Kelly Cochran

During the month of May in 2018 I had a lot going on in my life so I did not dive into stories that I was seeing with headlines talking about a possible female serial killer in my state of Indiana. I truly never read more than the headlines and I am unsure I even put the name on a list to look later. Then the next month life settled down a bit and I went back to taping television shows on Investigative Discovery (aka ID). I had come across a show called Dead North and like all the others I tape it sounded interesting. Initially I thought it was just a two part show and was nearly devastated when I got to the end of the first two parts and saw previews for more. Luckily I had managed to tape all four parts. It was not until I began watching the show that I realized that the show was discussing the “possible female serial killer” from Indiana.

In October of 2014 fifty-three year old Christopher Regan disappeared from the small town of Iron River Michigan. He was reported missing by his ex-girlfriend, Terri O'Donnell. The two had dated for a few years and things did not really work out but they had remained friends. In fact, Christopher rented an apartment owned by Terri's parents. The two had planned to meet for dinner two weeks prior and it was unlike him to not get a hold of her, especially if he was going to cancel but Terri knew he had a lot going on in his life at that time. The last time they had spoken he was going to take a drug test for a new job in North Carolina the next day and then the two were going to go celebrate. Before reporting him missing it seems Terri had done some of her own looking for him by contacting people and even got into his apartment. Several things seemed to stick out to her. He had not gone back to his job. While his work thought it unusual not to hear from the reliable Christopher, they also, like Terri, thought maybe the North Carolina deal came through faster than expected. So here Terri was reporting him missing. In the process Christopher's car had been found at what was called “The Ride and Park.” Basically this was an area where people met to carpool. Christopher's car was searched and some strange things were found such as a knee brace he had been wearing since a recent surgery. Still, no-one had heard from Christopher, including his children. One son was planning to make the move to North Carolina with him and was preparing himself. It seems that father and son had an estranged relationship in the past but had been working on it and were making a new go at it. So for him not hearing from his dad was not that super unusual in his life up to then it seemed.

While of course Terri was the number one suspect when the investigation started, even the initial investigators had to admit that it seemed unlikely she had committed a crime. In their opinion she had been reacting to things appropriately and had been very compliant with their investigation and questions. It seemed she truly did just want to find Christopher. It was through Terri that they learned that Christopher had been seeing a woman he worked with. Terri only knew that the woman's name was Kelly, nothing more. So of course investigators were already going to likely be talking to people at Christopher's work and it did not take long for them to discover that Kelly, was Kelly Cochran.

Kelly Cochran had just moved to Iron River with her husband, Jason the previous February. She and Christopher had struck up a friendship that seemingly had turned into more. Investigators found their way to the Cochran home and were immediately suspicious when Jason Cochran told them that Kelly was not home and yet just seconds later she walked out of the house and introduced herself. To investigators Kelly seemed very personable and friendly. Jason on the other hand would appear to seem hostile one second and withdrawn the next. Over the next several months both Kelly and Jason were interviewed repeatedly by Iron River investigators. Something just seemed off with the whole situation to investigators but they had proof of nothing.

By March of 2015 investigators were able to get a search warrant for the Cochran home. By this time they already knew that both Kelly and Jason had lied to them about some things but still none of it proved they had done anything. Kelly had told them that she was not familiar with the “Ride and Park” where Christopher's car had been found but they had discovered that she had also been seeing another co-worker who had introduced her to the place prior to Christopher's disappearance. Jason had alleged he did not know anything about Kelly's affair with Christopher but text messages found between the two had indicated differently. When confronted it seems Jason changed his story and admitted he knew that Kelly had had affairs and while he was not happy with it he had accepted it in order to maintain the marriage. He had allegedly been injured when living in Indiana. The couple had ran a pool installation and repair company and it was then that Jason began experiencing back pain. He claimed this had prevented him being able to work, as well as have sex. Kelly's father would later say he was not convinced that the back injury was as bad as he had claimed because he had seen Jason lift and move things he allegedly should not have been able to do. For her part Kelly had told investigators that Christopher had even asked her to move to North Carolina with him and that she had spent many nights a week with him for dinner. She seemed to act as if she had actually considered moving with him for a time. Investigators were surprised considering all of this, and more, to discover that nothing came of the search of their home.

One thing that is unclear is whether Kelly and Jason Cochran were home at the time the search was conducted and just what areas were searched. I question this because it was said that after the search Kelly and Jason Cochran not only left the state of Michigan and moved back to their home town in Indiana, but they left everything they owned it seems at the home in Iron River, including marijuana plants that Jason had been growing. And yet it appears that no charges of any kind what so ever were brought against them either at the time of the search or after. It almost appears as if the couple had already left Michigan, or only portions of the house was searched at that time.

