Prior To My Involvement

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

Courtney was angry at 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 junkies Kurt did drugs with!

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

March 26, 1994.
Courtney left Seattle for the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills.

March 30th.
Kurt and his best friend Dylan Carlson purchased a shotgun. Kurt told Dylan he was afraid of intruders at the house. Walking out on 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 gauge, set-up for light load. This set-up is what gun dealers often recommend for home protection because the shot won't penetrate walls and endanger 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 a 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 only talked to Kurt once that day.

That evening, Kurt left the rehab. Later, at 8:47 PM, 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 in my case file.) Courtney never mentioned this message to the media. It doesn't appear to be a message from a person 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 became significant later in the investigation.

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 to find out who it was.

I took another investigator with me named Ben Klugman. We met Courtney at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. "If you leak this to the press, I'll sue the f___ out of you," Courtney warned me as we walked into the room.

Courtney told us her husband was Kurt Cobain and that he 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 that herself and save some money. If we did it, I'd have to charge her fifty dollars just 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 access 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 sense!

We questioned Courtney more about Kurt's ability to get money for his needs. "This guy can't even catch a f___ing 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 did this was to scare Kurt and get his attention so he'd try to contact her.

Later that afternoon while I was with her in the hotel room, Courtney rambled on in an angry rage about the "9 1/2 million 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's 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 Michael Stipe. She failed to mention initially that Kurt had been seen at their Lake Washington house on Saturday morning, April 2nd, by "Cali," (Michael Dewitt), the male nanny who was living at the Cobain residence. Cali later claimed he informed Courtney on Saturday, April 2nd, that Kurt had been to the house earlier that morning. Cali said Kurt came into his bedroom and they had a short conversation.

Courtney asked me to find someone in Seattle to watch a drug dealer's apartment 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 actually been seen!

I sub-contracted with a P.I. firm in Seattle for the surveillance.

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'Conner.

As we monitored the progress of the surveillance team in Seattle, we continued working with the credit card company trying to track the use of Kurt's credit card. Someone was still attempting to use the card for various charges.

Courtney advised us Kurt only stays in the 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's going to die," she announced. So now I had to wonder why she wouldn't want the police or someone else to go to the room and try to save him?

After less than an hour, Courtney called me and said she talked to the person in the room and it wasn't Kurt. Of course 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 that afternoon, I volunteered to go to Seattle and search for Kurt. One of Courtney's friends in the room said, "Why don't you go up there, Courtney?"

"I can't, I have business I have to take care of here," Courtney replied.

I asked Courtney not to tell anyone I was coming because they might alert Kurt. She agreed but later told me she had called Cali to tell him I was on my way to Seattle. Courtney told me earlier that she didn't trust Cali. Now she claimed, "He won't tell anyone."

"Save the American Icon, Tom!" Courtney shouted dramatically as I left the hotel room and headed for the airport.

Wednesday, April 6th 11:30 PM.
I picked up Kurt's best friend, Dylan Carlson at his apartment. We went to a cafe where we ate and planned 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 handling things pretty good."

I asked Dylan if he'd ever been told that the Rome incident was a "suicide attempt," and he said, "No. Kurt said it was just an accident."

If Cobain was so "suicidal," and if he had really "tried to kill himself" a month earlier, I wondered why nobody clued in his best friend, the guy he hangs out with! Wouldn't they want Dylan to keep a close eye on Kurt? And if Kurt was so "suicidal," wouldn't Courtney want to make sure Dylan didn't allow him to have access to guns?

Dylan told me Kurt had been afraid of intruders at the house lately, and that he wanted a gun for protection. So he said he helped Kurt buy a shotgun to have at the house when he returned from rehab. He 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 leaving the cafe, Dylan and I checked out a drug dealer's apartment 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 at 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. 2:15 AM.
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 presence if at all possible. Dylan came back to the car after at least 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 call the alarm company and ask them to 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. I dropped Dylan off at his apartment and went to my hotel for a few hours sleep.

I picked Dylan up later and we resumed our search. We 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 Cobains owned two vacant cabins situated on several acres of property. But in the dark, Dylan became unsure as to whether or not he could locate the property. The increasing rain didn't help much so we eventually turned back. We'd try another time.

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 further instructions. Courtney wanted us to go back to the Lake Washington house to look for the shotgun. She said it could be in a hidden compartment in her closet.

Since Cali had been at the house quite a lot, I wondered why she hadn'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. The note read in part, "I can't believe you managed to be in the house without me noticing. You're a f---ing a--hole for not calling Courtney..."

I had a feeling the note was intended for me to find, not Kurt. It just seemed phony. When I mentioned this note later to Rosemary Carroll (a person who knew Kurt, Courtney and Cali very well), she agreed, "Didn't it Tom? Didn't it sound phony?!"

