"He would come home from work, he would sit down in his chair, pour like a bourbon/rocks...he would not say a word. And this would go on for hours. And if he did speak, that meant your ass...and that was kinda it...I think it's just handed down. Genreation to generation the...Irish Catholic drunk kinda way of expressing all your emotions...It's been years...I never had a relationship with him because he wasn't that kind of dad...I never communicated with him at all [laughs]...yeah I dunno...when you grow up without having a relationship with your father, you don't really know any different." - Chris Cornell on Howard Stern show, 2011
Mother, who's your man
Is he doing what he can
To make a proper home, home
By overturning other stones, stones
Father, mighty man
Loves his little boys, boys
Shows them how to kill
To save his precious stones, stones
- Soundgarden "Far Beyond the Wheel"
His parents are Edward F. Boyle, a pharmacist of Irish-Catholic background, and Karen Cornell, an accountant and psychic of Jewish background - Wiki
Got my arms around baby brother
Put your hands away
Your gonna kill your mother, gonna kill your mother
Kill your mother
And I love her, yeah
I love her
- Soundgarden "Hands all Over"
"I try to beat it....if I go to a song, and there's a lot of them that came outta really bad places...but because I came out of that bad place there's sort of a triumphant approach to being able to sing it now...there's some sort of positive attitude that comes out of the fact that "look at how lucky I am?" That I get to express those things in music and then go out and play it for other people. What ends up happening is...people will come up to me...and they will point out those specific songs..and say, "this helped me through a really difficult time." - strobe.com, 2009
If I took you for a ride, would you take it wrong?
Or would you make it right, make it right?
Looking for a pedestal that I can put you on
And be on my way, on my way
-Soundgarden "Searching with my Good Eye Closed"
Since publishing my last blog on this topic, I have obtained the official 57 page Police Investigative Report, as released to the public around July of 2017. Although it does include crime scene photos, pictures of Cornell's body have been completely redacted, per request by his widow. Most of this report was released in pieces to the public via Detroit News, TMZ, and various other news outlets and is not very hard to find online last I checked. While my previous 2 blogs concerning this topic spent a lot of time focussing on the media and its consistently biased reporting from the start, this blog will be more devoted to analyzing the source information in the report. A few basic things which are not clear in this report, and that we will explore in detail:
What time Cornell died
Who the last person was to see him alive
How many Ativan pills he took, when, and who was in possession of the pill bottle
Exactly how he supposedly hung himself
Needless to say, some of the information and pictures in this blog are very disturbing. No details are presented here to be gratuitous or purely for shock value, but it is necessary to get graphic at certain points in order to establish any sort of clarity and truth.
NOTE: Some of the photos in this blog are high resolution, and must be blown up in order to see the finer details. If you are on a Smart Phone, you will not see some of these details I point out unless you actually tap on the photo, then blow it up. If you simply try to enlarge the screen without tapping on the photo, it will look low resolution and details will be blurry or lost. Some of the points I make here cannot be fully appreciated without blowing certain photos up, so this is a critical point.
HOW EXACTLY DID CORNELL HANG HIMSELF?
The exercise band Cornell supposedly used to hang himself with was composed of 4 parts: A black door anchor [upon which is a Bionic Body logo, which I underlined in yellow above], a black carabiner clip, the red band itself [also referred to as a "tube"], and a black handle upon the opposite end. The picture above shows the door anchor, carabiner, and exercise band [The fat end of the door anchor is slightly cropped outside of view]. These parts were designed to work together in a very specific way, and below is an actual image from the Bionic Body website showing the same Door Anchor and carabiner Cornell owned.
Before getting into what the report says, it would be helpful to briefly explain how these tools are supposed to be used.
Although this man is not using the Bionic Body brand, the basic mechanics behind using a door anchor with a resistance band/tube is the same. Note the fat end on one side, a loop on the other. Notice the different colored bands coiled on top of the table to the left. These are exercise bands with different weight resistances.
A door anchor can be positioned on the side of the door, the bottom, or along the top, depending on what sort of workout/muscle group the user intends to exercise. [Note how close the man's head is to the top of the door above]
The yellow arrow above indicates where the resistance band is looped through the door anchor. The brand Cornell used has a carabiner clipped through this loop on the user's side of the door. The reason for linking a carabiner clip between the end of the exercise band and the door anchor loop is to more easily and quickly switch them out. It also makes it a lot easier to stack them together, in order to increase resistance that much more. According to the Case Registration Summary for the Wayne County Medical Examiner, Cornell also had a blue exercise band in his room the night he died. The color of these exercise bands denote WEIGHT RESISTANCE, which is why users typically own more than one color. If you want a more intense/less intense workout, you simply switch to a band/tube with a different weight resistance rating, or stack them together in whatever combination desired.
Now that we know how these tools are supposed to be used, let's take a look at how the report says Cornell used them to hang from his bathroom door.
There is really only 1 interview of Martin Kirsten anywhere regarding this event, and above is a section of it. Let's call this NARRATIVE 1. It was conducted by the homicide detective at the scene of the crime at 3:10am, and is in the detective's handwriting. There are indications that certain statements by Kirsten were abbreviated/summarized by the detective. So this isn't even really a raw interview, it's more of an interpretation. The fact the public never got a single raw interview with this man should raise suspicion right off the bat. Martin Kirsten is the only person we know of, with first hand knowledge of how Cornell hung himself, as he supposedly found the body. Here is what the interview says regarding that.
"I went inside and the bathroom door was partially opened and I could see his feet. I saw the band around his neck he was on the floor. I forced the band from wherever it was hanging and attempted loosen the band from around his neck and began chest compressions with I believe my left hand."
