Courtney Love and Frances Bean Cobain are urging a Seattle court not to release pictures and records from the scene of Kurt Cobain’s death that a lawsuit claims will prove he was murdered.
Richard Lee, a Seattle-based journalist, is suing the city and the Seattle Police Department under the state Public Records Act for access to documents he believes will prove Cobain did not die of a self-inflicted gun-shot wound, the The Seattle Times reports.
Lee, who runs the public-access show Now See It Person To Person: Kurt Cobain Was Murdered, claims the images and documents from the death scene, including a picture of Cobain’s body, will show he was killed as part of a conspiracy.
Seattle Police has already released images showing evidence found at the scene of his death after several roles of undeveloped film that were taken at his home were discovered ahead of the 20th anniversary of his death.
The images showed a box containing a spoon and needles on the floor alongside half a cigarette and a pair of sunglasses.
Iconic Images: Kurt Cobain Remembered
Cobain had a lethal amount of heroin in his system at the time of his death and a police spokeswoman said nothing had emerged to suggest the front man had died any other way.
Superior Court Judge Theresa Doyle will hear arguments on Friday from Lee, who is representing himself, and the city, who argue releasing the pictures would be harmful to Cobain’s widow and daughter.
Frances, who was two-years-old when her father took his life, released a statement describing the harmful effect publishing the documents could have on her.
Frances Bean Cobain has to find a way to live her life in the shadow of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love
"I have had to cope with many personal issues because of my father's death,” she wrote. “Coping with even the possibility that those photographs could be made public is very difficult. Further sensationalising it through the release of these pictures would cause us indescribable pain."
She cited concerns that the release of such information could also spur obsessive fans, recalling an incident where one broke into her home and waited there for three days because he believed the spirit of her father lived on inside her body.
Her statement added that neither her nor Love had seen pictures of Cobain’s body. In her own statement, Love said making the documents public would cause her family “permanent — indeed, endless and needless — pain and suffering”.
