KURT Cobain was just 27 when he was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head in a greenhouse at his home in Seattle.
Within hours, investigators declared it a suicide, but researchers have long been campaigning for the case to be reopened. Now, in a fresh twist, a newly unearthed document shows that his widow Courtney Love asked cops to destroy the crime scene photos less than a year after they had been taken.
In 2014, the Seattle Police Department released a cache of 37 images documenting the death scene after reviewing the case and concluding investigators had been right to rule it a suicide.
The photos – released as part of the cold case review – showed the outside of the rock star’s home and the greenhouse where he was discovered.
Two of the pictures in the cache, which included Polaroids and photos found on previously undeveloped 35mm film, also showed parts of Cobain’s body.
Now it has emerged that the lead homicide detective on the case wrote to his boss just months after Cobain’s death.
He informed him that Hole frontwoman Love was seeking to have all of the pictures taken at the scene destroyed.
In an internal memorandum dated February 13, 1995 – unearthed by investigators from the campaign group Who Killed Kurt? – veteran detective Sergeant Don Cameron told homicide unit commander Lieutenant Al Gerdes that Love had expressed concerns about the photos being leaked.
It came after a private detective she had hired to find Cobain when he went missing in the lead-up to his death made allegations claiming she was responsible for his death.
Sgt Cameron, who has since passed away, told Lt Gerdes that he had denied the request because destroying the crime scene photos would make the department seem “foolish and unprofessional”.
He wrote: “As you are aware the suicide of Kurt Cobain has once again become a media issue.
“Allegations by a California private investigator, Tom Grant, have rekindled the concerns of Courtney Love over the preservation/security of the crime scene photos.
“Grant is alleging Courtney was responsible for her husband’s death and we covered up the murder.
“Because of the rekindled media interest in her husband’s suicide Courtney Love has gone to her attorney with concerns over the release of any of the crime scene photos.
“Courtney’s attorney, Seth Lichtenstein called and asked if the photos could be destroyed to prevent any mistaken release.
“I have advised Mr. Lichtenstein the 35mm film had not been developed nor would it unless it became necessary.
“The Polaroids are in evidence under lock und key and only three people are authorized to remove them from evidence.
“I am not sure Mr. Lichtenstein is satisfied with this but I explained with Grant still running amok we would look foolish and certainly unprofessional if we destroyed the only photographs of the crime scene.
“Mr. Lichtenstein may go higher on the chain of command so I thought I had better let you know.”
The revelation comes after The Sun reported last month that another SPD document appeared to show that another detective who had worked on the case handed Love the original copies of the alleged suicide note and another handwritten note found at the scene.
The receipt for evidence form shows that Detective Steve Kirkland gave the original notes to Love in June 1994, just over two months after Cobain died.
The move was slammed by retired Seattle police captain Neil Low, who spent 50 years with the force and discovered the receipt while going through his files.
Low – who originally backed the suicide verdict when he carried out an audit of the Cobain case in 2005 but has since been convinced it was a homicide – said the decision went against standard police protocol.
Asked about the SPD memorandum showing that Love had asked to have the crime scene photos destroyed, he told The Sun: “I think I first read it when I audited the file back in 2005.
“I just thought it was a really weird, unprecedented request to ask to destroy evidence just 10 months after the death.
“But honestly I myself was worried that there was a danger that the photos would be developed and get out there because my department is not without blemish and where the film was being kept had no security.
“They had it locked in what is called the vault, essentially a fancy safe, in the manager’s records office but there was no good security there.
“There were legitimate concerns about things disappearing from evidence.”
Love, who is the mother of Cobain’s only daughter Frances Bean Cobain, and other close relatives and friends have repeatedly backed the official version of events.
Cobain had publicly stated stomach pain had made him suicidal during Nirvana’s 1991 European tour.
In the month before his death, he overdosed on sleeping pills and booze while in Rome in what Love later described as a suicide attempt.
Two weeks later, on March 18, police were called to Cobain and Love’s home after she reported he had locked himself in a room with a gun and was threatening to kill himself.
Cobain denied being suicidal to officers, who confiscated guns, ammunition and a bottle of pills.
And the week before his death, associates staged an intervention due to concerns over Cobain’s drug abuse and he agreed to check into rehab but left after only two days.
Who Killed Kurt? lead investigator Michelle Wilkins said: “Those photographs are the reason this investigation is still possible.
“If Sergeant Cameron had said yes — if he’d picked up that phone and authorized their destruction — there would be nothing left to examine.
“No independent review. No forensic analysis. No accountability.
“The entire evidentiary record of how Kurt Cobain died would have been gone. One phone call could have ended it permanently.”
The Sun has contacted Courtney Love’s representatives for comment.