First off, Kirsten mentions a "band" and nothing else. No carabiner clip is mentioned at all, nothing jammed into the door, no door anchor. In fact, he doesn't say anything indicating Cornell hung from the door at all! Mr Kirsten is a bodyguard, and I am sure he works out. People who need to be fit for their career would probably recognize an exercise band, and it's parts, a lot quicker than people who do not need to be fit for their job. Further, as Cornell's bodyguard, he'd also be aware of his various routines - and his use of exercise bands on the road was obviously part of his regular workout routine. One would think Martin would give a little more details here, or that the homicide detective would probe a bit more for clarification. He says he forced the band from "wherever it was hanging." How can he not know what it was hanging from if he physically forced it down? What exactly was securing the band in place and how did the door manage to open before Mr Kirsten arrived - if the door was used in the hanging? There is also no mention of blood. Again, this is the only direct statement we get from Kirsten regarding these details, and they are extremely vague. There are no apparent attempts to clarify these details anywhere in this report.
The phrase "life saving protocols" is found in several places in this report, including NARRATIVE 1. This is how I determined that the words in NARRATIVE 1 are not necessarily direct quotes from Kirsten. Kirsten states that he started chest compressions initially, but is later quoted in the same report as using the term "life saving protocols." People don't talk this way in conversation, this is a go to phrase used by more than one member of this investigation in the report. That may seem like a small, petty detail, but again, we don't seem to have a raw interview with Kirsten regarding this event ANYWHERE! The closest thing we've got is NARRATIVE 1, which fluctuates from appearing to quote Kirsten by using "I" several times, to summarizing quotes with phrases such as "life saving protocols."
The next narrative we get was conducted by Alonzo Tolefree, and/or Sylvester Hewston around 4:20am. Note that "Tolefree Casino 1" is listed in an earlier image I posted above, listing this as "crime: suicide" at 2:35 am. That was about 2 hours before they interviewed Martin Kirsten and about 2 hours before the Homicide Investigator had completed his interview with Martin Kirsten! Let's call this NARRATIVE 2.
"At this time, pro [Kirsten] kicked in bedroom door and found victim laying on bathroom floor with blood running from his mouth and a red exercise band around victim’s neck. At 12:56AM, MGM medic XXXX stated she came to room 11:36 and she stated door was open and she found victim laying on bathroom floor with red exercise band around his neck. XXXX untied red exercise band from victim’s neck and began CPR on victim which was not breathing at this time."
There is still NO MENTION of the door having been used at all in the alleged hanging. Mr Kirsten should have been regarded as suspect #1 in a possible murder at this point, as his innocence would have been far from proven as of yet. They didn't grill him on details regarding what Cornell's noose was hanging from?
Kirsten does not make it clear what time he discovered Cornell's body, but the last time he gives in NARRATIVE 1 is 11:34pm. The above narrative states that the MGM medic showed up at 12:56. That's a 22 minute gap from the last time reference we got. This medic was a woman [Dawn Jones, according to a news article I encountered while researching earlier blogs], and the band was still around Cornell's neck when she arrived and the body was still on the bathroom floor. She then "untied" the band from around victim's neck.
As I pointed out in a previous blog, the above "noose" is not tied, it is clearly attached with a clip device. So why did the medic state she untied it? Kirsten also states he already loosened it before the medic arrived. Kirsten said nothing about it being tied before that. It seems strange that Kirsten would loosen the band, but leave it around Cornell's neck during the entire time he performed chest compressions, up until the MGM medic arrived - who then "untied" a band which was never tied to begin with! The medic mentions blood, whereas Kirsten said nothing about blood. I would imagine there was a lot of blood as Kirsten attempted to revive Cornell, given what some of the photos show. How many minutes was he alone with the body performing chest compressions? We don't know because there is so little to go on with regard to this 22 minute gap so far.
It isn't clear who conducted NARRATIVE 3, but here it is.
"He stated that he entered the room and observed the bathroom door slightly opened. He was able to see the decedent’s feet in the bathroom and pushed the door open. Upon entry, he found the decedent on the floor with a red resistance band around his neck and the opposite end of the band across the top of the entry door. He released the band from on top of the door and loosened the end around the decedent’s neck and began chest compressions. He continued chest compressions until the arrival of MGM medical personnel, who were subsequently replaced by Detroit EMS. They attempted life saving protocols for sometime until pronouncing death."
In this 3rd narrative, we finally get the detail regarding what the band was supposedly hanging from. Regarding technical aspects of how the band was fastened to the top of the door, we get nothing. Only that the opposite end of the band was "across the top of the entry door." We've seen how the exercise band is designed to be locked into the closed door. Given that, this explanation in narrative 3 simply makes no sense. The band could not possibly have been attached to the top of the door at all, since it was open! There's no mention of a carabiner clip and no mention of the door anchor. Mr Kirsten "pushed the door open," which further begs the question, "what was holding that band into place on top of the door as Kirsten pushed the door open, which would then require him to "force it" down?" Without further explanation, this detail should be assumed incomplete at best, a lie at worst! Again, no mention of blood. We get no additional details regarding time, but it is stated that Detroit EMS showed up after the MGM medic.
[Chris Cornell was 6'3. He was too tall to have hung himself in the manner depicted above, as is the woman holding the noose!]
I assume this is Angela Anderson Cobb, who is listed on the Medical Examiner's Case Registration Summary as arriving on the scene at 3:53am. This is not the MGM Medic who showed up first, this is the City of Detroit Medic who showed up after. The color photo showing the noose is the one most people saw. I notated in a previous blog how this picture limits perspective by cropping out the bottom of the noose. The one below it was published by TMZ, and looks a lot crappier as you can tell. The reason for this, is that when you order the official report, not all of the photos are included digitally on CD. A small stack of them are only included as cheap black and white paper copies. So if someone wants to upload those particular photos, it would have to be scanned, then posted online - making them 2nd generation quality at best, greatly compromising their clarity, discouraging people from posting them, and probably causing some people to think they are fake. The reason certain photos were only released publicly in this manner should be regarded as suspicious for several valid reasons.
