More Details Released About the Night Chris Cornell Died
Using the Freedom of Information Act, a couple of media outlets in Detroit have obtained more details about the death of Chris Cornell including pictures taken in the hotel room where he died.
Pictures include shots of the door of room 1136 at the MGM Grand Casino Hotel that was kicked in by Martin Kristen, Chris’ bodyguard, as well as of the red exercise band that was found around Chris’ neck.
We learned a few other things, too. Vicky Cornell, Chris’ wife, tried to get a hotel operator to give her information but Vicky claims she hung up on her.There’s also audio of a 911 call that is different from the police scanner recordings that have have been posted on YouTube.
There are other bits of information that help fill in the timeline between 11:35 pm which Chris ended a phone call with Vicky and 12:15 am when his bodyguard broke through the door to find Chris dead in the bathroom. There have been questions about those critical 40 minutes and beyond. The story seems to have evolved.
Why did it take so long for EMS to report finding Chris? After all, Kristen says they worked on Chris for an hour on the floor of the bathroom. (We now know that Vicky was on the phone with Kristen the entire time. That must have been horrifying.)
Kristen originally reported that he found Chris lying on the bathroom floor. Part of the new report says he was found on the floor at the foot of his bed “at the entry doorway to the bathroom.” A small detail lost in the confusion, perhaps. But then there’s more from the report:
The door of the bathroom is opened, On the floor of the bathroom, is a large drag mark of blood with a red rubber resistance band with black handles laying across the gathered blood. One end of the resistance band is fashioned with a loop utilizing a hooking latch at the base of the handle.
There is blood splatter on the side of the bathtub. Further investigation of the bathroom indicated a small notch in the top of the bathroom door. This notch appears to be indicative as to where the resistance band was positioned when used as a tool for hanging.
Deeper in the report is this line: “[There was a] well defined ligature mark present on the neck/throat area.” It also says a medic “untied red exercise band from victim’s neck” so CPR could begin.
You can read the entire report here.
Bottom line to all this? Despite a few errant details, this doesn’t alter anything. All the evidence points to Chris taking his own life. We’ll never know why.
