Summary Of Events

The investigation into the death of Kurt Cobain

All information is taken from The Tom Grant Murder Investigation Book.

*This is a summary, Not a report*

PRIOR TO MY INVOLVEMENT

Courtney and Kurt had not been getting along. They'd been talking about a divorce. Kurt did not want to tour anymore, or preform. He was walking away from what Courtnay said was a \\$9.5 million dollar contract to headline the Lollapalooza tour.

Courtney was mad a Kurt for the possible loss of all those millions. Her anger wasn't working, so she tried to blame Kurt's attitude on his drug use and put together a so-called "tough love intervention." Among others at the "intervention" were some of the other junkies Kurt did drugs with.

Courtney claims to have told Kurt, "this has got to end. You have to be a good daddy!" This statement is somewhat of a pretentious one, since it came from a woman who was doing drugs when we were first hired, and continued her drug use over the next eight months. It's hard to believe Kurt could have taken this whole "intervention" scene seriously.

MARCH 26TH.

Courtney left Seattle for the Peninsula hotel in Beverly Hills.

MARCH 30TH.

Kurt and his bestfriend Dylan Carlson purchased a shotgun. Kurt told Dylan he was affraid of intruders at the house. Walking out of the Lollapalooza tour was a business decision that would cost others a great deal of money also. I have reason to believe Kurt may have been intimidated into believing his life would be in danger if he failed to do the tour.

The shotgun was a 20 guage, set-up for light load. This set-up is what gun dealers often recomend for home protection because the shot wont penetrate walls and indanger those on the other side.

Kurt took the shotgun to his house so it would be there when he got back from rehab. He then left Seattle to go to the rehab center in Marina Del Rey, California ( near Los Angeles).

APRIL 1ST.

Thirteen phone calls were made to Kurt's rehab center from Courtney's hotel room at the Peninsula. Most of these are to the patient's pay phone. Courtney later told me she had only talked to Kurt once that day.

That evening, Kurt left rehab. Later, at 8:47pm, he called the Peninsula hotel and left a message for Courtney. The message on the hotel log reads: "Elizabeth's phone# is (213)-________."(this # is on my case file.)

Courtney never mentioned this message to the media. This dosen't appear to be a message from someone who is "suicidal."

Kurt arrived in Seattle early saturday morning, April 2nd, and was taken to his house on Lake Washington by a hired driver.

Saturday night, Courtney had a friend plant a phony story with the associated press that she had overdosed on drugs and was in the hospital. This planted story becomes significant later in the investigation.

EASTER SUNDAY AT THE PENINSULA
SUNDAY APRIL 3RD.

Courtney called my office in Beverly Hills. She told me someone was using her husband's credit card and she wanted me to try and find out who it was. I took another investigator with me named Ben Klugman. We met Courtney at the Peninsula hotel. "If you leak this to the press, I'll sue the fuck out of you," Courtney warned me as I walked into the room.

Courtney told us her husband was Kurt Cobain and that he had just left a drug rehab. She said she lied to the credit card company and had his card canceled. She wanted us to call the credit card company and find out what the attempted activities were on this canceled card.

I mentioned I couldn't understand why she needed us for that. I advised her she could do it herself and save some money. If we did it, I would have to charge her fifty dollars to make a phone call. "What? That's not enough money for you?" Courtney responded sarcastically. Courtney told us Kurt only had one credit card and without that one card he had no acess to money. She said Kurt didn't have any friends or anyone else that might loan him money. Knowing now who we were dealing with, this didn't make any sense!

We questioned Courtney more about Kurt's ability to get money for his needs. "this guy can't even catch a fucking cab by himself!" she insisted?" Courtney told us about a story she had planted with the associated press the previous evening. The story alleged that Courtney had overdosed and was in the hospital. She claimed the reason she had did this was to scare Kurt and get his attention so he would try to contact her.