First off, nobody in the first 3 official narratives mentioned anything about a carabiner clip. In fact, it isn't until narrative 3 that the door is specifically mentioned as what Cornell hung from. As we saw, it stated that the red band was laid across the top of the door. No mention at all of a carabiner or door anchor. So why is it that in the above pictures, they are laying the CARABINER across the top of the door, and not the exercise band? Nobody said he used it this way, and it's not even the proper way to fasten the tube on top of the door! One reason they could have done this would be to rule out one possible way Cornell may have used it. But the Medical Examiner later confirms that this is the way he did it in their own official documents! Only reason I can see for pushing this "carabiner theory" was simply to confuse people.
The color images indicate that investigators were in possession of perfectly clear digital copies of these pictures. But strangely, the only picture clearly revealing that Cornell, at 6'3, was too tall to have hung himself at this height - was only released in the form of a badly printed hard copy. Look at how low the bottom of the noose is. Do we really need to draw some elaborate diagram showing that this is indeed too low for a 6'3 man to have hung suspended from? Sure, he could have choked himself at this height, but that is not what we were told. To "hang" yourself doesn't mean you "choked" yourself while leaning forward with a noose wrapped around your neck and jammed into the top of a door.
"Hang: to fasten to some elevated point without support from below" - Webster's Online Dictionary
"Hang: suspend or be suspended from above with the lower part dangling free." - Google
To HANG means you are SUSPENDED completely in the air, without your feet touching the ground. For Cornell to have hung himself from this noose in the way depicted in the pictures above is IMPOSSIBLE. In fact, the woman in the picture couldn't have either! You have to wonder what was going on in her mind while these photos were being taken. Imagine you are staring down at this noose for a photo, and the blood of a 6'3 man is on the floor near you, and people are saying he hung himself from this door, using the noose in your hand, which isn't even tall enough to hang YOU.
"I saw the band around his neck he was ON THE FLOOR." - Narrative 1
"At this time, pro kicked in bedroom door and found victim laying ON BATHROOM FLOOR with blood running from his mouth and a red exercise band around victim’s neck." - Narrative 2
"Upon entry, he found the decedent ON THE FLOOR with a red resistance band around his neck and the opposite end of the band across the top of the entry door." - Narrative 3
"Per information given to me by the investigating officer, the deceased was discovered by his bodyguard SUSPENDED by the neck from the above described item." - Case Registration Summary for the Wayne County Medical Examiner
Notice that the body was found on the floor, until the Medical Examiner's Case Registration summary is typed up. Everything before that was information allegedly gathered directly from Mr Kirsten by officers on the scene. The story was changed once the Medical Examiner's documents came into play, therefore, the last quote above appears to be false. Why would an "investigating officer" give the medical examiner details which are not consistent with 3 different official reports, one of which is supposed to be directly quoting Mr Kirsten, clearly stating the body was found on the floor? She didn't even say "partially suspended," she said "suspended!" We already looked at the meaning of HANG from 2 different sources!
"Inside of the bathroom there is a Burgundy rubber resistance exercise tube with a metal clip on one end and a black handle on the other. Part of the rubber tubing is looped through this handle."
This is the first time anyone mentions a "metal clip" on one end of the tube, and it's not even a complete description.
[If you are on a Smart Phone, you need to tap on the above image in order to properly blow it up and see the details]
What happened to the door anchor? Isn't that on one end of the tube? For some reason, the phrase "DOOR ANCHOR" appears nowhere in this report! The metal clip is BETWEEN the end of the tube and the door anchor, on the opposite end of the handle. Why is the Medical Examiner pretending the door anchor doesn't exist? Probably because it makes absolutely no sense to jam a carabiner into a door, instead of a perfectly functional door anchor, only to have the noose hang halfway down the door - where a 6'3 man could not possibly hang suspended from! I suppose they figured omitting any mention of the door anchor in the report would draw less attention to the absurdity of the carabiner theory? And why is the Medical Examiner presenting this carabiner theory seemingly out of nowhere when it clearly isn't plausible, nor was it mentioned in any of the first 3 narratives provided by Mr Kirsten? In fact, the photos in the official report show NO EVIDENCE that the carabiner was jammed into the top of the door. What the evidence DOES support, is that the TUBE was laid across the top of the door - consistent with Mr Kirsten's initial interviews [we will look closely at this later in the blog].
Notice the word HEAVY printed on the red tube in the above photo. You may have never noticed this before, because all of the photos released by Detroit News and TMZ either show the side of the tube this word is NOT printed on, or it is obscured in some manner. There is a very plausible reason this may have been done, because it suggests the tube is a MISMATCH with the other Bionic Body gear Cornell owned.
In the above Bionic Body ad, we can see these tubes come with a label attached to the end denoting weight resistance. The red one is rated at 70LBs, clearly. On the Bionic Body website, Kim Lyons is featured in a demonstration video where she clearly states the tubes are rated 20-100LBs. They are also listed for sale, from 20-100LBs. Chris Cornell was 180Lbs. He could not have even hung from a Bionic Body tube without it snapping! So now we can see one reason why it would have been switched. The fact major news media didn't notice this or feel that it was worth mentioning anywhere suggests they are turning a blind eye to certain details purposefully. And yet, TMZ has time and resources to fabricate articles suggesting Cornell was a needle junkie, only to quietly retract the suggestion later, after the public has already taken the bait. Even as recent as the day I type this, in 2019, the media has not let up on this campaign to CONVINCE the public Cornell had a lethal drug problem. And his widow is at the head of this campaign.
