interesting drugs. While the two were doing speed together, Dylan allegedly stated at one point that he and Courtney had found Kurt’s body before police arrived and waited because they did not know how to proceed.

Tom Grant later theorized that Dylan may have discovered Kurt’s body during the approximately five minutes when he walked up to the house alone on the morning of Thursday, April 7th. Grant later revised this account, suggesting instead that it may have been Thursday night when Dylan likely suspected Kurt to be dead because Courtney had instructed him to go check the greenhouse. This is beginning to sound like a back-up plant. Mutilating a corpse by firing a shotgun at it would be a less severe crime than outright murder. 

Since the death in 1994 rumors began circulating in Seattle circles that Cobain had originally overdosed at a dealers apartment and they had to cover it up. 

Hank Harrison also believed that Kurt died from a heroin overdose and was shot postmortem a few hours later. 

"The blast fired the chemically activated neurons and Kurt's fingers tightened cre- ating, what is euphemistically referred to as a "Dead Mans Grip," a neural reaction of the parasympathetic nervous system, commonly seen in battlefield casual- ties. Very little blood flowed out because Kurt's blood was already thickening. He had been dead for hours already. The opiates killed him; the body was already tidied when the shotgun was used. The mechanic(s) then tided up the green- house, and walked out in the rain, while the door locked behind them. The main house had already been scrubbed down. Nobody saw anything because again, a hard rain fell that night. Most of the dogs in the basement were gone and on planes or on the run" - Love Kills

John Perkey, an old friend of Kurt’s from Nirvana’s early days, believed Kurt overdosed and that perhaps the cartel got involved.

These theories, however, are inconsistent with the autopsy findings.

The autopsy shows no primary cardiac cause of death. In opioid overdoses, cardiac arrest typically occurs secondarily due to respiratory depression and hypoxia. The shotgun wound produced massive hemorrhagic destruction of brain tissue, indicating that blood was still circulating at the time of injury. Pressurized bleeding of this magnitude only occurs while the heart is beating.

The lungs showed non-cardiogenic pulmonary edema, with frothy, blood-tinged fluid in the trachea and bronchial airways, consistent with severe opioid-induced respiratory depression. The brain exhibited early hypoxic injury, and the liver showed necrosis due to oxygen deprivation. These findings demonstrate that organs were failing and that the individual was deeply incapacitated, unconscious, and physiologically unable to perform purposeful or coordinated actions. Any movement at this stage would be minimal and involuntary and do not constitute intentional activity.

The autopsy does not support a scenario in which death from overdose occurred hours or days before the gunshot injury to the mouth.

The forensic evidence confirms severe heroin intoxication, organ hypoxia and failure, and catastrophic brain injury with active hemorrhage at the moment of the shotgun wound.

Tom Grant discouraged a close examination of the autopsy and provided it to TMZ who published it online in full support of the suicide ruling, Tom Grant never challenged their interpretation. He posted the document on social media a day prior to the TMZ publication, and included a cover letter that minimized its medical significance and redirects attention back to the suicide note.

Timeline inconsistencies. Grant claimed to have been present with investigators on the morning of April seventh, yet police reports do not record his presence. Barth’s report places surveillance at the Lake Washington residence on April fifth, and he never mentions seeing Grant that week.

Mark later wrote that Rosemary contacted him the day Kurt returned from rehab, and the following day he met with Grant and Dylan to search for Kurt. They reportedly purchased two-hundred dollars worth of heroin before going to Kurt’s house. This places those events on Sunday, with Kurt’s death occurring late Sunday night or early Monday morning.

No police report documents Tom Grant at the residence during that week. Read at face value, Barth’s report presents a scenario in which two individuals broke inside the Cobain residence just hours prior to the discovery of the body. According to Pelley, Grant called him twice on Thursday regarding a window used for entry. Grant however claims that on Easter Sunday, 1994, he, Courtney Love and Eric Erlandson were all in Los Angeles the night that Kurt Cobain was murdered.