All language subtitles for ReSolved s01e10 Elliot Smith.eng

- Our next guest is an
Academy Award- nominated

singer/songwriter.

Here's Elliott Smith.

- Elliott Smith was
groundbreaking

and absolutely talented.

- Someone who had wild success

beyond anything
he could imagine.

- His most famous
song, "Needle in the Hay,"

became popular after it was used

by Wes Anderson in
"The Royal Tenenbaums."

- Elliott Smith
tapped into emotions

that a lot of people have
a hard time expressing.

That's a really rare talent.

It just doesn't make sense.

- Music news... Singer
Elliott Smith has died

in an apparent suicide.

- I think the rumor is that

he either stabbed
himself in the chest

or that he was murdered.

- The death report gets
into some of the injuries

that were witnessed
at his time of death.

- Who stabs themself
in the chest twice?

Like, suicide? What
are you talking about?

The imagery is just...
It gives me the chills.

- The issue wasn't
the cause of death.

The problem is that
we had to assign

a mode or manner of death.

- It's easy to kind of
go down the rabbit hole

that Elliott Smith was murdered.

- In terms of Jennifer Chiba,

the police have
looked at her so much.

If there was a problem,
they would bring her in.

- Did Elliott actually
stab himself,

or did somebody else stab him?

Everyone who knew Elliott
deserves to have the truth

known about how he died.

- 911 emergency.

- The official narrative
doesn't tell the whole story.

- You really have
to look at everything.

You still have to go
down that rabbit hole.

You still have to
go down that path.

- When a celebrity dies,

the search for
answers moves online,

and the truth may
be one click away.

At 12:18, on October 21, 2003,

a woman frantically calls 911
from a house in the Echo Park

neighborhood of Los
Angeles, California.

- 911. What is your emergency?

- Her name is Jennifer Chiba,

and she tells the
dispatcher that her boyfriend,

34- year- old indie
rocker Elliott Smith,

is lying on the ground,

bleeding profusely from
two stab wounds in his chest.

At 1:00 P.M., paramedics arrive.

They rush Elliott to
USC Medical Center,

but it's too late.

At 1:36 P.M., Elliott
Smith is pronounced dead.

- Musician Elliott
Smith died yesterday

in an apparent suicide.

- Elliott Smith's tragic death
shocks the music industry.

- Rest in peace, Elliott Smith.

- Early reports suggest
Smith killed himself,

which is based on a statement

given by the only other
person in the house

with him at the time, his
girlfriend, Jennifer Chiba.

Chiba tells police that
after a particularly bad fight,

she locks herself
in the bathroom.

Minutes later, she
hears a scream

and comes out of the
bathroom to find Smith

with a kitchen knife
sticking out of his chest.

But the violent
nature of his death

immediately breeds
suspicion by fans.

- When Elliott turned around,

she saw that he had a
knife plunging to his chest.

- I think the rumor is that
he either stabbed himself

in the chest or that
he was murdered.

- In 1998, Elliott Smith
becomes a household name

when his song "Miss Misery" is
nominated for an Academy Award.

Smith's performance of "Miss
Misery" at the 1998 Oscars

is a defining moment
for the musician.

But his professional journey

started 15 years
earlier in 1983,

when 14- year- old Elliott
Smith grabs his guitar

and leaves his home in Texas

for the burgeoning indie music
scene in Portland, Oregon.

- Elliott Smith
performed in, you know,

a number of bands in Portland,

then, you know, turned some
heads and word of this guy

whose act was so different
from what the scene

was at that time really
started to get attention.

When you make up a song,

it's going to sound
like how you feel,

whether you want
to shout at the devil

or whatever you want to do.

- In the '90s, Elliott
Smith thrives in Portland

and establishes himself

as one of the city's most
successful and unique artists.

Smith's personal
lyrics of alienation

and self- doubt deeply
resonate with fans.

- Elliott Smith was
a tortured soul.

First time I heard his music,
it struck a chord with me.

Like, this is a kind
of moody sound.

This is how I feel sometimes.

- My name is Nelson Gary.

I did spoken- word
poetry over a guitar track

on "Coast to Coast," "From
a Basement on the Hill."

You know, he wrote from such
an open, vulnerable, and raw place.

He was very authentic as
not only a singer/songwriter,

but also as a person.

- I don't really care
where I fit into anything

or if there's
anything to fit in to.

It's just... I like
music, you know?

That's... That's the thing.

- Aside from being
a brilliant songwriter,

he was a tremendous intellect.

Oh, he was insightful.