Later that afternoon, Courtney rambled on in an angry rage about the "9 1/2 millon dollars" Kurt was walking away from. She said: "if he doesn't want the money, he ought to do it for his child, for frances." She said she'd do the lollapalooza tour for Kurt if he didn't want to do it.....She said she'd do saturday night live if he didn't want to do it...she said she thought Kurt wanted a divorce....she mentioned a prenuptial agreement, but said, " My name is on all the houses and assets."

Courtney said she didn't know for sure where Kurt was. She said he might be in Seattle, or he may have flown back east to stay with Michale Stipe. Courtney initially failed to mention Kurt had been seen at their Lake Washington house on Saturday morning, April 2nd, by "cali," (Michale Dewit), the male nanny who was living at the Cobain residance. Cali later then claimed he had informed Courtney on Saturday, April 2nd, that Kurt had been to the house earlier that morning. Cali said Kurt had entered his bedroom and they had a short conversation.

Courtney asked me to find someone in Seattle to watch a drug dealer's appartment and other locations in case Kurt turned up, but she didn't ask us to watch the Lake Washington house, the one place we later learned Kurt had been seen! I sub-contacted a P.I. in Seattle for the surveilance.

A FALSE POLICE REPORT
MONDAY APRIL 4TH.

I met with Courtney again at the Peninsula hotel. Courtney told me she had called in a missing person's report pretending to be Kurt's mother, Wendy O'Connor. As we monitored the progress of the surveilance team in Seattle, we continued to work with the credit card company, trying to track the user of Kurt's credit card. Someone was still attempting to use the card for various charges.

Courtney advised us Kurt only stays in the very best hotels. We began calling hotels from listings in the Seattle phone book. At one time we thought we had located him at a hotel under one of the aliases Courtney had given us. I notified Courtney and she asked us to watch the hotel in case Kurt might leave. Courtney told us she didn't want Kurt to know she was looking for him. But during an earlier phone conversation, Courtney told me Kurt was suicidal. "Everyone thinks he is going to die," She announced. So now I have to wonder why she wouldn't want the police or someone else to go into the room and try to save him? After less than an hour, Courtney called me and said she had talked to the person in the room and it wasn't Kurt. Of corse I wondered why she'd call his room, if she didn't want him to know she was looking for him.

WEDNESDAY APRIL 6TH.

Kurt had still not been located. At the hotel later on that afternoon, I volenteered to go to Seattle and search for Kurt. One of Courtney's friend's in the room said, "Why don't you so up there Courtney?" "I can't I have business I have to take care of here," She replied. I asked Courtney not to tell anyone I was comming because they might alert Kurt. She agreed but then later told me she had called Cali and told him I was on my way to Seattle. Courtney told me earlier she didn't trust Cali, Now she calimed, "He won't tell anyone." "Save the American Icon, Tom!" Courtney shouted dramatically as I left the hotel room and headed for the airport.

THE SEATTLE SEARCH
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6TH.

I picked up Kurt's bestfriend, Dylan Carlson at his appartment. We went to a cafe where we ate and planed our strategy for locating Kurt and finding out what was going on. I asked Dylan if he felt Kurt was suicidal. He replied, "No. Not at all. He's under a lot of pressure, but he's handeling things pretty good." I asked Dylan if he had ever been told that the Rome incident was a "suicide attempt," and he said, "No. Kurt said it was just an accident." If Kurt Cobain was so "suicidal," and if he had really "tried to kill himself" a month earlier, I wonder why nobody clued in his bestfriend, the guy he hangs out with! Why wouldn't they want Dylan to keep a close eye on Kurt? And if he was so "suicidal," wouldn't Courtney want to make sure Dylan didn't allow him to have acess to guns?!

Dylan said Kurt didn't want the shotgun registered in his name because the police had just confiscated his other guns. He didn't want them to know he had this one or they might confiscate it also. After the cafe Dylan and I checked out a drug dealer's appartment on Capitol Hill and several hotels on the Aurora strip where Kurt had been known to stay from time to time. I mentioned to Dylan that Courtney had told me Kurt only stays in the "best hotels." Dylan appeared puzzled. "No, he doesn't. He usually stays in some pretty ratty places." While Dylan and I were driving around Seattle, I asked him if we should check with Kurt's mother in Aberdeen. Dylan replied, " No. Kurt wouldn't go there. He doesn't get along with his mom."

