Did CHRIS CORNELL’s Wife Hire His Bodyguard To Kill Him?

Strangulation without suspension using some form of cord-like object called a garrote.

To get all of the facts of the Chris Cornell death scene investigation on the record at this point, let’s first start with the actual police report from Detroit News:

To rule out the possibility that someone else had killed the 52 year old SOUNDGARDEN vocalist, detectives reportedly closely examined the hotel’s surveillance video, which was trained on the corridor outside his 11th floor room. They found that nobody had entered or exited the suite after his bodyguard left around 11:35 p.m. Wednesday night, according to the source.

According to expedia, the MGM Grand in Detroit property does have connecting/adjoining rooms. While it has not yet been verified, it is quite possible that there was another means of access to the room Chris Cornell was staying in on the 11th floor without the camera being able to catch the assassin.

If Chris was found on the bathroom floor as the bodyguard told police with the red elastic workout band around his neck, where exactly did he hang himself? Not from the door. Because a standard north American bathroom door is 203.2 cm tall (80 inches) – which equals 6 foot 8 inches in height. Chris was 6 foot 3 inches tall. If he simply points his toes at the ground he would be touching floor.

The bodyguard Martin Kirsten had last seen Cornell about 45 minutes prior to finding the singer dead at around 12:15 am the next day on May 18th, according to the police report, when he stopped by the singer’s room to fix his computer. He also told police he gave Cornell two Ativans, which he was prescribed for anxiety. At 11:35 p.m., Cornell reportedly spoke to his wife, Vicki Cornell, telling her in a slurred voice that he may have taken “an extra Ativan or two.”

Did Chris really talk with anyone on the phone before his death? A simple examination of his cell phone would show if he did indeed even talk to Vicky.

View this picture of what the typical MGM Grand hotel bathroom looks like and it clearly shows there is nowhere else to hang yourself… except the shower head. With where Chris was found there is no possible way that he could have hung himself in the bathroom.



Plus TMD has now also established – according to an anonymous source – that a black elastic exercise cord with handles was found near the body at the scene that was not attached to Chris’s neck. Was this the actual instrument of death and the red elastic band was merely placed on Cornell as part of the staging to make it look like he committed suicide?

And the only proof the police have that the door was locked from the inside is the word of the bodyguard who found him but says he kicked the door in. They indeed have the bodyguard on camera being the last one to enter and leave the room.

As the story goes, Cornell many years ago dragged his former band mates into ugly litigation during a past court battle with his estranged ex-wife, Susan Silver – even though they knew the estranged wife had not done anything deliberately wrong. It has been learned that the ex wife was near bankruptcy when things were settled.


(The late Chris Cornell & his wife Vicky)

The new girlfriend, Vicky Karayiannis, who lived in a small apartment in Paris with her mother and brother when she first met Chris was allegedly hell bent on taking the ex wife down.

According to this online post Vicky put Chris on leash and became very controlling of the singer’s life.

“No one close to the singer could figure out what he saw in her, though. She was rude, mean, and not very attractive. Her lack of personal charm also made her appear even uglier and friends around him had funny nicknames for her, one of which was ‘troll’. This woman sealed the deal by getting pregnant very quickly so that a divorce would be initiated by the long suffering wife. While destroying this guy’s marriage wasn’t enough, the new girlfriend also convinced the singer that his estranged wife (who remember was also his manager) had cheated him and his band mates out of millions of dollars. He bought this hook line and sinker and not only was the divorce bitter but other litigation dragged on for years, and the accusations of financial mismanagement by the wife publicly smeared her reputation.”

A commenter on the same post stated concern with Chris disowning his biological mother:

“Yes, he actually disowned her & called Vicky’s whacko mom “Mom.” This is so horrific. I knew this woman would be the death of him.”

Not long after things were settled legally, the singer and his girlfriend finally got married. One of the attendees of the marriage ceremony also saw the “true colors of the bride” and expressed concern about her and her family’s very “shady vibe” to people around Chris Cornell.

Sadly, she died herself under strange circumstances in 2009. This was Hollywood actress Brittany Murphy, who was maid of honor at the Cornell’s wedding.

A woman who claims to be the onetime girlfriend of late MOTHER LOVE BONE vocalist Andrew Wood (a friend of Chris’ before his death) posted a rant last year going into detail about how Chris began to cut off his family members and close friends since he married Vicky.

“Apparently something has changed and he wants nothing to do with anyone in his family or his old friends. Can’t say I blame his new wife, but it still makes me sad. I didn’t just know him, he was the only person I knew and that I told everything to besides maybe one or two other people.”



It is known according to this post that Vicky also became involved in management decisions for the singer’s career and financing. She was allegedly behind the poor decision to get the singer to invest a large sum of money into a business run by her family.

As well Chris Cornell allegedly had a mistress he was seeing at the time of his death. Was he planning on leaving Vicky? Cornell was obviously stressed and even starting to suffer from depression and anxiety again seeing as he was possibly hiding a new lady on the side while dealing with ongoing difficulties with his domineering wife Vicky and mother-in-law.

Being the widow of a dead rock star is a very lucrative line of work if you can find one to marry you. Vicky’s strange behavior and changing the official narrative leads one to believe she is doing this to ensure she gets the huge insurance payout on her husband’s death.

According to insurancequote.org, many life insurance policies, just like any other insurance coverage, come with certain exclusions that null and void any benefits should you expire in a certain way, i.e., suicide. However, there can be fine print attached to that exclusion. Some policies will pay benefits even if the policyholder committed suicide, but the policyholder would have had to commit suicide after holding the life insurance policy for at least two to three years depending on the carrier. There are of course a lot of other details that go into the life insurance policy and claim. People ought to check the specifics in a reliable and important site that reviews policies before purchasing one.

Does Vicky already know that the policy for Chris would be void if it’s deemed he did commit suicide and it was not “accidental’ due to a bad reaction to Ativan like she wants everyone to believe? This would explain her odd behavior and changing her story.

The mother-in-law, Toni Karayiannis, spends a lot of time on her online Twitter profile and it clearly shows that the woman has made all kinds of comments about being “celeb-obsessed”. Says in one tweet that she’s coming back as Chris Cornell in her next life, bragging about shopping, traveling, pics with George Clooney, etc.

On Apr 5th, she posted this cryptic tweet:

“Never push a loyal person to the point they no longer care.”

… along with other several other sayings, one about narcissists, verbal abuse, etc.

Also, it must be understood that initially Vicky claimed she didn’t speak to Chris on the phone in the original news story, stating she was worried because she hadn’t that night.

Then her next version of the story came out and she says she did talk to him and that he slurred his words and became aggressive with her at one point. Very fishy.

What exactly was said (if they did even really talk) nobody will ever know because it was not recorded. Did Vicky confront Chris about cheating in recent days and it developed into a violent confrontation after SOUNDGARDEN’s final gig between Chris and the bodyguard, Martin Kirsten?



Did Vicky Cornell hire the bodyguard to kill her husband and assist in the massive cover up? A search of his current banking records would show any ‘large payments’ he may have recently deposited into his account that he would not be able to explain away as his bodyguard salary.

And what about photos of the crime scene? Like the suicide note that doesn’t exist, where are they? If they are ever made public and the singer’s neck can be studied it could be better determined what exact device was used in the potential homicide.

The full toxicology report from the medical examiner is still pending. Cornell’s remains were conveniently destroyed ahead of the private funeral held this past Friday in Los Angeles so no other possible examination of his body can be done.