"Chris Cornell’s Widow Implores Congress to Act on Opioid Crisis: His 'Death Was Not Inevitable'" -People.com 02.26.19
It's almost as if Vicky is BEGGING the public to buy this story. Sorry, NO OPIOIDS were found in Cornell's body according to the Toxicology report. The Narcan was injected AFTER he was dead in an attempt to revive him, and TMZ tried to make it look like Cornell shot up beforehand, hoping to deceive fans who don't look that closely at details. But sure, go ahead, insult the fan's intelligence and throw some more dirt on top of Cornell's grave! Vicky is actively involved in a coverup regarding her husband's death. Whether she was/is a willing participant or not in this conspiracy is an interesting question.
"A similar resistance band, this one blue is lying on the bed" - Medical Examiner Case Registration Summary
Notice how in this far away shot, it does look like 1 single resistance band. I see green myself, but at least it half-way appears to match the Medical Examiner's quote above. This photo was published by Detroit News.
This is one of the TMZ photos, slightly cropped [#19 of the original article], clearly showing 2 bands. One green, one blue. Why did the Medical Examiner note 1 blue band upon the bed, but not the green one? We can see they are attached to 1 handle, stacked together. But that does not make them 1, it is still 2 tubes of different colors. Either the medical Examiner is not recording accurate details here or the photos are staged incorrectly. You pick which one, but either is enough to bring into question the accuracy of this investigation. Details like this put people in jail (or keep them out). You don't say there is 1 of something where there is clearly 2. Especially when it is in reference to a potential murder weapon at the scene of a crime.
The tubes pictured above, like the red one shown earlier, also do not have Bionic Body labels on them, and appear to be the same mismatched brand as the red one featured in the official photos. I searched for these exact tubes online and could not find a match. But again, these types of tubes are not typically rated to resist more than 100LBs. So while we can rule out the idea that Cornell hung from the height demonstrated in the earlier photos, we can't necessarily rule out whether the tube was strong enough to support his weight because we don't know what brand these are. "Heavy," could mean it has 180LB resistance. It would be interesting to see what word is printed on the end of the blue and green tubes. But conveniently, they are turned on the side concealing this label in the photos above.
"This notch appears to be indicative of where the resistance band was positioned when used as tool for hanging." - Narrative 3
We are viewing the bathroom door from the outside [Cornell supposedly hung himself on the INSIDE of the bathroom]. What exactly caused this notch? Well they are telling you above that the RESISTANCE BAND was positioned here. Given that, why would we assume anything but the resistance band created this notch? Before getting more into that, let's confirm that there is NO EVIDENCE supporting that a carabiner was ever used in the manner suggested in the Medical Examiner's documents.
The metal arm you see is called a Top Jamb style concealed door closer mechanism. This is a discreet version of any door closer you might see in a classroom or office building. They are designed to prevent doors from slamming, and automatically close them softly. The arm is installed into the upper door frame, where it is bolted into a stationary position. A track is built into the top of the door, and it glides back and fourth as the door opens and closes. As you can see, the arm must come to rest exactly, or even past where the notch is, upon the closing of the door. The reason the door is carved the way it is, is to allow the metal arm to glide back and fourth. If the metal arm did not need to rest where the notch is, the door would not be carved out that far along the top! If the carabiner was placed just over the notch, not only would it be meeting resistance from the top of the door frame as the door tries to close, but the metal arm closer would be blocked before it could reach it's closing position. In other words, the door could not even close with that carabiner placed there! I mean, unless Cornell shut the door so hard that it created one hell of a dent in the top of the door, the upper door frame, and basically destroyed the metal arm closer mechanism! Incidentally, there is not one single picture in this report of the inside/upper part of the door frame - where there would have to be some sort of impression from the carabiner, had it been jammed this way [which it obviously wasn't].
Now let's look at a TMZ published photo. Notice how the color of the TMZ imprint almost exactly matches the paint where it was scratched. Obviously, all of the TMZ photos have this transparent stamp upon them, but this one interferes with details in a very perceptible way. The left "leg" of the letter M is right on top of the notch, and confuses the finer details by slightly warping the appearance of colors. Was this done purposefully? It seems rather stupid to stamp the logo directly on top of the most important detail in the photo. Why publish these at all only to obscure the most important details in the picture?
Remember, Cornell supposedly hung himself on the opposite side of this door. A stationary carabiner sitting jammed horizontally on top of the door physically could not have created a notch running that far down the side, and the loop connected to it has no paint visibly on it. Whatever created this notch shredded the paint, and was pulled downward at an angle TOWARDS the crevice. There is no physical way Cornell could have pulled anything at this angle on the outside of the door, while he hung on the inside. His weight would actually be pulling in the OPPOSITE direction! Someone had to be on the outside of the door, pulling downwards, and towards the crevice. This is why the shredded paint is at an angle. The crevice was being used to prevent the tube from slipping from side to side, as 180LBS hung upon the opposite end of it. Also notice there is only 1 scratch on top of the door where the blue gloved finger is. The carabiner would have made 2 scratches side by side, had 180LBs been pressed down upon it in the manner suggested. There is no visible evidence here that the carabiner was ever jammed into this position. Did anyone at The Detroit News bother to look closely at these photos before telling the world Cornell hung himself? Either my name is Sherlock Holmes or mainstream news media has deliberately fed the public false information regarding Cornell's death!
[If you are on a Smart Phone, you need to tap on the above image in order to properly blow it up and see the details]
Have you ever wondered what that tannish powdery stuff is on the red tube? I did for a long time. It is paint from the top of the door. The positioning of the clip here was arranged to give the impression that the tannish markings were caused by it pulling against the tube. But if you look closely where the lower left arrow is pointing, that is shredded paint, just like we saw in the notch on the OUTSIDE of the door. This part of the tube was not being pulled by the clip, it was being pulled violently into the crevice on the outside of the door, creating the notch. So just like the first few narratives suggested, the red tube was in fact, laid across the top of the door. No carabiner was jammed in this scenario, that is pure bullshit. The arrow pointing to the torn rubber is probably where the clip was actually being pulled on the INSIDE of the door, creating an EXTREMELY tight noose around Cornell's neck. If you look carefully, you can even see how the tube is warped slightly in this exact spot, further contributing to the idea that the clip was being pulled very hard into it at this position. This scenario would place Cornell's neck directly level with the top of the door, not halfway down the door as depicted in the ridiculous photos we saw earlier. As he struggled, the back of his head would likely be banging against the wall. If he had injuries on the back of his head, this is probably how he got them and why these injuries would need to be covered up. Because this would be evidence of a struggle. By redacting these injuries from the final report and focusing on the absurd "carabiner theory," the public is then deceived and confused to the point of giving up.