He was smart.

You know, he could be funny.

He was interesting to be around.

- In 1999, Smith relocates to
Los Angeles and signs a deal

with DreamWorks Records,

his first contract
with a major label.

It's a huge career success,

but Smith's
apprehension with fame

and the mainstream
music industry

is apparent from the beginning.

- I don't know if being
as well- known as he was,

was what he had
hoped it would be.

I know that there was an
overall sense of discontent

with a major label,

what he felt about corporate
rock, corporate music,

and how it was
squelching his creativity.

- I'm not coming
from this little ghetto

of rampant sentimentality,
you know, that's associated

with, like, certain kinds
of singer/songwriters.

I'm just trying to be real.

- He's wrestling
with dual identity,

and I think, like so
many other artists,

he just didn't know how
to negotiate everyday world

of who he was as a normal
person and what it meant to have

that huge talent
that inspired people.

If you're living those
two worlds all the time,

you become confused
about your existence.

- The way he carried himself
was generally very depressive

with a certain level of anxiety.

- On January 6, 2004, the
Los Angeles Coroner's Office

releases Elliott
Smith's autopsy.

The cause of death isn't
surprising... two stab wounds

to Smith's chest.

But the manner of
death is surprising.

- The police ruled it
a suicide prematurely.

- My name is Dr. Lisa Scheinin.

I was the medical examiner
who autopsied Elliott Smith.

The issue wasn't
the cause of death.

The problem we had is
that we had to assign it

a mode or manner of death.

This is obviously
not a natural death.

It's not an accident.

So our choices were
homicide or suicide.

In the end, without overwhelming
evidence for a suicide,

we could not in good faith
say that this was a suicide,

and we decided that the
best thing to do in this case

was to leave it undetermined.

- Elliott Smith's case
remains open to this day,

and the ambiguity
of the coroner's report

causes a frenzy online.

If the coroner can't
definitively rule it a suicide,

then foul play is
a real possibility.

- When I when I read that
Elliott Smith had two stab wounds

and that it was
still an open case

and it hadn't been
ruled a suicide, I was like,

"What?"

I am what you would
call an Internet sleuth.

My work was featured
in a documentary called

"Don't F with Cats,"
where I hunted down a killer

that was uploading
videos to the Internet.

And my motto is, the Internet
is the new crime scene.

I'm attracted to the
Elliott Smith case

because I empathize with him in
really deep and meaningful ways.

I have my own mental
health struggles.

I was recently diagnosed
with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

I also have
diagnosed depression,

and I've gotten
to places in my life

where I didn't
see a pathway out.

So because I empathize
so well with him,

I really want to
find some answers.

- As an investigator, I
always want to find the truth

for each of my victims.

And every victim
deserves to have the truth

known about how they died.

I have a background in
military counterintelligence,

but I also have a
background in forensic science

and criminal justice.

So I'm going to sift through an
immense amount of information,

a lot of documents,
leads, and other tidbits.

This case fascinates me

because the manner of
death is still undetermined,

and so it's of great interest
to me to try to analyze

all the facts, evaluate them,
and see where they lead.

- Investigators start
piecing together details

about the final day
of Elliott Smith's life.

- Elliott Smith lived
with his girlfriend,

Jennifer Chiba, in Echo
Park, Los Angeles, in 2003.

He wasn't in the studio.

He wasn't touring.

He wasn't working.

But the morning of his
death, October 21, 2003,

him and Jennifer Chiba
are in their apartment,

and it's reported
by Jennifer to LAPD

that they started arguing.

They're arguing, and he's,
like, being melodramatic

according to Jennifer.

And she's just
kind of had enough

and goes into the
bathroom to take a shower.

She's in there, and
she hears a scream

and she comes
out of the bathroom,

and Elliott's standing there
with a knife in his chest.

She calls 911, and they
walk her through CPR.

- And once they got
him to the hospital,

they actually took
him into surgery

and tried to repair the
perforations to Elliott's heart,

but, unfortunately,
it didn't work,

and, at 1:36 that afternoon,
he was pronounced dead.

- With an inconclusive
cause of death,

the LAPD can't close the case,

leaving the possibilities
of both suicide

and foul play on the table.

- What probably bothers
me most about Elliott's case

is that it's
essentially unsolved.

We do not know how
or why he lost his life.

I think there's a lot more
investigation to be done

in order to try to determine,

did Elliott actually
stab himself,

or did somebody else stab him?

- Because it's open,

nobody in the public
can look at the evidence.

