Detroit News reporter George Hunter recently posted the following on Twitter in response to Chris Cornell conspiracy theorists, and he summarized some of his discussions with police, where they pushed back against conspiracy theorists who called the bodyguard’s timeline and Cornell getting his Apple TV fixed ‘suspicious.’
“Folks: Please understand how journalism works. I can’t report, or even insinuate that someone killed Chris Cornell if they have not been charged. And even off-the-record, the cops are ALL telling me this was a suicide. I have trusted police sources who would tell me if anyone was under suspicion. I’ve checked with multiple sources, and they have repeatedly insisted this isn’t the case.
Also, I can’t report the conjecture by some on Twitter about whether a door looks a certain way, or if a lock would or wouldn’t break if the door was kicked. I did the most I can: I spoke with the lead investigator in the case, and reported what he said. The questions about the door, lock, etc. all were answered when he said nothing at the scene looked suspicious.
There were questions about an EMT saying on the scanner Cornell had a head wound; I talked to pathologists and cops who explain just because a first responder gives initial crime scene impressions on the scanner it’s not necessarily the truth. I talked to a security expert who cleared up questions about why MGM didn’t let the bodyguard into the room. But there are questions that can’t be answered without delving into conjecture, which isn’t what journalists do.
Is it suspicious to you that the bodyguard waited 50 minutes between first knocking on the door and busting in? Well, I can’t write that. I can ask the cop if HE thought it was suspicious; I did, and he said it wasn’t, and that all the timelines checked out. Why did Cornell get his TV fixed and then killed himself? Again, any answer would be conjecture, since nobody knows what goes through a suicidal person’s mind. Is that suspicious to you? I asked the cop; he said it wasn’t. Since I’m not an opinion columnist, I can’t write whether I think something is or isn’t suspicious; I can only ask experts and those directly involved what THEY think. That’s what I did.”