Notice above where the Z imprint is. It is right on top of the tube where the tannish paint powder is running along it. Isn't it interesting that the placement of this Z manages to help conceal the manner in which the tube was actually used? The clip is again, being suggestively placed to give the impression that the tannish markings were the result of the clip being pulled into the tube. The report mentions nothing about these details, but pictures don't lie. That clip did not transfer tannish paint/dust onto the tube, the top of the door did. Here is the image without the TMZ imprint, slightly blown up:
Now that we can see the tannish markings along the tube, this begs the question, "how did shredded paint and other tannish markings get there?" Well, a metal clip certainly didn't do it! That then leads to the only possible conclusion, that this part of the tube was being pulled against the top of the door, transfering paint onto it, as it shredded. No other tools have paint on them. Not the carabiner, not the handle, not the door anchor.
The red line above is representative of the resistance tube, laid across the notch - just how Mr Kirsten stated in his original testimony to Detective Weaver in Narrative 1. I purposefully made the line thin so you can see how well this tube would fit into the notch, as well as the single scratch indicated where the person's gloved finger is placed. The notch runs fairly far down the door in a vertical motion. As you can see, the red tube would have to have been pulled downwards and towards the crevice in the door here, in order to have created that notch. Whoever did this was probably very strong, or had help. How Cornell was forced into this position on the inside of the bathroom, and how he remained there is another story. But it seems clear this would have required at least 2 people. 1 to subdue him inside the bathroom, and one to pull the tube downwards from the outside. If he really wanted to kill himself, he didn't need to get this complicated about it.
As far as the metal arm and the door closer mechanism - in some of the above pictures you will notice there is quite a bit of paint dust on the top of the arm. It is wiped off however, just on the tip. This is where the red tube slipped over the top of it just above the notch upon the closing of the door. Being that the tube can be stretched and smooshed, it is much more plausible than the carabiner as far as the door being able to close with it jammed above. If someone wanted to murder Cornell this way, I doubt they would have left anything to chance. They would have known which resistance tube was required for the job, again highlighting the fact that the tube is a mismatch with the other Bionic Body Gear found at the crime scene.
I said earlier that it isn't clear who the last person was to see Cornell alive in this report. Are you starting to see why this is such a critical detail? The strength of the resistance tube is still a little in question, but we have resolved the issue of height, the issue of the door being able to close, and the issue of the head injury - which was not my intent at all, it just became obvious when positioning the red tube over the door. Although there is a document floating around online, and a supposed 911 call - both confirming the injury on the back of Cornell's head, neither are mentioned in this report. However, the Medical Examiner's questionable Case Registration Summary does say this:
"...male is lying supine [face up] on the floor of the suite's bedroom area having been moved there to facilitate resuscitative efforts...stains of suspected blood are present on his face and on the floor next to and beneath his head."
I don't want to comment too much on the blood, because I have no idea what a hanging does to a person's throat, which might cause so much of it. To have it pouring from his mouth seems at least plausible. To have excessive blood on the back of his head on the other hand, seems a lot less plausible. Trauma on the back of his head from hitting the wall would indicate resistance to being hung, which contradicts the suicide theory. But with murder, it fits. Pictures showing the wall just above the door inside the bathroom might help clear this up, but there are none in the report. Every photo where the camera is pointed towards that part of the wall, the door is open just enough to block it. [Another fishy detail worth notating] If he was dragged from the bathroom, to the bedroom, and there was still enough blood to stain the ground under his head in the bedroom - I would say this lends itself to the idea that he had a wound on the back of his head. But since all photos of Cornell's body have been redacted from the report and his body was hastily cremated, there is no way we can confirm this. But between his torn shirt and all the blood, the possibility of a struggle seems quite plausible. Cornell was a strong man, he would have fought for his life.
One last note regarding the alleged "head injury." While I do think Cornell may have suffered injuries to the back of his head at the scene of the crime, there are no documents in the actual report backing this up. That's not to say that they weren't redacted, or that documents floating around the internet are not legitimate, they may be. But this idea he had an injury to the back of his head earlier in the evening, DURING the last Soundgarden show, is a bit harder to swallow for me. I have seen the footage and the picture stills and I am not convinced myself. It also seems like a potentially confusing bit of disinformation, designed to send people off into an endless labyrinth of questions ultimately leading nowhere.
WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON TO SEE CORNELL ALIVE?
[Narrative 1] "Chris called me and said that Apple TV was not working. I arranged for hotel IT to bring the remote that provides access to the hotel’s network. That was around 11:34 PM. I was in my room and was watching television when I received a phone call from his wife Vicki. She sounded angry because he wasn’t responding to his phone. She told me to go to the room and check on Chris."
Who was this Hotel IT person and where is the interview with him/her? Mr Kirsten doesn't say he went to Cornell's room to fix anything, he says he "arranged for hotel IT to bring the remote..." Well where did they bring it? To Mr Kirsten's room? To Cornell? Isn't it important to specify where this IT person took that remote? Because if they took it to Cornell's room, that would mean the faceless IT representative was the last one to see him alive!
Mr Kirsten then states he was in his room and got a call from "Vicki" [many names are misspelled in this 3 page interview]. Not only does Mr Kirsten say nothing about going to Cornell's room to fix his computer, he says nothing about returning to his room after things are sorted out! So based upon his direct testimony, why would anyone assume he went to Cornell's room at all to "fix his computer?"
