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00:00Please are asking your help tonight in finding an Upper Peninsula man.
00:11Police are searching for a missing male resident.
00:14Cadaver dogs have been combing the densely wooded area for more than 24 hours.
00:18Somebody murdered and dismembered Chris Reagan and got rid of his remains.
00:25I knew that Kelly Cochran killed him.
00:30Laura never gives up.
00:32She was eat, sleep and drink in this case.
00:37The jury found now convicted murderer Kelly Cochran guilty on all counts.
00:42That case ruined my life.
00:44It nearly killed me.
00:46We know she has other victims and we're going to find them.
00:50You told me that there are multiple bodies in Indiana.
00:53Yes, sir.
00:54And who killed them?
00:57Kelly claimed that her butterfly tattoos represented lives that she took and she had 16 butterfly
01:03tattoos.
01:04So we're going to investigate those victims ourselves.
01:07She changes her movement and her face.
01:09If anyone is going to be able to find these other victims.
01:12That right there is a lie.
01:14That's bullshit.
01:15It's going to be Jeremy and I.
01:16That's what he used the pics for.
01:17For what specifically?
01:18To get rid of body parts.
01:20She has no feelings.
01:21She has no remorse.
01:23They agreed on their wedding night that if they ever cheated, they got to kill that person.
01:27It's a game with her.
01:28I know you're smart.
01:29Do you doubt that I'm smart enough?
01:31One of the neighbors said in the middle of the night, there was all this sawing going
01:35on over at their house.
01:36It went on for hours, two, three in the morning.
01:40And then the next day, we shot a barbecue with the neighbors.
01:44And she told us we ate this guy.
01:48I lost my career over this case.
01:51Those are multiple bodies in Indiana.
01:53Where are they?
01:55All over.
01:56All right.
01:57Game on.
01:58They had no idea what was going on in that house.
02:02There are different kinds of murders.
02:04Do you meet people with the sole intention of killing them?
02:07Some of them are evil.
02:08I try not to.
02:09I would have never thought that could have happened in our town.
02:14Are you truly responsible for killing 20 people?
02:2021.
02:44Why don't we use the red onion in the salad?
02:46Sure.
02:47You want the garlic sliced up really small, right?
02:49That would be great.
02:51It's probably not your typical storybook romance.
02:53Do you want some wine?
02:55Oh, yeah.
02:56We met eight years ago.
02:57Got it.
02:58I was a police detective in Hobart, Indiana.
03:01I was the police chief 400 miles north in Iron River, Michigan.
03:06We actually met when Laura chased a murderer named Kelly Cochran out of her little town
03:10and into mine.
03:11That's good.
03:12Everybody thought I had the wrong suspect.
03:14They thought I was crazy.
03:16Kelly had everyone fooled.
03:18Everyone except Laura.
03:20Did you wash that cucumber?
03:22I did.
03:23Okay, just making sure.
03:24So Jeremy and I teamed up to prove that she had killed two men,
03:27including her own husband.
03:29They're really good.
03:31And we did.
03:33Smells good already.
03:34And while doing our investigations?
03:36Perfect.
03:39We fell in love.
03:40Try that.
03:42And after Kelly was sentenced to life in prison?
03:44You want to stir it?
03:45Jeremy asked me to marry him.
03:47Here's to you.
03:48I told you.
03:49Here's to us.
03:50This isn't your typical love story.
03:53I'll get the door.
03:55You're welcome.
03:58Kelly is never getting out of prison.
04:01But we believe she went on a killing spree for at least a decade before we caught her.
04:10There's a lot of notes here.
04:11Here's all the narratives and evidence and field trip stuff.
04:14Kelly claimed that her butterfly tattoos represented victims.
04:17Very first interview with Kelly.
04:19And she had 16 butterfly tattoos.
04:21Some of Kelly's drawings and letters.
04:23Those are murders that have either gone cool or were never even reported.
04:27Supplemental investigations reports.
04:30Those families have never gotten closure.
04:33This is that interview where she started giving out victims.
04:36We started a private investigator company.
04:39And we're going to investigate those victims ourselves.
04:41FBI did this inventory on the truck.
04:44We know Kelly better than anyone.
04:46We know how she thinks.
04:47Here's a letter that she wrote to her mom from jail.
04:50Over the year and a half of this investigation,
04:54we gathered hundreds of hours of video.
04:56Jason, get rid of the body.
04:58Audio.
04:59You don't know where you went on your wedding night?
05:01And interrogations.
05:02Everything we need.
05:03Jason's book.
05:04To find those victims.
05:05A report showing all their previous residences.
05:07It's right here.
05:09Very eerie.
05:10We just need to put the puzzle pieces together.
05:12Just reviewing this stuff, it brings it back.
05:20We know now that Kelly Cochran was a practiced methodical killer.
05:25But before I was on the case,
05:27Laura had a very hard investigation all on her own.
05:31You need to know that story first.