Many in the public believe

that Chiba was
involved in this murder,

but the facts are that the
police have never charged her

or named her as a suspect.

But why is it still
an open case?

- Did I believe that somebody,

anybody could stab
themselves twice in the heart?

I had a really hard
time believing that.

- You can easily
jump to the conclusion

that Elliott Smith was
probably a victim of a homicide.

- In October 2003,
musician Elliott Smith

dies in his Los Angeles
home from two stab wounds

in his chest.

When the manner of his death

comes back inconclusive

from the L.A. coroner's office,

many of Smith's fans become
convinced foul play is involved.

- There are some pretty
diehard Elliott Smith fans

out there who have not accepted

that he actually may
have committed suicide.

My name is Justin Ling,

and I'm an independent
investigative journalist.

I spend a lot of time trying
to uncover and understand

conspiracy theories and
why people believe them.

I'm interested in Elliott Smith

just because of the
intensity around him.

His fans really,
really loved him,

and for a lot of them,

they cannot accept the narrative
that he committed suicide.

There's a subreddit
devoted to Elliott Smith

with about 18,000 members,

and the question about
whether or not it was a murder

or a suicide pops
up pretty often.

- It's a grisly death, and the
thing fans and sleuths struggle

to accept the most is the idea
that somebody would take a knife

and plunge it into
their own chest.

- Did I believe that somebody,

anybody could stab
themselves twice?

Not once, but
twice in the heart?

I had a really hard
time believing that.

- Suicide by self- stabbing is
not only savage and very painful,

it's also very rare.

- Stabbing oneself as a
mode of suicide is very unusual.

I've certainly had suicides
where people slit their throats

or slit their wrists, but
I can't offhand recall

a person who had stabbed
himself as a suicide.

- I'm Dr. Darria Long.

I'm a board- certified
emergency medicine physician.

In the Elliott Smith case,

he stabbed himself twice.

Once you've stabbed yourself,

can you override
that pain enough

to stab yourself a second time?

- As a criminal
investigator myself,

who has been to
countless homicide scenes

and suicide scenes,
I've never seen one

where the person stabbed
themselves in the heart.

So it's very uncommon.

It's a far greater percentage
that if somebody is found

with a knife sticking
out of their chest,

there was a second
person involved

who plunged that
knife into their chest.

- One article on a website called
Rock NYC compiles the statistics

and shows that less than 2%
commit suicide by stabbing,

and, of those, most are in
the neck or the abdomen.

- Online investigators
turn their attention

to the autopsy report sketches.

They immediately
notice something missing

that's usually present
in suicide by knife...

Hesitation marks.

- It hurts to cut yourself.

So the person will
start and they'll go,

"Ow, that hurts."

It makes you hesitate.

And eventually, if
you really want to do it,

you will get up the nerve

and you'll cut deep
enough to make it fatal.

But you'll have
all of these little,

smaller marks there first.

- And Elliott Smith
makes another decision

in the moments before he dies

that's out of the ordinary.

- He's stabbed himself
through his shirt.

Most people don't do that.

They will, if not
take the shirt off,

at least lift it up and look
at where they want to stab it

to make sure that they
get it in the right spot.

Maybe feel for ribs

to make sure they're
not going to hit bone.

- But the one detail that
catches Internet sleuths' attention

is perhaps the most crucial.

In addition to the
two stab wounds,

Elliott Smith has
other injuries.

- One significant clue to
suggest that this may have been

a homicide are a pair of wounds
to Elliott Smith's hand and arm.

He has a laceration
on his left palm

and a significant cut on the
upper part of his right arm.

Given that Elliott
Smith was right- handed,

there's no real
clear explanation

for how he may have cut
himself on that part of his arm.

- One theory is that the
cuts are the result of Smith's

desperate final attempt
to stop an attacker...

Defense wounds.

- When I first read the
autopsy report, I was like,

"Yeah, those are
defense wounds."

- So he could have been
struggling over the knife

with whoever was
coming at him with it,

and, during the struggle,
the knife got him in the arm.

- Some fans are quick
to dismiss the wounds,

citing that Smith
is a known cutter,

someone who intentionally
cuts themselves to self- soothe

when they're in
psychological pain.

But in the eyes of the coroner,
that's not enough to explain

away the gash in
Smith's right arm.

- I've autopsied cutters before,

and they tend to
use the same area.

It's easily accessible.

They do it over and over again.

He had evidence at
autopsy of having cut himself

and also possibly burned
himself with cigarettes,

but it was all in the same
place, all on the left forearm.

