These new photos from Kurt Cobain's death scene show only one thing

These new photos from Kurt Cobain&#039;s death scene show only one thing

(Image credit: Seattle Police Department)

last updated 8 January 2015

On Thursday, the Seattle Police Department (perhaps unintentionally) caused a bit of a stir by revealing that a cold-case detective, Mike Ciesynski, was looking into Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain's 1994 death. Specifically, Ciesynski had found four rolls of undeveloped 35 mm film from the crime scene.

Late Thursday, the Seattle PD released two of the newly developed photos, showing what was found near Cobain's body (mostly drug paraphernalia — see below), plus an explanation from Ciesynski. The detective said he decided to take another look at Cobain's suicide because "there was going to be a lot of media interest" on the upcoming 20th anniversary. He prepared himself by watching several documentaries on the various conspiracy theories surrounding Cobain's death. Then he retrieved the files.

And he found? Nothing much, except for the film. "Sometimes people believe what they read— some of the disinformation from some of the books, that this was a conspiracy. That's completely inaccurate," Ciesynski says. "It's a suicide. This is a closed case."

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Oh, and that one thing the photos show? Why police never bothered to develop the film. --Peter Weber

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.