[Narrative 2] "Bodyguard for rockband Soundgarden who states he was in above hotel room with victim (Christopher Cornell lead singer for group Soundgarden) at 11:30PM on 5/17/2017 trying to fix victim’s computer which was not working at the time. PRO fixed computer and then gave him 2 sleeping pills (adalan) in which victim takes for anxiety. Pro left room and went to his room 2 doors down."
The story has now changed significantly. "Apple TV" turned into a "computer" and the call to IT is left out completely, even though Mr Kirsten made it clear in his own earlier testimony that they were called to "bring the remote" somewhere. He then gives Cornell 2 sleeping pills, and leaves [this business with the pills gets extremely confusing, so I will cover that seperately].
[Narrative 3] "Mr Kirsten stated that Mr Cornell called him to report that his television was not working and to facilitate the repair. Mr Kirsten arranged for hotel IT staff to come to Mr Cornell’s room to facilitate access to their network for his usage on his personal Apple TV. Mr Kirsten stated that during this time he was talking by telephone to his wife. Upon completion of the resolution of the IT problem, Mr Kirsten returned to his hotel room."
Here is yet another different version of events. The above narrative states that IT went directly to Cornell's room. Nothing is mentioned about Mr Kirsten going to Cornell's room, only that he "returned to his hotel room." Returned from where? From the Hotel lobby? How do we know he even went to Cornell's room based on the above and how do we know who the last person was to leave Cornell's room, or that they even left at all? "...completion of the IT problem" does not specify who from IT showed up or what time they left or what Mr Kirsten's part was in all of that. The narrative above said Cornell called Mr Kirsten to "facilitate the repair," that's not the same as "come to my room to fix my computer." You don't have to be present physically to facilitate something. We assume that now because we know what the media has been pushing. But we're supposed to be reading from the horse's mouth here! It's not clearly saying he went to Cornell's room at all! Did news journalists get together and just decide on a version they would all push onto the public, which was a combination of the 3 narratives?
The above narrative also states that Mr Kirsten was talking to Cornell's wife either during, or at some point before the IT problem was resolved. How was Mr Kirsten "fixing Cornell's computer" if he was also talking to Cornell's wife at the same time? And what were they talking about, since this was presumably before she spoke with her husband and heard him slurring his words? Ever get the feeling we're just being told a bunch of bullshit here to send us around in circles? How hard is it to determine clearly who did what and when, since there really is only 2 people, plus the IT personnel, who were present in some way shortly before Cornell died? Cell phones give exact times. Cornell's phone was not recovered, according to the report. Pretty important piece of missing evidence I'd say. And pretty convenient for anyone trying to cover things up here.
Given the fact there are 3 different versions of this story within 3 different official reports - and that Mr Kirsten was the primary source of the information, I don't see how any news journalist could have written a factual article on this particular topic and I don't see how anyone could have accepted that the truth was ever obtained from Mr Kirsten. If the news media was really concerned with reporting the truth, they would have notated the alarming signs of foul play here and blatant inconsistencies with the official narratives!
"To rule out the possibility that someone else had killed Cornell, 52, detectives poured through the hotel's surveillance video, which was trained on the corridor outside his 11th floor room. They found nobody had entered or exited the suite after his bodyguard left around 11:35pm Wednesday, according to the source." - The Detroit News, May 22nd, 2017
The above quote from Detroit News is what Wikipedia is basing it's determination that Cornell was not murdered upon. First of all, this footage is mentioned nowhere in the official report, and yet it seems to have been determined a suicide from the start. None of this surveillance footage has surfaced anywhere, even though surveillance footage shows up daily in the news showing drunk drivers slamming into buildings, people throwing tantrums, people robbing stores, etc... Not even a nice still image of Mr Kirsten heroically kicking in Cornell's door has appeared. The specific wording they use referencing the source in that article is, "a Detroit Police source with knowledge of the investigation." I'm sure police use many "sources" to get their information, but that doesn't make every source an official member of the police department, or an official member of the investigation! The credentials this unknown source has, is that they have "knowledge of the investigation." Notice how specific that sounds initially, but descends rapidly into vagueness upon closer examination. They coulda said "Police spoke with someone who knows a lot about what happened and he said the surveillance footage rules out foul play." That's basically the same statement, just written out a bit more plainly and less deceptively. If this is what people out there are calling "proof" that Cornell was not murdered, I find that pretty sad.
The first line in the quote doesn't actually even clearly say Cornell wasn't murdered by someone. It says they ruled out the possibility that "someone else had killed Cornell." Someone else? Why is it so hard to just say, "detectives ruled out MURDER by watching the Hotel surveillance footage?" Ruling out murder means nobody murdered him. Ruling out that SOMEONE ELSE had killed him" makes it sound like someone is being ruled out, not that murder is being ruled out! Why are they messing around with words like this?
[Narrative 2] "Pro [Mr Kirsten] received a call from victim’s wife at 12:15 AM on 5/18/2017…who stated she talked to her husband (victim) at 11:35pm on 5/17/2017 who stated to wife that he was groggy and just kept saying I am just tired and hung up the phone."
If Cornell got a call from his wife at 11:35, within 1 minute of Mr Kirsten leaving his room, that's a pretty well timed call I'd say, because it provides the only evidence Cornell was still alive at that point. The fact his phone was not recovered means that Vicky's phone showing a call to Cornell at 11:35 would be the only potential proof he was still alive when Mr Kirsten left his room. That doesn't even necessarily mean Cornell received the call, without hearing the call itself. The murderer could have answered the phone, showing a call was received on Cornell's end. But again, Cornell's phone disappeared so, who cares right? Vicky was not present physically, so how did investigators determine so quickly that Cornell was not already dead when Mr Kirsten left at 11:35, even if they had managed to already SCOUR THROUGH the MGM surveillance footage? Her phone was not present for them to verify this call was made at 11:35. We also don't know what time these IT personnel showed up exactly or when they left, and we have conflicting reports as to whether Mr Kirsten went to Cornell's room at all to deal with the IT issue.