- Elliott Smith was
wearing clothes,

did not have hesitation
marks, and did have other cuts

which could potentially
have been defensive wounds.

- Was it homicide or suicide?

Honestly, I still don't know.

- One thing I kept
reading about online

was that Elliott would
never kill himself,

he was getting ready
to go back in the studio,

and he was full of life,

he was trying to
get his career back.

- If Elliott Smith didn't kill
himself, online investigators

are left with two theories
about what happened that day.

One is from Chiba's own account,

which is that Elliott
Smith attempted suicide.

The second is that
someone else, in fact,

stabbed him twice in the chest.

- Here you have somebody who
you've been arguing with loudly

with a knife in their chest.

What does that look like?

- Investigators look into Smith

and Chiba's
relationship for clues.

- As an investigator,
it's important to know

and learn about a
victim's personal life

because that may hold clues

as to what was going
on at the time they died,

and it may hold clues as
to how they actually died.

- Basically, all accounts,

their relationship
was really unstable.

- It seemed like a very
codependent relationship

from all angles,
from what I saw.

- Their relationship
has been described

as not unlike Sid Vicious
and his girlfriend, Nancy.

- To me, the way
their relationship

has been characterized,
to me, sounds unhealthy.

It does not sound like they
had a loving relationship

all the time.

- They would be lovey-
dovey and everything's great,

and then the next, they would
be throwing bottles at each other.

Sex and drugs and rock 'n' roll.

- Investigators uncover one
fan who's convinced Smith

did not kill himself,
Alyson Camus.

She wrote a book on Smith's
death, and her website,

Justice for Elliott Smith,

is a repository for
anti- Chiba content.

- She's a fan of Elliott Smith,

and she has collected
evidence, done interviews,

she's talked to investigators,

and she's curated it
all onto her website.

She's a little obsessive,
kind of like me,

but she has collected
a lot of information

about the death
of Elliott Smith.

- And she spends a lot
of time fixating on Chiba.

She writes posts
with titles like

"The Numerous Knife
Tales in Jennifer Chiba's Life"

and "Many people
in Elliott Smith's Circle

Were Very Suspicious
Early On and Still Are."

- If you only read
the autopsy report

and Alyson's investigative work,

you can easily jump
to the conclusion

that Elliott Smith
was possibly killed.

- I would've been much happier

if the girlfriend had
been interviewed again,

because we do have all of
these other factors that suggest

that it was a homicidal
rather than a suicidal death.

- We have one person
with a story, and that's it.

And that is Elliott's
girlfriend at the time, Jennifer.

- In October 2003, the
acclaimed musician Elliott Smith

dies in his Los Angeles
home from two stab wounds

to his chest.

The only two people in the
house at the time are Elliott

and his girlfriend,
Jennifer Chiba.

Chiba claims
Smith killed himself.

- So in this case,

we have one person
with a story, and that's it.

And that is Elliott's
girlfriend at the time, Jennifer.

- Although Jennifer
Chiba isn't charged

with any crime in connection
with Elliott Smith's death,

many of his fans believe
that's not the full story.

- His girlfriend
definitely killed him.

And the cops are just
like, "Yeah, sure, suicide."

- I challenge everyone.

Go to the Reddit,
you know, r/elliottsmith

and then say something
about it not being suicide

and see how long you survive.

- The website Ranker has a post

entitled "Elliott Smith
Death Conspiracy Theories

That Might Be Crazy
Enough to be True."

Not exactly in- depth, but
it has like 140,000 views.

The number one...
"He Had A Big Fight

With His Girlfriend
Right Before He Passed."

- And on the Web, the
story of the couple's fight

takes a dark turn.

- Reportedly during the
argument, the neighbors overheard

Jennifer scream,
"I don't give a shit.

die."

All of a sudden, it
just went dead silent.

- Yeah, me and my friend
looked at each other like,

"Oh, man. Did
someone just get killed?"

- The history was, he had
a fight with his girlfriend

on the day of the death,

and sometimes something
like that can precipitate people

just getting very extreme.

- The immediate cause of
death listed on the autopsy report

is exsanguination
or bleeding to death,

according to Chiba,

she pulls the knife
out of Smith's chest

when she comes
out of the bathroom.

- Is it possible that Jennifer
Chiba made the unfortunate error

in removing that
knife from his chest

and may have
resulted in his death?

Listen, I'm not
a medical expert,

but I know enough
first aid to know that,

if the knife had
remained inside his chest,

it could have
stopped the bleeding.

