Photos of Kurt Cobain’s dead body are to remain unseen after a judge threw out a campaigner’s bid to have them released.
Richard Lee, who believes the Nirvana frontman was murdered in 1994, rather than having taken his own life, took the city of Seattle to court in an attempt to have the files opened.
Cobain’s widow Courtney Love and daughter Frances both submitted declarations saying they could be put at risk if the pictures were made available.
Love said: “I am routinely called a murderer and receive death threats by conspiracy-theory obsessed individuals who believe I was somehow involved in my husband’s death. The public release of these images would only exacerbate such activity and further endanger my safety.”
Frances wrote: “My mother and I both receive a constant stream of death threats from very disturbed individuals who are obsessed with my father.”
She cited an example: “Once, a stalker broke into my home while I was on vacation, and laid in wait for three days. This person’s twisted explanation was that he was meant to be with me because my father’s soul had entered my body.”
Seattle Superior Court Judge Therese Doyle dismissed the bid, ruling that Lee hadn’t filed his suit properly. Lee has vowed to refile, telling the Seattle Times: “I’ve never heard of a case where an issue of such public importance was dismissed because of such trivial circumstances.”