As far as Cornell's room being locked from the inside - Mr Kirsten had a key. He could have spent that 22 minute time gap mentioned earlier doctoring up the area to make it look like he broke into a suicide scene. Where is the footage of Mr Kirsten kicking doors down, where are the voice recordings of him frantically calling the front desk, and where are the phone calls of Vicky talking to Mr Kirsten while he is kicking these doors down? Until the surveillance footage and phone calls surface, I don't see any logical reason to buy any of this. There's just too many problems here, nothing comes together.
By the way, MGM also owns Mandalay Bay - where the worst concert shooting in American history occurred just a few months after this event. MGM then proceeded to sue 1,900 victims, according to NBC News, as a pre-emptive measure to circumvent the lawsuits they had been presented with or anticipated. After public outcry, MGM then offered to donate the cost of serving defendants their papers to charity, in an attempt to regain public affection. When we consider the security breaches likely necessary to have allowed that shooting to occur, Cornell's murder would have required a much smaller effort of corruption on the inside. MGM appeared very sketchy in 2017, to say the least.
"There are prescription bottles for Omeprazole and Prednisone prescribed to the deceased. I did not observe any other medications, illicit substances, alcohol or tobacco products at the scene." - Page 18, Medical Examiner's Case Registration Summary
The Medical Examiner's quote above matches the color picture with the 2 pill bottles in it. The black and white one under it however, presents a real problem. First off, remember the other black and white picture earlier, which revealed the noose was hanging too low to have hung Cornell from the door? Well the black and white picture above showing a bottle of Lorazepam [Ativan] was also not on the disc with the other photos, but was only included as a crappy printed hard copy on paper. So again, a very critical detail provided separately from the other images in the report, forcing the press to scan it and publish a 2nd generation copy - or decide not to include it due to the poor quality. The Medical Examiner says there were no other bottles or drugs observed in the room. So where was this picture of the Lorazepam taken? Every other photo in the report was taken in Cornell's room or just in front of the door.
"I spoke with the investigator Weaver as well as the bodyguard of the deceased, Mr Martin Kirsten. Mr Kirsten stated that he spoke to the deceased in person at approximately 23:30 [11:30pm] on May 17, 2017. At that time the deceased reportedly took two Lorazepam 2mg tablet which were from a prescription bottle prescribed to the deceased."
The Toxicology report indicates that Cornell had taken 4 of these Lorazepam pills. Cornell's wife also stated to the press that he told her over the phone that he may have taken "an extra Ativan or 2." The word "extra" indicates he had already taken the 2 his bodyguard gave him before taking more. This is why the location of the bottle throughout the evening is so important to determine. If Mr Kirsten had it, then left at 11:30 - how did Cornell take 2 more after that? If Kirsten gave him 4, why did he maintain he only gave him 2? If the bottle wasn't found in the room, how did it get back in there for a photo to be taken of it? If the bottle was taken outside of the room at 11:30, there is no way Cornell could have taken 2 more because Mr Kirsten [and the surveillance footage supposedly backs this up] never went back in until he found Cornell dead. These official documents themselves don't even agree with one another on critical details. Again and again, we must wonder how mainstream media was able to come to any clear conclusions on these matters, and who thought these unverifiable "facts" were solid enough to push onto the public? The fact that contradictions in this report are ALWAYS assumed to err on the side favoring suicide is a very clear indication of a coverup on multiple levels. Or, at the very least, a complete lack of objective observation.
WHAT TIME DID CORNELL DIE?
The last time reference Mr Kirsten gave in his own testimony before rushing over to break Cornell's door down, was 11:34PM. He doesn't make it clear if this was DURING or AFTER the conclusion of the Apple TV business. But he indicates that it was around that time.
"Pro [Mr Kirsten] received a call from victim’s wife at 12:15 AM on 5/18/2017…who stated she talked to her husband (victim) at 11:35 on 5/17/2017 who stated to wife that he was groggy and just kept saying I am just tired and hung up the phone." Narrative 2
Narrative 2 has a statement attributed to Vicky Cornell stating she last spoke with her husband on the phone at 11:35 - one minute after Mr Kirsten says he left in one account [the accounts vary as we know]. The Detroit News also makes specific reference to the time of 11:35 as the point where their "source" claims investigators did not view anyone coming or going from Cornell's room after. I find it strange that the last time reference we get before Cornell is found dead, is exactly 1 minute before 11:36. 1136 was Cornell's room number, and above is an alleged picture of the front door to his room that night. I wanted to try and stay away from the whole "creepy numbers" angle here, but it's just kind of staring us in the face so I figured it was worth pointing out. Was 11:36 the time Cornell was supposed to be murdered?
I thought it was a little odd that the numbers on the right are bigger than the numbers on the left. It doesn't look very good, does it? In the report there is a very clear close up of this, and in it you can see that the numbers on the right, with a white background, are on a separate sign placed next to the numbers on the left. Pretty tacky for an MGM grand Hotel, I'd say. However, the full number "1136" in braille is etched completely into the lower right side upon close examination. This was how I ruled out the idea that the room number was changed for the photos. However, I still find it a bit odd that the colors and difference in size of the numbers on the left, vs the numbers on the right subconsciously suggest viewing them as separate from one another. Why is that significant? Well, if you add up the numbers on the right, 3 + 6, you get 9. So now the entire number becomes 119, or 911 backwards. If you add the numbers up, 1 + 1 + 3 + 6, you get 11. This room is on the 11th floor. So we have 3 elevens and a 9. That may mean nothing, but I just thought it was a bit too strange not to mention. And being that Cornell's mother is a numerologist, I imagine she probably has some thoughts on this as well. But she has remained completely silent on this topic publicly, which could indicate many things, nothing of which I will attempt to guess at here.