It could have given him a
chance to keep that heart beating

and to survive.
- It's always better,

if you have any
foreign body in the body,

in your chest, anywhere,
that you don't move it

because if it's
left where it is,

it can either partially or fully
plug up the hole that it made.

If you take it out, the
person's going to bleed freely.

- Most people who get
stabbed in the heart die

within a minute or two.

They only have about a
15% chance of living as it is.

Every second counts

when someone's been
stabbed in the heart.

- For years before
Smith's death,

Chiba had been
working as a therapist

at a family counseling
center called Five Acres.

According to Five Acres,
everybody who works there,

including their therapists,

would've been trained
in first aid and CPR.

- Another detail fans point
to is the delay in calling 911.

- So according to this
one YouTube channel,

they've actually heard from
a relative of Elliott Smith.

And according to this
unnamed anonymous relative,

they spoke to Jennifer
Chiba after Smith's death,

and Chiba claimed
that her cellphone

wasn't working that
morning when Smith died.

They point out that this is odd
because they spoke to Smith

on the apartment landline
just a couple days prior.

- This is 2003.

I don't believe we
had gotten to a point

where people were just ditching
their landlines for cellphones.

- When police arrive,

unverified reports state
that Chiba is once again

locked in the bathroom.

- She locked herself
in the bathroom,

and she refused to come
out and talk to the police.

- It took quite some time before
they could finally coax her out

and to actually do an interview.

People have pointed to this
as evidence that she was guilty

or that she was hiding something
or trying to cover up evidence.

- I'm Dr. Michael Arntfield.

I'm a professor
and criminologist

at Western University,

where I founded the
Cold Case Society,

which is an unsolved-
crimes think tank.

There is any number
of things that could be

going on behind a locked door
during an active investigation

that is going to raise red
flags with investigators.

- And when detectives are
finally able to speak with Chiba,

she produces a short suicide
note written on a Post- it Note.

- Found inside the apartment
was a handwritten note

"That said," I'm so sorry.

Love, Elliott. God forgive me."

- First thing to know
about the suicide note

is that it wasn't dated,

meaning it could have been
written at any point in time,

not necessarily the morning
of Elliott Smith's death.

On top of that, in
the autopsy report,

it transcribes the
note as misspelling

Elliott Smith's name... only
one "T" in Elliott instead of two.

Now, we don't know if that's an
error the medical examiner made

or if that was an actual
error in the suicide note,

but if it was an error
in the suicide note,

it definitely
contributes to the idea

that it may have
been a homicide.

People don't tend to
misspell their own names.

- Since the case is still open,

the original Post- it Note is
locked away in a police file,

leaving unanswered questions

about one of the most
important pieces of evidence.

- I wanted to know if they
dusted it for fingerprints.

I wanted to know if they
brought in a handwriting expert,

but if any of that was done,

those results have
been kept confidential

and never released publicly.

- A one- liner suicide note
written on a Post- it Note...

I've admittedly never heard of.

Most suicide letters
are deliberated.

In many cases,
there's multiple letters

left in multiple locations
for multiple people.

- As the investigation into
Smith's case continues,

they discover another
fact that is quite alarming.

Although Chiba gave a
statement to police at the scene

of Smith's death,

she's never called in for
a more formal interview.

- When I learned
that Jennifer Chiba

never was officially interviewed
by police, I was astounded.

She is, at a minimum, a
witness to a horrific suicide,

and she's never
officially interviewed.

I don't understand why.

I think there are so many gaps

in her story that
need to be explained.

- I would've been much
happier if the girlfriend

had been interviewed
again another time,

because how do we know
that's exactly what happened?

Maybe what she
said was the truth,

but maybe it wasn't,

because we do have all of
these other factors that suggest

that it was a homicidal
rather than a suicidal death.

- With rising suspicion that
Jennifer Chiba is involved

in Elliott Smith's death,

she makes a statement
to "MTV News"

shortly after the coroner's
report is released.

- Number one, that
she wasn't a suspect,

and she felt that she wasn't

because investigators
had not reached out to her,

tried to contact her.

But secondly, she also
stated that Elliott's family

knew the truth,

and so she wasn't
worried about it.

- While doing some
research on this case,

I pulled up a statement
from the Smith family lawyer.

In 2004, he said very
bluntly and very publicly

that the family does
not know what happened

and that any indication to the
contrary is completely baseless.

- Online investigators
also question

Chiba's choice of words.

- Jennifer's language
choice in this statement

is common for people who
are trying to cover something up.