THURSDAY MORNING, APRIL 7TH, 2:15AM

We went to the Lake Washington house. I waited in the car while Dylan walked up alone as we had previously planned. We didn't want to alert Kurt to my precence if at all possible. Dylan came back to the car after atleast five minutes saying no one was home. I wondered what took so long if no one was home? We went to a pay phone and called Courtney. She was at Rosemary Carroll's house in Los Angeles. Dylan talked with Courtney. I told him to have her to call the alarm company and ask them turn off the alarm so we could go in the house. Upon returning to the Lake Washington house, we gained access through an unlocked kitchen window. While we were searching the house, Dylan commented, "I've never seen the house this clean before." A television was still on in one of the bedrooms upstairs and the bed was unmade. Dylan told me this was Cali's room. We didn't find Kurt. Dylan didn't tell me about the room above the garage, and since it was dark and raining, I hadn't noticed it.

Dylan and I spent most of the day on Thursday checking out some of Kurt's hangouts and talking to people who might know where he was. As evening approached, we headed for the small town of Carnation located about 30 miles east of Seattle where the Cobain's owned two vacant cabins situated on several acres of property. But in the dark, Dylan became unsure as to weather or not he could locate the property. The increasind rain didn't help much so we eventually turned back. We'd try another time. I dropped Dylan off at his appartment and went back to my hotel for a few hours of sleep. Later I picked Dylan up and we resumed our search. We stopped at a pay phone and Dylan made a call. When he returned to the car, he said, "Courtney's had some trouble. She got arrested and she's in the hospital." Dylan eventually managed to speak with Courtney on the phone to get futher instuctions. Courtney wanted us to go back to the Lake Washington house to look for the shotgun. She said it could be in a hidden conpartment in her closet. Since Cali had been at the house quite a lot, I wondered why she haden't asked him to look there before now?

9:45 PM

Dylan and I returned to the Lake Washington house. Inside I found a note from Cali which had been placed on the main stairway. It wasn't there the night before. Based on conversations I had with Courtney Love and Dylan Carlson, as well as the events that led us back to the house, this note made little sense. In fact when added to the information we later gathered, the note made no sense at all! I had a feeling the note was actually just put there for me to find.

"Kurt- I can't believe you managed to be in this house without me noticing. Your a fuckin asshole for not calling Courtney & at least letting her know your ok. She's in a lot of pain Kurt, and this morning she had another "accident" and now she's in the hospital again. She's your wife & she loves you & you have a child together. Get it together to at least tell her your o.k. or she's going to die. It's not fair man. DO SOMETHING NOW."

After Kurt's body was found, we met Cali in Los Angeles. He told us he was hardly at the house from Monday on although he did say he had gone to the house a few times between sunday evening, April 3rd, and Thursday afternoon, April, 7th. In addition to questions raised by the note Cali left, we had to wonder why he hadn't looked in the greenhouse? Kurt had been in there several days before his body was discovered! according to his note, Cali "couldn't believe" Kurt had been in the house without him noticing! Why would Cali find it so hard to believe Kurt had been in the house if he wasn't there most of the time!

Cali had told us that Kurt had come by the house early saturday morning, April 2nd, after he left the rehab center in Los Angeles. He claimes he talked to Courtney on the phone and told her about Kurt's arrival at the house later that same day. Cali also told us later that he hadn't seen Kurt after he left the house that previous saturday morning.

When I was in Seattle on thursday April 7th, Cali told friends he was leaving for Los Angeles. I never got to see or talk to him while i was in Seattle. But we know Courtney called Cali to let him know I was comming to Seattle to search for Kurt. If he really wanted to help Courtney search for Kurt, why didn't he make himself available to me when i was there. Why didn't he stay in Seattle to help with the search?