"Soundgarden Guitarist Blasts Chris Cornell Murder Conspiracy Theories" - Rock997.com
You may have seen this headline in a few different places online. Here's the ONLY QUOTE attributed to Kim Thayil [Soundgarden guitarist] in that article, which is absurdly short, and is paraphrased:
"Thayil says nobody saw anything “that would have allowed us to anticipate what would happen.” He said the show that night had a few early challenges but that it went fine after those were smoothed out."
So who is Thayil "blasting" there? All he basically said was that nobody saw Cornell's death coming. How does that translate to him "blasting" conspiracy theorists? It is actually the author of the article's words that are "blasting" imaginary conspiracy theorists, NOT Thayil's. Clearly, the headline of the article is supposed to support the "popular consensus" regarding Cornell's death, but the actual contents of the article are apparently not required to support what the headline is stating. The article relies upon the assumption that "well, you already know he killed himself," rather than holding itself to actually backing up, with Thayil's quotes, what the headline states.
"SOUNDGARDEN Guitarist Dismisses CHRIS CORNELL Murder Conspiracy Theories" - Blabbermouth.com
Again, we have a headline citing the same Detroit Free Press article, stating something that isn't made obvious in the article itself by Thayil, but by the person who wrote the article. Here is the quote included in the Blabbermouth article referenced above:
"Thayil also addressed what he called "cockamamie ideas floating around out there" — conspiracy theories that hit the web after Cornell's death, such as speculation the singer was murdered because he was about to expose a child sex ring allegedly associated with a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor some claimed was a front, although Washington police said that theory was "fictitious.""
Thayil's entire quote is "...cockamamie ideas floating around out there." It's not even a complete sentence! One would think that if he had these strong feelings about the awful "conspiracy theorists" out there, he'd manage to complete a sentence making his feelings on the matter unquestionable, in his own words. This guy has a degree in philosophy, I'm sure he's got an articulate opinion on this subject. We certainly aren't getting it from these fragments of his quotes, paraphrased in articles where the author's words alone are supporting what the headline says.
"Thayil's tone sharpens with anger when he references "the cockamamie ideas floating around out there" — conspiracy theories that hit the web after Cornell's death, such as speculation the singer was murdered because he was about to expose a pedophile ring.... "There were a few minor difficulties (early) in the show that I felt adjusted themselves within a few songs," Thayil says of Cornell's Fox performance. "And then the rest of the show went pretty well."..."The fact of the matter is there was nothing that would suggest this outcome," he says." - Freep.com
Above is a quote from the Detroit Free Press, where all of these articles are supposedly getting their information from. We've got the "cockamamie" fragment, heavily paraphrased again by the author in the article. Thayil didn't directly address any "conspiracy theorists" who think Cornell was murdered - it was the author of the article who mentions these things.
""The fact of the matter is there was nothing that would suggest this outcome," he says."
Here we have a complete sentence, but without knowing what was discussed previous to this quote, we don't really know what Thayil means by "outcome." We assume he is referring to Cornell's suicide, but he never states that in his own words. Why didn't they just publish the entire interview instead of these sound bytes paraphrased with more of the author's wording than the subject's? Obviously Thayil never gave the answers these "journalists" wanted, so they took snippets of his answers and filled in the rest themselves. There's no quote from him in these articles directly stating "people who think Cornell was murdered are nuts." I didn't see any quote from Thayil clearly stating "I do not believe Cornell was murdered." Do you think people are asking him this question? Of course they are, wouldn't he want to set the record straight? The article is presenting the quote as being ASSUMPTIVE of Cornell's suicide - without being able to come up with 1 complete sentence from Thayil clearly supporting this presumed fact. There simply isn't enough dialogue from Thayil in the article to determine where he stands exactly. I could take that same last quote, write a headline that says "Thayil never expected murder," and it would still make sense!
Recall Vicky Cornell's statements about how everybody supposedly knew something was off with Cornell that night before he died. Doesn't sound like Thayil shares that view from the above. He said "nothing" would suggest this outcome. He didn't say anything about a "relapse," about his voice being way off, or about any head injuries. He was on the damned stage with Cornell all night, I think he woulda saw a wound on the back of Cornell's head before people on Youtube spotted it! There were no indications because he was fine and had no intention of taking his own life.
IN CONCLUSION
"Lynch: to put to death (as by hanging) by mob action without legal approval or permission" - Merriam-Webster's Dictionary
Americans typically associate lynching with racial hatred for obvious historical reasons. But as we can see, a lynching doesn't necessarily have to involve race. What a lynching does is it sends a distinct message of hatred towards the victim, and anyone who might sympathize with them. I'm sure whoever wanted Cornell dead could have made it look much cleaner than this. I believe Cornell's death was supposed to look a little suspicious because someone wanted to send a message to those "in the know," regarding whatever it was he got himself into. I don't know much about Chester Bennington, but all I really need to know is that he was a friend of Cornell's, sang a song at his wake, then ended up dead at the end of a rope on Cornell's birthday just a couple months later. They called it suicide, I call it a very clear message: "Don't talk."
"...and so we kind of decided well lets use my celebrity and the fact that I have a fan base in an effective way to try to help some kids...it's like real easy for me, so the idea is just to recognize that and realize that I am in a privileged position to be able to help without really having to go that far out of my way, and then make sure that I am consistently doing that. Cause one day I won't be able to do that and I'll have wasted that opportunity to help some children that need it." Cornell on KLOS, 2015
CLICK TO READ PART I
CLICK TO READ PART II
Chris Cornell's Bodyguard: 2020 Interview
You might also be interested in the blog I did regarding THE DIMEBAG DARRELL MURDER
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