Kurt Cobain Found Dead

1994

Kurt Cobain's body is found in his Seattle home by an electrician sent to install a burglar alarm. He is believed to have died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound three days earlier. The Nirvana song "Come As You Are" takes on new meaning with the line, "I swear that I don't have a gun."

On the night of March 31, 1994, Cobain hops a fence at the rehab facility where he has been detoxing from heroin, and disappears. He had gone to the facility after an intervention from his family and friends following an alleged suicide attempt earlier in the month. He is spotted around Seattle several times over the next few days, and then drops off the radar completely. On April 3, Cobain's wife, Courtney Love, hires a private investigator to locate him, but he remains missing until the morning of April 8, when electrician Gary Smith spots him lying on the floor of his Seattle home and alerts the authorities. An autopsy determines that Cobain died of a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head. Cobain's drug use and struggles with depression had been well-documented, and several of his songs hinted at his troubled state of mind. In January 1994, Nirvana recorded a song later titled "You Know You're Right," featuring a chorus of the word "pain" screamed at the top of the singer's lungs. Despite his history and a suicide note addressed to his childhood imaginary friend, Boddah, many fans remain unconvinced that Cobain's death was a suicide.