Chris Cornell (Photo by Christopher Simon)
It's been a year since Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell died inside a Detroit hotel room and authorities ruled it a suicide.
But the rock star’s widow, Vicky Cornell tells George Hunter of The Detroit News she still suffers because the county medical examiner "botched the investigation," leaving holes in the narrative that have spurred conspiracy theorists to make “all sorts of false accusations and subjected me to constant online attacks.”
The 52-year-old singer’s May 18 death was ruled a suicide less than two hours after he died from asphyxiation from a rubber exercise band in Room 1136 of the MGM Grand Detroit Casino hotel following a performance at the Fox Theatre, Hunter writes.
“This has left me and my family still looking for answers, but at the same time, set off this whirlwind of conspiracies,” she says. “Some of the people are just fans looking for answers, but some of them are conspiracy theorists who have said the most vile things to my children and me.”
Some on the Internet have accused her of having her husband killed. The Medical Examiner stands by the findings.
Hunter reports:
Among the issues Vicky Cornell points out is that the Wayne County medical examiner’s autopsy report stated: “Drugs did not contribute to the cause of death” — which she said is “completely misleading,” spawning speculation that he was killed.
“The poor choice of phrasing has misled the public to believing he was of sound mind and body,” she said. “So some conspiracy people think if Chris wasn’t impaired, he would never have killed himself, and so he must have been killed — and then they start getting into the rest of the holes.”
