Inside Kurt Cobain's missing six days before his body was found by an electrician
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
Unless you were alive at the time you’d be forgiven for not knowing Nirvana legend Kurt Cobain was missing for a full six days before his body was found.
It’s still incredible to acknowledge today – 32 years later when the band accepted the Video Vanguard award at the 2026 MTV Video Music Awards on September 27 – that one of the biggest rock stars at the time had vanished, reports E! News.
His wife Courtney Love hired private detectives to help desperate police efforts to track down Cobain, and family and friends pulled together to help find the Nirvana frontman.
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However, on day six, April 8 1994, electrician Gary Smith entered Cobain’s Seattle home with the task of installing a security system, but was greeted with a horrific scene. After entering the house via a greenhouse located above the property’s garage, Smith found the musician’s bloodied body.
He found Cobain dead with a shotgun lying across his chest and a suicide note nearby.
His death was ruled as suicide by the King County Medical Examiner, with Newsweek reporting a health spokesperson as saying, "In the death examination for Kurt Cobain, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office worked with the local law enforcement agency, conducted a full autopsy, and followed all of its procedures in coming to the determination of the manner of death as a suicide."
But like Elvis, Monroe and many other celebrities to die in mysterious circumstances, conspiracy theories surrounding Cobain’s death multiplied, possibly fuelled by the Medical Examiner’s further statement about its findings: "We’re not able to provide specific details about what informed our conclusion, as the autopsy records are private under state law and can only be released by the next of kin.
"Our office is always open to revisiting its conclusions if new evidence comes to light, but we’ve seen nothing to date that would warrant re-opening of this case and our previous determination of death."
The examiner determined the body had Valium and heroin in the bloodstream and had been dead for over two days before it was found, meaning Cobain had up to four unexplained days between disappearing and dying from his wounds.
And with time, alternative theories as to his death have continued. Only this year, a private group of forensic specialists including Brian Burnett and Michelle Wilkins published a report which alleged Cobain was likely murdered. The Medical Examiner disagreed, however, and declined to reopen the case.
Cobain’s early life was filled with good fortune but also shrouded in pain. His parents divorced when he was a child, he started to smoke weed from the age of 13 and by 19 he was using heroin. By 1991 the band’s first major album Nevermind shot to the top of the charts, selling 30 million copies worldwide, but as the ‘90s wore on he was addicted to the drug.
Bandmates Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic were propelled to stardom also, but alongside Love, whom Cobain married in 1992, no one seemed to be able to shift him away from disaster.
The couple welcomed their daughter Frances Bean Cobain into the world in 1992, however she was taken from her parents by officials after allegations Love was using heroin while pregnant – claims she denied.
In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2015, Frances Bean said, "I always knew their relationship was toxic."
She added, "And I don't promote having a fix-it baby, which is what I was—to fix their problems...In the sense that their own families were so chaotic, that they wanted to create their own family as soon as possible: 'If we create our own family, it will be nothing like our families were.'"
After regaining custody, Cobain suffered overdoses in 1993 when he was arrested over a domestic dispute with Love and he had several guns confiscated by police.
In March 1994, his European tour was cut short over his ill health and shortly after Love visited him in Rome, he consumed alcohol and the ‘date-rape’ drug Rohypnol and was rushed to hospital. He was in a coma for over 20 hours.
Love later described this ‘first suicide attempt’ to Rolling Stone, "He was at the end of the bed with a thousand dollars in his pocket and a note saying, 'You don't love me anymore. I'd rather die than go through a divorce.'"
On March 25, Love and Cobain’s Nirvana bandmates intervened to convince him to join Love in checking in to an LA rehab clinic, but he did not join her.
Cobain checked himself into California’s Exodus Recovery Center. In his last call to Love, she reported him as saying, "Courtney, no matter what happens, I want you to know that you made a really good record." He added, "Just remember, no matter what, I love you."
He is believed to have scaled the centre’s six-foot walls before flying home to Seattle alongside Guns N’ Roses musician Duff McKagan, who said of the trip: ‘All of my instincts that something was wrong.’
Cobain is thought to have spent days wandering Seattle, with his mother Wendy O’Connor filing a missing persons report by April 4th.
From April 5th Cobain is believed to have shut himself in his greenhouse above his garage, where he took his own life.
Because of the huge continued public interest in the case, Seattle Police Department stated in 2013 officers maintain an open incident report to handle the regular requests for updates.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123 or contact Harmless by visiting their website https://harmless.org.uk.
Michael D. Carroll