While investigators in Iron River were still looking into Christopher Regan's disappearance life seemed to go on for Kelly and Jason back in Merrillville Indiana. Kelly and Jason had known each other most of their lives. In fact, they grew up right next door to each other. They both apparently attended college. Kelly had even studied forensics and psychology. Investigators would later say they believed that those studies had given the couple an “edge” on things. Kelly and Jason would marry in 2002. When they returned to Indiana in May of 2015 they stayed with Kelly's parents for what was described as “several months.” They say that Jason seemed very different and was quiet and distant. Kelly's father Tim says that over time he became uncomfortable with Jason and that is apparently when the couple moved to the nearby town of Hobart.

Then 911 operators received a call from the Cochran home on February 20, 2016. It was Kelly calling. She told the operator that she had found Jason unresponsive and apparently had told them that he had taken heroin recently. Emergency responders would go to the home and would later say that Kelly seemed to be hindering them from doing their duty as if she was preventing them from examining him and determining if they could administer any help. Even still it seems that initially the cause of death was going to be considered to be an accidental overdose. But, then the FBI received a a tip from a man named Walter Ammerman. They were informed that the Cochrans were under suspicion in Michigan in the disappearance of a man and had left the state fast and mysteriously. Upon closer examination it appeared that Jason Cochran, who did have a legal dose of heroin in his body it seems, had died from suffocation. Now, of course not every person who dies from suffocation, especially someone that has taken drugs, is murdered, but then again, sometimes they are.

Appears that initially the tip that Ammerman had provided had been anonymously but authorities were able to track him down. By this time Hobart detective, Jeremy Ogden had been in touch with Laura Frizzo, the police chief in Iron City. They had begun discussing the disappearance of Christopher Regan as well as now the death of Jason Cochran. At this point Iron River authorities were convinced that the Cochran's had been involved with Regan's disappearance even more. They were seemingly able to prove that Regan had been at the Cochran home on the night of October 13, 2014, but they still could not prove what had happened to him. At some point after the search on the home and the Cochran's fleeing back to Indiana authorities had started talking to their neighbors. It appears that it was the first time this had happened. At least two neighbors reported that they had heard a lot of “sawing” in the middle of the night during the time of Regan's disappearance. One of them talked to Jason about it and he said that he could not sleep and that he “filled the hours” working on a staircase but neighbors claim they never saw any material going in or out of the garage where this was allegedly taking place. Then neighbors began talking about how the couple had called them to their home at least three times that week for dinner and they strangely had a lot of meat it seemed. One night the couple made shish-kabobs, another night it was pizza and a third night was tacos. The rumor became that the couple had cut Christopher Regan's body up and then fed him to their neighbors but to be fair that may be more sensational than what really happened. To be fair Kelly Cochran gave more than one confession when it came to her crimes and while I agree that not everything she said could be completely believed, it seems she never once seem to state this as something that happened.

But, I got ahead of myself in talking about the confession. First investigators needed to get her to confess and for that they used Walter Ammerman. It does not seem to be completely clear how Ammerman knew the couple had been under suspicion in Michigan. He was a “gamer” and played with Jason so one has to believe that Jason eluded to the couple being in trouble in Michigan. It does not seem however that Ammerman knew any specifics but Ogden thought they could use him. They helped Ammerman come up with a story and then they made a phone call, that was taped, to Kelly. Ammerman told Kelly that sometime in January he had received a letter in the mail from Jason. Inside the envelope was another envelope addressed to the Iron River Police Department. According to the story Ammerman told Kelly Jason had sent this to him with a letter telling him if something happened to him to please send the other letter to Iron River and he just felt as if he should call and tell her before he did so. Kelly got extremely quiet and then simply said “Please Don't!”

It seemed that just after that Jeremy Ogden began seeing more and more of Kelly Cochran. Through several different interviews with her not only did Kelly confess to killing Jason, she also claimed that Jason had killed Christopher Regan and she had helped to cover it up. I will try to make this as least confusing as possible as I try to explain not only the different stories that Kelly would tell over time. Sometimes she would retract them or claim she did not make the statements while other times she simply told new and different details. Even still there seemed to be things she would only discuss once and while she may not confirm them again, she also did not deny them.

At one point Ogden said “She looked me right in the eye and said Jason had taken the heroin that night, and basically she wasn't going to wait for him to die, it was taking too long.” In this confession she did not admit to administering the heroin, although she would at least once, but admitted to smothering him. Most of the time that she spoke of Jason's murder she stated that she had done so in retaliation for Jason murdering Christopher Regan. At one point she would claim that on their wedding night she and Jason had made a “pact” that if either of them cheated on the other that they would kill the other person. Technically allegedly she was supposed to kill Regan because that was part of the pact but she had supposedly fallen in love with him and could not do it. Instead she had lured Regan to come to the home and led him through a doorway knowing that Jason would have a clean shot at him. Kelly would claim that after Christopher Regan had been shot and killed that Jason had taken his body to the garage and began dismembering it with a hack saw. She claims that they then dumped his body parts in the woods, threw the gun in a quarry behind the home and burnt clothing and items in a fire pit on the property. Kelly began working with authorities both in Hobart Indiana and in Iron River Michigan but authorities in neither state had charge her yet.

