Seattle’s ex-top cop admitted there were contradictions between key evidence and what was concluded in the police report on the 1994 death of Kurt Cobain, according to bombshell claims being probed by the city.
The city’s Office of Police Accountability recently began probing the shocking allegation: that former Chief Shon Barnes “acknowledged evidence collected” when the Nirvana frontman died was “contradictory” to what had been stated in the original police report, people involved with the investigation told The Post.
Grunge legend Cobain was just 27 when he was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head in a greenhouse at his Seattle mansion in April 1994. Within hours, investigators declared his death a suicide
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But Barnes allegedly noted during a sit-down with private investigators on the case last year that there was no blood found on the hand that Cobain supposedly shot himself with — a potentially crucial issue with the suicide determination.
Barnes’ shocking admission is alleged to have come during a November 2025 meeting that the then-commish had with “Who Killed Kurt?” — a group of volunteer researchers who believe Cobain’s death was a homicide staged to look like a suicide and have been campaigning for the case to be reopened.
Barnes met with the group’s lead investigator, Michelle Wilkins, and its legal adviser, former local King County senior prosecutor Mark Larson, at cop headquarters to discuss the findings of a peer-reviewed paper which concluded Cobain was murdered.
“Who Killed Kurt?” claims that during the meeting, they discussed forensic evidence which shows an apparent absence of blood on Cobain’s left hand, which the musician is supposed to have used to hold the shotgun’s barrel near his mouth.
Larson suggested that a possible implication was Cobain’s hand was placed on the gun after he was shot, prompting Barnes to allegedly respond, “So that’s the explanation — the hand is placed after the blood-spatter event.”
When the group discussed its concerns over how quickly Cobain’s death had been ruled a suicide, Barnes reportedly told them, “A determination happens after an investigation.
“Although I wasn’t here at the time, as a trained investigator, we investigate every death as if it’s a homicide, and then we make a determination,” he allegedly said.
In January, the SPD announced it would not reopen its investigation into Cobain’s death, standing by the outcome of a 2014 cold-case review which also ruled there had been no foul play.
Barnes resigned as SPD chief in July after he was slammed for his handling of a mass shooting at a food festival at the Seattle Center which left two victims and one of the perpetrators dead.