According to Cali's note, he believed Kurt had come back to the house. How did he not know?......and if he did know Kurt had been in the house since saturday, why didn't he stay around to tell me about it? Cali claimed he stopped staying at the house because Courtney kept calling to say she knew Kurt was still there. Once again, if Courtney knew Kurt was there, why didn't she want us to watch the house during our surveillance on the other locations in Seattle? And if Cali thought Kurt might come back to the house, why wouldn't he want to be there to help him...and...to help Courtney?!

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS....WHO NEEDS ENEMIES?

Cali was in Rome whith Courtney during Cobain's alleged "accidenteal overdose" which was labled "a suicide attempt" AFTER Cobain died in Seattle. Referring to the days prior to Cobain's death, Courtney Love later told the media, "Everybody knew he was going to die!"

So an examination of the contents of Cali's note raises the most important question of all: Was this note written to a person supposedly KNOWN to be suicidal, by someone who actually gave a damn? Or....was this a note left by Cali to convince me and others that he didn't know anything about Cobain's whereabout's, with a little "PR" about Courtney thrown in for future refrence after the body gets discovered? And what REALLY happened in Rome? The answers will become clear as the case develops.

KURT IS FOUND
FRIDAY MORNING, APRIL 8TH

Dylan and I were on our way once again to the Carnation property when we stopped for gas. Dylan made a call. When he came back to the car, he said a friend told him a body was found at the Lake washington house. We turned on the car radio and soon we heard that the person found dead was Kurt Cobain. There was no reaction from Dylan. Later we heard on the radio that Kurt's body was found in "the greenhouse." I turned to Dylan and asked, "what's the greenhouse?" He told me it was just a room above the garage. "why didn't we look there?" I asked. "It's just a dirty little room. I think they keep some lumber in there or something," Dylan replied.

I called my office and spoke with Ben Klugman. He told me the credit card company indicated someone had continued trying to use Kurt's credit card as recent as Friday morning, April 8th, just hours before Kurt's body was found. Of course we soon learned Kurt had been dead for two or more days. So now it was apperant that someone was trying to use his credit cards from the time he left Los Angeles for Seattle and even attempted to use the same card after he died!

I called the Seattle homicide detectives and tried to tell them that something was wrong. The detective told me Kurt was locked in the room by himself. He said the door was locked from inside and the fire department had to break a window on the door to get in, inferring that Cobain had to have been alone in the greenhouse when he died. I assumed they must know what they are talking about, but I was curious about what kind of door lock this was.

I spoke to Courtney on the phone that afternoon. She wasn't upset at all that we didn't find Kurt. She acted as if she thought Kurt had died the night before. If so, we could have saved him! Why wasn't she angry at us? Courtney tried to get me to talk to the press. I told her I didn't want to say anything untill I found out more about what happened. This whole thing smelled rotten! I left seattle and flew back to Los Angeles.

RETURN TO LOS ANGELES
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13TH.

I met with courtney's entertainment attorney, Rosemary Carroll, at her Hollywood office. She indicated that she was suspicious about Courtney's involvement in Kurt's death. "He wasn't suicidal Tom. Kurt wasn't suicidal!" Rosemary blurted with a deep sigh. Rosemary told me that Courtney had called her "a couple of weeks ago" and asked her to find "the meanest, most vicious devorce lawyer" she could find. Courtney also asked Rosemary if the prenuptial agreement could be voided. Rosemary also told me Kurt had called her during that same time period. *According to Rosemary, Kurt hadn't completed his will yet and he told her he wanted Courtney taken out if it.* Among other items discussed, Rosemary mentioned she was disturbed and somewhat suspicious that Courtney wouldn't let her or anyone else see this so-called "suicide note." I mentioned to Rosemary that Courtney said she could't go to seattle herself because she had "business in L.A." "She didn't have any business in L.A!" Rosemary responded.