- I also pulled
up a 2004 lawsuit

filed by Chiba
against Smith's family,

particularly his stepmother.

The lawsuit is asking for
15% of Smith's earnings

or around $1,000,000.

In the lawsuit, Chiba claims
that Smith had promised to

take care of her financially
for the rest of her life.

She goes on to say that
they were basically living

as husband and wife.

And what's more, she'd actually
worked as his manager and agent

for years prior to his death.

- He told his friends, like,

"You'll probably
never see me again

'cause I'm going
to kill myself."

- He just fell further and
further into a dark place.

- I found some information
that he was spending

like $1,500 a day on his habit.

- When I heard that he possibly
had stabbed himself, I thought,

"Well, plenty of forecasts
of that in his music."

- On October 21, 2003,

Elliott Smith, the
acclaimed singer/songwriter

best known for writing
the song "Miss Misery,"

dies from two stab
wounds to the chest.

One of them pierces his heart.

When the coroner's report is
released in January of 2004,

many are shocked
that the manner of death

is listed as undetermined.

However, some fans are convinced

Smith took his own life despite
the violent nature of his death.

- It is incredibly rare

that somebody would
stab themselves in the chest

as a way of committing suicide,

but it's really important
to note it's not zero.

It does happen.

- Suicides by self-
stabbing are incredibly rare

and typically have
one of two explanations.

This is either
some ritual purpose

or someone being in
an acutely psychotic state

with a complete
disregard to the pain

and to the trauma
that it's going to cause.

This isn't somebody who has
developed a well- laid- out plan

as to how to
mercifully end their life.

This is somebody
acting in a state of mania.

- Most fans who think
Elliott Smith killed himself

point to what they
widely consider

to be his first suicide
attempt as proof.

- When I was trying to find
information about Elliott Smith,

I wanted to know if he
had other suicide attempts.

A Spin article popped up,

and it talked about how...

When Elliott Smith
jumped off a cliff

in North Carolina in 1997,

and he made it
sound like no big deal.

He was like, "Yeah, I
was running, I saw the cliff,

I jumped, and, like,

the ground was
coming up. Whatever."

He just seemed very
nonchalant about the whole thing.

Many people call that
his first suicide attempt.

- Friends said he had
been blunt with them

about his previous
attempts at suicide.

As one writer put it,

"You can't say that
Smith didn't warn you."

- He told his friends, like,

"You'll probably
never see me again

'cause I'm going
to kill myself."

He told everybody he knew
that he was going to kill himself,

or he told them things
that led people to believe

he didn't care about living.

- The stories of
suicidal ideation

spill over into his
professional life,

as the sleuths find a report

involving his
producer, Larry Crane.

- Crane recounted a story
where Smith lifted up his shirt

and showed him a pretty
bad scar on his chest.

So it's possible that Smith
had attempted suicide

by the exact same
way previously.

- Anyone who listens
to Elliott Smith's music

feels his pain
and suffering in it,

and his lyrics tell the
story of a man haunted

by the demons of his past.

- That aren't really that
many people who know truly

who Elliott Smith was privately.

I believe Elliott did have a
history of suicidal ideation.

It's certainly in his lyrics.

I know that it's well-
documented that Elliott cut himself.

When I heard that he possibly
had stabbed himself, I thought,

"Well, plenty of forecasts
of that in his music."

- One of the songs is
called "The Biggest Lie."

"You spent everything you had.

Wanted everything
to stop that bad."

- Smith was pretty open about
his struggle with depression,

and his music includes a lot
of content about depression,

but also about self-
harm and suicide.

I mean, he wrote a song
called "Suicide Machine."

- To better understand
Smith's state of mind,

online investigators
research his childhood,

and they find stories of
a hurt and abused child.

- Elliott Smith had a
pretty rough childhood.

His parents split when
he was pretty young.

He went to live with his
mother and his new stepfather.

And he claims
that his stepfather

was abusive
throughout his childhood.

That likely fed into some of
the mental- health struggles

he had later in life.

- He said that he received
different kinds of abuse,

and his stepfather denied it.

I think there was abuse there,

you know, from what he
did say in terms of verbally

and physically, that really
did hurt Elliott psychologically.

- Elliott Smith was
haunted by his past,

and that influenced
his mental struggles.

I remember there
was an article in Spin.

That article, you know,
articulated quite well

that Elliott was troubled

by this relationship
with his stepfather.

- In this interview, he
goes on to talk about,

you know, how you can mask your
emotions with drugs and alcohol.

