In a new Detroit News article, Chris Cornell’s widow Vicky claims the medical examiner conducted a “botched 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.”
“This has left me and my family still looking for answers, but at the same time, set off this whirlwind of conspiracies,” she told The Detroit News. “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.”
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.”
Later in the article, she discussed her final conversation with Chris.
“When I spoke with him on the phone the night he died, he was slurring his words (and) was on and off incoherent,” she said. “He said he’d taken two Ativan. His bodyguard was supposed to only give him one per night. We didn’t fight; I was just upset that he took more, and I could hear the effect it had. I was not going to enable him. (I said) ‘what do you mean you took two?’
“At that point, I kept asking him what else he took, but he just repeated the same thing over and over again: ‘My ears won’t stop ringing. They blew my voice out.’ I called for help, as I was sure he had taken something else by now. I worried he could have heart attack or stroke. I was asking (what drugs he’d taken) so that I could advise for proper medical attention.
“I imagined (he’d taken) Oxycontin. I recall the ambulance finally arriving after multiple calls and me pleading the hotel to call 911. They would not, despite mine and (Chris Cornell’s bodyguard Martin Kristen’s) efforts.”