Rosemary also told me that on Thursday morning, while Courtney was at her house talking on the phone to Dylan, she over heard Courtney say, "Be sure to check the greenhouse." Since Courtney directed Dylan to check the greenhouse, I couldn't help but wonder why she hadn't asked Cali to check the greenhouse in the past few days? We know that after talking to Dylan on the phone on Thursday morning, Courtney left Rosemary Corroll's house and went back to the Peninsula hotel. A short while later Courtney called 911. First reports have Courtney overdosing again. She was later arrested. Rosemary Carroll has since shown me evidance that this was possiby a deliberate and planned event. As Rosemary and I concluded our meeting, we decided it would be best for me to return to Seattle for further investigation into the events surrounding Cobain's death. Rosemary, however, was adamant that Courtney would not be made aware of her suspicions, and the conversation between the two of us.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 13TH.

I flew back to Seattle. The next day I went to the Lake Washington. A security guard at the house let me in and I found Courtney sitting at the dining room table. As I approached and sat down to talk, she said, " I guess I really found the right P.I. this time." The flatery was nice, but it didn't make much sense. After a short conversation, Courtney got up to get a cigarette and a lady walked over to where I was sitting. She was wearing a black T-shirt that read,"Grunge is dead."I assumed she was a relative of Kurt's, a sister maybe or a cousin. She stood in front of me and asked, "Your the investigator?" I noded while she continued, "What do you think?" Not knowing who she was i replied, " I don't know.what do you think?" She answered by introducing herself. "Well I'm Kurt's mom, Wendy. I don't know something doesn't seem right. Why didn't Dylan look in the greenhouse?" I told Wendy I would like to sit down and talk to her in the next few days. She agreed and said she would like to talk to me too. I noticed Courtney looking over her shoulder as Wendy and I talked. She seemed concerned about our conversation. As she walked back towards us Wendy walked away. Courtney went up to Wendy, put her arms around her and kissed her. I noticed Courtney whispering something in to Wendy's ear. The rest of the time I was at the house, Wendy seemed cool towards me, almost evasive.

I HAD TO SEE THE "NOTE".

Courtney took me upstairs where we sat on her bed and talked. Since she wouldn't let her close friend and attorney, Rosemary Carroll, see the suicide note, I had to come up with a way to get a copy for closer examination. "I heard you read the note on TV the other day," I told her. I was confused about something. It sounded like the note said, "Im lying here on the bed..." If Kurt was lying on the bed when he wrote the note, why was the bed so neat when I came here the other night? It didn't look like anyone had been on this bed." No, Tom, I was lying on the bed," Courtney answered and repeated, " I was lying on the bed recording the message to Kurt's fans."

"Are you sure that's what you said?" I asked. "I got the impression that it was Kurt who was lying on the bed." "No. Here i'll show you," She said, as she reached to retrieve a folded paper from under a pillow. Handing me the note, Courtney pointed out, "It's Only a copy. The police have the orginal."

I studied the note as if jooking for the phrase in question, then commented, "I can't read this without my glasses. Can I go downstairs and make a copy of this on your fax machine? I'll look at it later."

"Yeah....sure," Courteny mumbled as her eyes dropped out of an icy stare. WHen I came back up, Courtney was kneeling on the floor looking in a phone book. A telephone was on the floor next to her. "Would you wait downstairs, Tom?" She snapped. A few minnutes earlier she was friendly--now she seemed irritated!

A TRIP TO CARNATION

Later that day we made plans to go to the Carnation property. Eric Erlandson, Hole's guitarist, was supposed to go with us but while at the Lake washington house earlier, Courtney took Eric into another room to talk to him in private. When they came out, Eric left the house alone in his van.

"I thought Eric was going with us?" I asked. "He'll meet us there," Courtney replied.

I drove Courtney to Carnation. Kat Bjelland, guitarist from Babes in toyland, rode with us in the back seat of my rental car. During the drive Courtney began talking about the "son of a bitch" who gave the story to the Associated press saying she had overdosed on April 2nd. She became agitated as she grumbled. "I'm going to find out who the hell it was and sue that mother f...er for libel. I can prove I was at the hotel. People saw me there. It was a total lie."

