Courtney Love and daughter Frances Bean Cobain are petitioning a Seattle court not to release photographs taken at the scene of Kurt Cobain’s death. Richard Lee, a local journalist who claims that the Nirvana frontman was murdered in a conspiracy involving the US government, is suing the city and its police department for the release of records and photographs from the scene in order to prove his theory.
Cobain was found dead at his home in Seattle on April 8, 1994. The cause of death was ruled to be a self-inflicted shotgun wound to the head, but conspiracy theories suggesting he was murdered have continued to swirl ever since. Lee argues that photographs taken at the scene of Cobain’s death will show he had no such shotgun wound to the head.
The city of Seattle insists the photographs should remain private for the sake of family privacy, The Seattle Times reports, and the singer’s widow and daughter have both written statements to this effect. “I have had to cope with many personal issues because of my father’s death. Coping with even the possibility that those photographs could be made public is very difficult,” Frances Bean wrote. “Further sensationalizing it through the release of these pictures would cause us indescribable pain.” In her statement, the 22-year-old also revealed that she has received unwanted attention from “obsessed” fans of her father, including a man who broke into her home because he “believed my father’s soul had entered my body.”
Meanwhile, Love wrote in her statement that “public disclosure would reopen all my old wounds and cause me and my family permanent — indeed, endless and needless — pain and suffering.” She added: “I cannot even imagine the enormity of the trauma this would cause me, not to mention many others.”
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Photography Ron Galella via Getty Images