On Thursday afternoon, April 7th, Cali told friends he was leaving for Los Angeles. Although I spoke with him later, I never got to see or talk to Cali while I was in Seattle looking for Kurt. I had the feeling he was trying to avoid me.

Cali later claimed he was hardly at the house from Monday on. He said he wasn't staying at the house because Courtney kept calling and saying she knew Kurt was there.

The obvious question: if Cali was hardly at the house himself, why would he find it so hard to believe Kurt had been in the house without him noticing? And if Courtney told Cali she knew Kurt was there, why wasn't she having us watch the house during our surveillance?

Friday morning, April 8th.
Dylan and I were on our way to the Carnation property once again. We stopped for gas and Dylan got out to make a phone call. When he came back to the car, Dylan said a friend just told him a body was found at the Lake Washington house. Was it Cali, Kurt or someone else? We turned on the car radio and soon heard that the person found dead was Kurt Cobain. Dylan showed no reaction.

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?" Dylan told me it was 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 Cobain's body was found.

We soon learned Cobain had been dead for two days or more. Now it was apparent that someone had been trying to use his missing credit card since the time he left Los Angeles to return to Seattle. Someone also attempted to use that same card after Cobain died!

I called the Seattle homicide detectives and tried to tell them something was wrong. The detective told me Kurt was locked in the room by himself. He said the door was locked from the 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're 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 at all upset that we hadn't found Kurt. She acted as if she thought Kurt died the night before. If so, we could have saved him if we'd found him in time! 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 until I found out more about what happened. This whole thing smelled really rotten!

I left Seattle and flew back 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 divorce lawyer" she could find. Courtney also asked Rosemary if the prenuptial agreement could be voided.

Rosemary then told me that Kurt had also called during that same time period. According to Rosemary, Kurt hadn't completed his will yet. He told Rosemary he wanted Courtney taken out of it.

Rosemary indicated she was disturbed and somewhat suspicious that Courtney wouldn't let her or anyone else see the so-called "suicide note." I mentioned to Rosemary that Courtney said she couldn't go to Seattle herself because she "had business in L.A."

"She didn't have any business in L.A.!" Rosemary snapped.

During our meeting, Rosemary also told me that on Thursday morning, while Courtney was at her house talking to Dylan Carlson on the phone, she overheard Courtney say, "Be sure and 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 now know that after talking to Dylan on the phone Thursday morning, Courtney left Rosemary Carroll's house and went back to the Peninsula Hotel. A short while later, she called 911. First reports have Courtney overdosing again. She was later arrested. Rosemary has since shown me evidence that Courtney's "arrest" may have been a deliberately planned event.

As Rosemary and I concluded our meeting, we both agreed it would be best for me to return to Seattle to further investigate Cobain's death. Rosemary, however, was adamant that Courtney should not be told of the private discussions we were having regarding the suspicious circumstances and events surrounding Kurt's so-called "suicide."

6:30 PM
I flew back to Seattle and checked into a hotel. The next day I went to the Lake Washington house. 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 flattery 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, maybe a sister or cousin. She stood in front of me and asked, "You're the investigator?" I nodded 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 noticed Courtney looking over her shoulder as Wendy and I talked. She seemed to be concerned about our conversation. I told Wendy I'd like to talk to her at length some time in the next few days. She agreed and said she'd like to talk to me too. As Courtney walked back towards us Wendy began walking away. Courtney put her arms around Wendy and kissed her. I noticed Courtney whispering something in 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 hadn't even let her close friend Rosemary Carroll see the so-called "suicide note," I had to come up with a way to get a copy for myself in order to examine it in detail.

"I heard you read the note on TV the other day," I commented. "I was confused about something. It sounded like the note said, 'I'm lying here on the bed. . .' If Kurt was lying on the bed when he wrote the note, why was the bed was so neat when I came in 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 it was Kurt saying he was lying on the bed."

"No. Here, I'll show you," she said, and reached over 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 original."

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

"Yeah...sure," Courtney 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 growled. A few minutes earlier she was friendly--now she was obviously irritated!

Later that day we made plans to go to the Carnation property. Courtney told me Eric Erlandson, (guitarist in Courtney's band "Hole"), was going with us. A short time later Courtney took Eric into another room to talk. 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.

We left the house followed by a couple of television news vans which had been staked out at the Cobain residence. Losing the vans after a few blocks, I drove Courtney to the Carnation property with Kat Bjelland, (a long-time friend of Courtney's and guitarist for Babes In Toyland), in the back seat of my rental car.

As we drove, 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 appeared 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 the window.

During the drive Courtney wanted to stop twice for snacks. We also missed the turn off when Courtney couldn't remember which road to take. Temporarily lost, we stopped to solicit directions from a nearby farmer. I learned later that 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. Certainly she knew how to get there. It actually seemed she was deliberately delaying our arrival for some reason.