"You told me you planted that story," I reminded Courtney

"Huh?....Oh" She responded, and turned to look out her window.

During the drive Courtney wanted to stop twice for snacks. We also missed the turn off, getting lost temporarily and having to solicit directions from a near by farmer. This seemed a little strange when I later discovered one of the houses on the property had just been built. Courtney must have been out there several times while the house was under construction and it wasn't at all that difficult to find. I wondered if these delays in our arrival at the property were diliberate?

When we arrived at the Carnation property, I noticed the two houses on the property reflected what i'd already come to know about Kurt and Courtney's individual personalities. One is an old withered cabin full of well used furniture and bedding. It looked like the home of a person living in poverty! This is where Kurt apperently felt most comfortable. The other house is a brand new wood sided mansion, vacant and yet to be furnished. This house is an "exhibition" of success and wealth. The two houses seperated by a pond with a newly constructed bridge connecting the old to the new.

We went in to the old cabin first. Courtney and Kat went upstairs to the loft while I stayed downstairs to look around. I noticed a jacket and other clothing spread around the living room and on the floor near the coffee table was a large box containing nothing but rolling stone magazines, about 30 or so.

Conversations in the car had indicated Courtney wanted me to believe that Kurt had been to the Carnation property after he had fled the rehab in Los Angeles and returned to Seattle. But as I looked around the old cabin, everything was covered in a very thin layer of moss. The moss was apparently present due to high humidity and it indicated no one had disturbed anything in this cabin for quite some time.

When Courtney and Kat came back downstairs, Courtney reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a cloth pouch. "Look Tom. Kurt was here," she said, as she opened the pouch revealing a syringe inside. "No way!" I thought to myself. This didn't look like something a person like Kurt would use to keep a syringe in. If he did bring it to the cabin, why would he have left it there? and what about the moss? I suspected Courtney had brought the pouch with her.

A few minnutes later we found five dead rats in the toilet. They'd been there for a long time. It was obveous no one had used this cabin recently! My suspicions had been confirmed. In the new house we found a sleeping bag, some cigarette butts, and soda cans scattered about. Courtney wanted to take these items back with us. She said she wanted to get them fingerprinted.

What's the big deal here? I wondered. Why is it so important to Courtney that Kurt had been here recently? I noticed that Eric never showed up at the Carnation property. Had he come and gone before we arrived? During the drive back to the Lake Washington house, Courtney told Kat and I, that she was going to make a rubber hand from a cast she'd made of Kurt's hand. She said she was going to use it to slap people in the face and say, "There! that's from Kurt!"

I mentioned I'd worked with hand casts and it was amazing how you could duplicate fingerprints using certian silicon materials. Courtney appeared strangely discouraged. After this bizarre conversation, I never heard anymore about printing the items found at the Carnation property. Had this been part of a scheme to try to convince me and others that Kurt had been at the Carnation property after leaving rehab in Los Angeles?

During the trip to Carnation, Courtney talked to Seattle narcotics Detective Antonio Terry on my cell phone. I learned later that she'd been talking to Terry quite a lot during the time Kurt was missing. Detective Terry was even mentioned in the missing persons report as having additional information about Kurt.

Remember Terry's name. It will come up again later.

While Courtney was out of the car during one of our stops, I heard radio commentator Paul Harvey talk about a rummored suicide pact which supposedly existed between Courtney and Kurt. This was typical of the type of stoies I'd heard Courtney originate on her own, Then blame others for leaking to the press. I wondered if there was a connection between her fake "overdose" Saturday night and her possible deliberate overdose arrest Thursday morning? Had she tried to make this look like a suicide pact?

We found Kurt's car parked infront of a friend's house Kurt wasn't around. Although we know who drove the car to this location, I'm not going to discuss those details untill the case is reopened. It's really not relevant and would only serve to confuse the issues right now.