If you think about
Elliott's childhood

and the accusations that he's
made against his stepfather

and, you know,
this history of ADHD

and depression
and self- medicating,

like, was Elliott
trying to hide,

like, from his emotions?

- Like many who
experience childhood trauma,

Elliott Smith struggles
with the after effects

throughout his adult life,

eventually leading to
serious drug addiction.

- So when you add
in this possible abuse,

he became very addicted
to heroin and crack cocaine.

In Spin magazine,

I found some information
that he was spending

like $1,500 a day on his habit,

and he drank to the point where
he would get drunk and not stop.

- And so this sort of bounces

back to Elliott's relationship
with his stepfather.

Like, I think the child abuse

and the low self- esteem
is part of it, but, you know,

Elliott was a drug
addict. Let's face it.

- When somebody has a
substance- use disorder

and they are
misusing substances,

that places them at higher risk

for having suicidal behavior.

And oftentimes when people
actually go through the act

of suicide, substances
may be involved.

- Drugs and alcohol
certainly added fuel to the fire

of Smith's suicidal tendencies,

but they weren't directly
at play when he dies.

In the time leading
up to his death,

Smith is on the
road to sobriety.

- The toxicology report confirmed
that, at the time of his death,

he was clean.

So that would, on the
surface, appear to rule out

this being a substance- induced
state of psychosis and suicide.

- His drug abuse
got so bad, so bad,

finally, he checked himself
into a rehab center in Arizona.

- He was trying something new,

getting clean and sober.

I think there is hope.

I think there is
strength in that.

- But for most long- term
addicts, getting clean and sober

is only a first step in the
journey toward mental health.

- He'd abruptly gone
sober, cold turkey,

and this previous coping
mechanism was removed.

Whether this might have
some bearing on his ability

to keep thoughts, maybe
it had for some time, at bay.

Without replacing those
coping mechanisms

with something more
productive and positive,

he just fell further and
further into a dark place.

- He was diagnosed with
ADHD as well as depression,

and later, while he was
working on his last album,

that manifested into some
pretty particular paranoia.

He was convinced
that his record label

was paying someone
to follow him around

and that they were
looking to steal his music.

- He had said that DreamWorks
was breaking into his house

and stealing songs from his
computers and not paying him

and that he was
threatening to kill himself

if they wouldn't let
him out of his contract.

He thought that they were
following him in a white van.

And this white van
appears throughout

for, like, the next
year or so until he died.

Is it possible that he had
some sort of psychotic break?

Was Elliott's paranoia enough
to push him over the edge?

When somebody does
kill themselves intentionally,

the reaction is always like

"There's no way
he killed himself."

- Jennifer Chiba has been a
secondary victim in all of this.

She basically witnessed
him die in front of her.

- Instead of blaming
Elliott and his mental illness,

they're just going to
blame the girl he likes.

- In October 2003,
Elliott Smith dies from

two stab wounds in his chest.

Los Angeles police
initially call it a suicide,

but later, the L.A. coroner's
office rules it undetermined.

Many of Smith's fans
agree with the police report.

They think he killed himself,
and they blame a history

of childhood trauma
and addiction.

- Told me that he was an
abused child his whole life

and never really got over it.

- But some fans continue
to blame Elliott Smith's death

on his girlfriend,
Jennifer Chiba,

even though she's never
been a person of interest.

- Naturally, when a
lot of these theories,

you know, turn on
somebody who was with him

at the time of his death,
his girlfriend, Jennifer Chiba,

they're going to focus on
her as the prime suspect,

and that can be really
difficult for somebody,

particularly if they're
not actually responsible.

- You know, instead of blaming
Elliott and his mental illness,

they're just going to
blame the girl he likes.

A prevailing theme that I ran
into was, like, woman- blaming.

The women are going
to take the brunt for...

You know, every time a
man kills himself, it's her fault.

- Jennifer Chiba has been a
secondary victim in all of this.

She basically witnessed
him die in front of her,

and that's extremely
traumatic to begin with,

but, secondly, she's
been under scrutiny

for nearly two decades now.

She's never been
named a suspect,

but she's never
been officially cleared.

So she deserves
the truth, as well.

- In terms of Jennifer Chiba.

The police have
looked at her so much

that, after this many years,

if there was a problem,
they would bring her in.

- People obviously
are going to believe

what they want to believe.

- The people who
believe there was foul play

typically reference
Chiba's actions

as proof that she had
something to do with it.

According to her own story,

she pulls a knife
out of Smith's chest

and, according to
unconfirmed reports,

locks herself in the
bathroom when police arrive.