Arriving 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 was an old weathered cabin full of well used furniture and bedding. It looked like the home of a person living in poverty! This is where Kurt apparently felt the most comfortable.

The other house is a brand new wood sided mansion, vacant and yet to be furnished. This house was an "exhibition" of success and wealth.

The two houses are separated by a pond with a newly constructed walking bridge connecting the old to the new.

We went into 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 thirty or so.

Courtney tried to convince me Kurt had been to the Carnation property after he returned to Seattle from the rehab in Los Angeles. But as I looked around the old cabin, I noticed everything was covered with a very thin layer of moss due to the humid weather in Carnation. The presence of the moss 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.

Why would he have left a syringe here? I thought to myself. And what about the moss all over everything? I was having a hard time believing Kurt had been here.

As we continued looking around the old cabin, Kat suddenly screamed. Courtney and I ran to find her in the bathroom looking into the toilet. There were five dead rats inside! It looked like they'd been there for quite some time.

Now it was obvious no one had used this cabin recently! I suspected Courtney brought the pouch containing the syringe with her.

In the new house we found a sleeping bag, some cigarette butts, and soda cans scattered about. Courtney asked me to gather these items up to take back with us. She said she wanted to get them fingerprinted.

Eric didn't show up at the Carnation property while we were there. Had he come and gone before we arrived?

We left the Carnation property and headed back to the Lake Washington house. During the drive back 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 told her fingerprints could even be duplicated using a silicon material to fill the mold. Courtney appeared somewhat discouraged, as if something just went wrong. I never heard any more about printing the items found at the Carnation property.

Had this been part of a plan to convince me and others that Kurt had been to the Carnation property after leaving the rehab in Los Angeles? Did Courtney accidentally reveal her scheme by saying too much?

At one point Courtney talked to narcotics Detective Antonio Terry on my car phone. I later learned she'd been talking to Terry quite a lot during the time Kurt was missing. Detective Terry was even mentioned in the missing person's report as having additional information about Kurt.

Remember Detective Terry's name--it will come up again later.

Conversations during the drive indicated Courtney was still thinking more about her herself than about Kurt. She seemed to be obsessed with her career.

While Courtney was out of the car at one time, I heard radio commentator, Paul Harvey, talk about a rumored suicide pact which supposedly existed between Courtney and Kurt. This was typical of the type of planted stories I'd heard Courtney originate on her own and then blame others for leaking to the press.

I wondered if there was a connection between Courtney's fake "overdose" Saturday night and her possible deliberate overdose and arrest Thursday morning. Had she expected Kurt to die Saturday night? Had she expected us to find his body Thursday morning? Had she tried to make this look like a suicide pact?

Back at the house, I told Courtney I'd like to talk to Cali and Dylan together. Courtney replied, "Cali went to rehab in El Paso, or Georgia... no, he's in L.A. with friends." Then she shouted to Eric, "Call Cali and tell him to get back up here on the next plane."

Dylan arrived at the house while I was in the kitchen. When I came out and started looking for him, I was told he was upstairs talking to Courtney in her bedroom. They came downstairs together after about twenty minutes. It was obvious Dylan had just gotten a heroin fix.

I took Dylan into the kitchen to talk. As I began questioning him, I noticed his response was canned as if he'd just been prepared and rehearsed. Dylan kept nodding off from the heroin. There was no sense in continuing.

I left the house and asked Eric to call my hotel when Cali got there. After several hours, I called and spoke to Eric. He told me that after I left, Courtney had him call Cali and tell him he didn't have to come to Seattle. Eric said, "I don't know what's going on here!"

Saturday, April 16th.
Ben Klugman had flown to Seattle the day before to work with me. Ben and I went back to the Lake Washington house to talk to Courtney. The lady who answered the door told us Courtney was upstairs sleeping. I asked her if Wendy was there. She said Wendy was downstairs. I asked the lady to let Wendy know I was there and to ask her if we could talk.

The lady left but returned a minute or two later. "Wendy says she has nothing to talk to you about," she said.

We left the house and after following up on some other leads, Ben and I returned to our hotel. The electrical supervisor who had been at the scene of Kurt's death met with Ben and I later in my hotel room. He described the position of the body and the shotgun. He also told us, "Kurt's hair looked like it had been combed by a hairdresser. It was all spread out nice and even."

I realized this could just be one man's perception of what he thought he saw while under stress, but I wanted to see the police photographs to see what he was talking about.

We later learned Courtney called the electrical contractors on Wednesday, April 6th, before I had agreed to fly to Seattle, and instructed them to begin work on the lights and motion detector on the greenhouse! Did she know Kurt was inside? Was she trying to get the body discovered? It just all seemed a little strange!