After going to Iron River once with Jeremy Ogden and taking again to authorities in Michigan Kelly headed back to Indiana. The plan was that she would go into the police station for a lie detector test the next day and then they would go back up to Iron River. That morning she sent a text message to Jeremy Ogden indicating that she was on a beach somewhere but was not specific. Either way, she did not show up as planned and was on the run. Knowing this Michigan decided it was time to file charges and Ogden knew that at some point she would turn her phone on to see if he had responded and she could be traced from there. He was right. She was captured in Kentucky and taken back to Michigan to face trial.

Authorities had been able to recover some evidence, and yes, with a lot of help from Kelly. They had found some items belonging to Christopher Regan in the area and they had also found at least some of Christopher Regan. Although Kelly had taken them to an area to search it is unclear whether she was playing the investigators or she had just been off on her location a bit because they found nothing where she claimed, but did find some bones not much further away. But of course the bones had to be examined and identified. In May of 2016 they recovered a human skull (minus the jaw) that appeared to have a bullet hole. They had also now found the .22 caliber rifle used, a bullet casing and even what they believed to be a pair of glasses belonging to Christopher Regan. They had re-examined the house and still there seemed to be no evidence anything had happened in that home.

Michigan charged Kelly Cochran with homicide, lying to a peace officer, concealing a death, dismemberment of a body, and larceny in a building. They had all of their evidence and they had Kelly on audio and video tape saying a lot of things. Despite that Kelly had pleaded not guilty and took her case to trial. It did not seem to take the jury long to decide she was guilty. On May 10, 2017 she was given a life sentence without parole for the homicide charge and other sentences ranging from two and a half years to ten years.

What exactly happened with the case in Indiana seems a little unclear. What I can say is that Kelly accepted a plea deal in May of 2018 that included a sentence of sixty-five years for the murder of Jason Cochran. There are articles that state that the deal includes a provision that states she will never be charged with any other crimes committed in the state of Indiana, although to be fair she has never been specific enough to say if she did commit other crimes, including murder in Indiana. Other articles state that the provision only prevented her from being charged and prosecuted for any other crimes in Lake County Indiana, the county that made the deal. I can only assume such a deal was made only for two reasons. The first was to ensure that if some way she would win an appeal in the Michigan case she would be brought back to Indiana and not be released. I also believe that they had hoped, and maybe they still do, that she will give specifics and eventually let authorities know of other cases in Indiana she has been involved with.

Jeremy Ogden claimed, and some could be heard on audio, that on at least two occasions Kelly confessed to killing up to twenty-one people. Even Ogden says he does not believe the number is that high and believes that she only gave that number to taunt investigators. But, no one, including members of her family believe that Christopher Regan and Jason Cochran are her only victims. First they point to how clean the home in Michigan was. Kelly had admitted to cleaning for more than 24 hours but even the very few specks of blood they found (and they had to look hard) were too diluted to get a DNA sample. It was said that they even lifted the washer that was allegedly near where Christopher Regan was shot and there was nothing under it. No one seems to believe that either of them could have been that meticulous in the clean up if this was their first murder. When speaking of the alleged twenty-one people all Kelly would say was that they were buried in Michigan, Indiana, Tennessee and one “friend,” as she called them, in either Minnesota or Montana (to be fair I cannot remember which she stated and I have not made a note of it). Her own brother told authorities he believes she is responsible for nine deaths, although the media has not indicated if he has stated who he believes those nine to be. If this is true it would make her one of the worst female serial killers known. Aileen Wuornos only had a total of seven victims.

In a phone conversation with her mother while in jail Kelly admitted that she had been “homicidal” all her life and in no way claimed that Jason had forced her to do anything in any way. In fact, while at least her father seemingly had odd feelings about Jason, even he admitted, along with just about anyone else who truly knew the couple, that it was Kelly who “wore the pants” in that house and was the dominating spouse.

It may never be known just how many people Kelly Cochran killed alone, or with the help of her husband. In fact, to be fair there is not necessarily any proof that he was the one who shot Christopher Regan. One could likely argue successfully that he helped cover up the crime which would make him equally responsible but it does not mean he was the driving force. During the investigation into Christopher Regan's disappearance Jason mentioned that either just prior or just after Regan had gone missing that he had been hospitalized in a mental health facility. It is unclear if this was true or what diagnosis was given. I saw the interviews in which he mentioned it but I never heard it disputed by investigators.

Did Kelly Cochran really kill her husband because he had killed Christopher Regan, a man she allegedly loved? I somehow highly doubt that. I have more of an inkling that Jason was cracking and Kelly feared he was going to turn her in. One could say if that was the case then why did she seemingly fold so easily after. Well, who knows. Maybe she thought she could divert attention away from her and make herself a victim. She had apparently tried that before with co-workers in which she claimed Jason had been abusive and threatening to her. Maybe she just knew that she was backed into a corner. It has been said that she has stated that she knows she will spend the rest of her life in prison, and she is at peace with that.