But investigators
come to understand

the situation differently.

- There's a host of
possible explanations

why Jennifer reacted
the way she did.

This is a traumatic situation

that would induce
anxiety and panic

in even the most well-
adjusted of people.

- Is it possible that
she was so distraught...

She just pulled a knife
out of her boyfriend's chest.

You know, there's going
to be blood on her hands.

She's performing CPR.

There's going to
be blood from spray.

I mean, she's going to be...
Have some blood on her.

Is it possible that she went
into the bathroom to clean up?

You don't know if
he's dead or not,

but your boyfriend's blood
on your hands, literally,

like, the imagery is
just... It gives me the chills.

- There may also be
another explanation

as to why Smith kept
his shirt on when he died.

There was a friend
of Elliott's, and he said

Elliott wouldn't be caught
dead with his shirt off.

He never took his shirt off.

He didn't like
taking his shirt off.

He didn't sleep
with his shirt off.

He did not want to... Ever
want to take his shirt off.

- And when online investigators
look into the misspelling

of Smith's name
on the suicide note,

a coroner's
spokesperson confirms

this was merely a
typographical error.

Online, many fans
see Alyson Camus

as the expert on Smith's death,

but sleuths question
Camus' motivations.

- Her being such a super fan,

she's a little too
invested in Elliott Smith

being, like, the hero.

As far as I can
tell, they never met.

They didn't hang out.

- She very, very
intensely loved Smith

and seems to be incapable

of accepting that he
committed suicide.

- It's important to rely
on facts, not feelings,

and when you're
looking at things online,

you really have to learn
how to filter out all that noise.

And in this situation, those
feelings are that noise.

- When people look
at this death, they think,

"How can somebody
stab themselves?"

And the reality is suicide
by self- stabbing is rare,

but it's not nonexistent.

- When somebody does
kill themselves intentionally,

the reaction is always like,

"There's no way
he killed himself,"

and it's, like, suicide
is always a surprise.

If people knew
something was coming,

you wouldn't be shocked
when it happened.

- In the tragic death of famed
indie singer Elliott Smith,

the L.A. coroner is
unable to determine

if the two stab
wounds in his chest

are the result of a
homicide or a suicide.

Investigators and fans alike

are still trying to figure
out what happened.

- For me personally, I
definitely want the truth, right,

I want justice,

and I want peace.

- If I had to answer today,

I would say Elliott
Smith committed suicide,

but I am open to the possibility

that he is the
victim of homicide

because we just don't
know what we don't know.

There's too many
unanswered questions.

- Without a real,
new investigation,

unless new information surfaces,

it's unlikely we're
going to find anything

that gives us a conclusive
and satisfying answer

about how exactly he died.

It still looks
like, at this point,

Elliott Smith died of suicide.

- The fact is the
case remains open,

so even though Elliott Smith's
fans disagree on what happened

that day in Echo Park,
they all agree on one thing...

The case needs
to be reinvestigated

and closed once and for all.

- Elliott's case deserves
to be reexamined

by the investigating
authority, by law enforcement.

If it's considered a cold case,

it deserves to have
a new investigator

put on it with fresh eyes.

There is a lot of information
out there which we uncovered,

and law enforcement has
even more access to records

and documents and
people and information.

- Closing this case is
important for Jennifer Chiba

and Elliott Smith's family.

I mean, I'm sure Jennifer Chiba

would like to move
on with her life

and put aside any doubt that
she had anything to do with this.

And then Elliott's
family, I'm sure,

just want some peace
with the death, as well.

So it's important that
we get some answers.

- Elliott Smith was
a complicated guy.

I mean, he was a musical and
a lyrical and a poetic genius,

but he also lived
really intensely,

and he clearly struggled.

At the end of the day, I think
people cope with this idea

that there must be
some other explanation

for how he died to deal with
their own complex feelings

about the fact that he's gone.

- Elliott Smith's legacy
is, of course, his music,

but it's also important to
know that, after he died,

his family donated a
large sum of money

to the Free Arts for
Abused Children.

They knew it was
Elliott's goal in life

to start a nonprofit
for abused children.

He was a very compassionate
and thoughtful artist.

His lyrics were meaningful,

they were heartfelt,

and he meant a
lot to a lot of people.

- I think Elliott's soulfulness
has to do with his struggle,

but I think the music is
best speaking for itself.

- I want to make sure that what
we remember most about him

was who he was as an artist,

and that's what lives on.

Repair and Synchronization by
Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0