05:39In 2013, I became the police chief in Iron River, Michigan
05:45and the first female police chief in the Upper Peninsula.
05:51Iron County is a very nice place to grow up.
05:57It's a great place to raise kids.
05:59It's safe there.
06:00It's wide open and beautiful.
06:05Growing up, I had three brothers.
06:07My dad was very much a manly man.
06:11And I always kind of felt like the outcast
06:13being raised with three brothers and being the only girl.
06:16But my dad, I think, started realizing,
06:19you know, hey, she can do these things as well as they can.
06:22And he had written down a list with all four of us.
06:28And I just remember him writing next to my name,
06:31the family protector.
06:33And being the only girl
06:35and having him label me as the family protector
06:39spoke volumes to me.
06:43Don't make me cry.
06:49After college, I started working as a dispatcher.
06:53At that time, I was going through a divorce
06:55and I was a single mom and I had two young girls.
06:59And I just made up my mind
07:02and put myself through the academy.
07:04I was offered the job with Iron River,
07:06which I took right away.
07:09And I was actually the first female patrol officer
07:12that they had ever hired there.
07:14Being raised with three brothers and being the only girl,
07:18I was pretty much used to that anyway.
07:21I think that there was a sense from the guys
07:24that I worked with that, you know, she can't drive.
07:28You know, she can't shoot.
07:30And I just kept pushing forward
07:32and showed them that in a lot of these instances,
07:35I could do things a lot better than they could.
07:39After working at Iron River Police Department for 18 years,
07:44the police chief position became available.
07:47And I felt like I could do it.
07:50So we had an interview process
07:52and I was selected at that time.
07:55It was difficult.
07:57I didn't have anyone to train me how to do the job.
08:00I had to, you know, figure it out.
08:03I was a single mom and I still had two kids
08:06I needed to support and care for.
08:09It was hard on my family.
08:11It was hard on my kids.
08:13But I just believe 100% you have to keep going.
08:20On October 27, 2014,
08:22my shift was supposed to be done at 3 o'clock
08:24in the afternoon and because we were short-staffed,
08:26I was still there at like 4.30.
08:29And I was actually just going to get in my car
08:32and I see this woman pull up in front of the office.
08:36And I watched her walk up to the door
08:40and pull on the door, which I had locked.
08:43And I'm, of course, sitting in my car like,
08:46you know, like my kids are home waiting for me and here we go.
08:50And she turned around and looked at me
08:54and I could see she was crying.
08:59She introduced herself to me as Terri O'Donnell
09:01and she said that her friend was missing.
09:05She told me his name was Chris Reagan
09:07and no one has seen him for a few days
09:09and that his car is parked out at the park-and-ride
09:12about four miles east of Iron River.
09:15I started rambling, um, you need to help me,
09:18something's happened to my ex-boyfriend.
09:20She calmed me down and she said,
09:22Hey, what's his name?
09:23I said, Christopher Reagan.
09:24I said, something bad's happened to him.
09:26I haven't heard from him since the 14th.
09:29Terri O'Donnell seemed very worried,
09:31but at the time, I really wasn't.
09:34There aren't a lot of murders that happen in the Upper Peninsula
09:37and certainly not in Iron River.
09:40Also, things didn't really work out for them dating,
09:43so I figured maybe Chris Reagan
09:45kind of stopped communicating with Terri.
09:48Sergeant Barrett came in to start her shift at 5 o'clock.
09:51And I just asked Cindy if she would, you know,
09:53take over and just do some checking and help her out.
10:00Chief Frizzo introduced me to Terri O'Donnell.
10:03She was very, very upset and concerned
10:06that something had happened to Chris Reagan.
10:13After Christopher and I broke up, we still talked.
10:17We were both still concerned about, like,
10:20how each other was doing
10:22and wanting each other to be happy.
10:25He lived in one of the apartments that my parents owned.
10:28We always had spare keys.
10:31Terri O'Donnell had the key for access
10:34to Chris Reagan's apartment,
10:36so that was the very first place we went.
10:39All of his clothes are here.
10:42Dirty clothes.
10:46He was very meticulous about things being organized.
10:56It looked like somebody had ransacked it.
10:58There were dirty dishes in the sink
11:00and there was empty wine glass by his computer
11:03with the wine all crusted in it.
11:05The windows were left open.
11:07There was just stuff everywhere.
11:15Chris had gotten a job in Asheville,
11:17so he was setting up to move down there.
11:20But his apartment would never look like that,
11:22even with packing.
11:24There was something else going on here.
11:31It appeared that he had every intention of returning
11:36but never came back.
11:42There was personal items in the medicine cabinet,
11:46prescription bottles.
11:48I am just so...
11:50I am just so at odds
11:52on where he could be
11:54or what has happened to him.
11:57After I saw his apartment,
11:59I honestly didn't think he was alive.
12:01If he was alive, he would have contacted me.
12:04I know that.
12:10After we checked through Chris Reagan's apartment,
12:13we went to the park-and-ride
12:16in Elton Beach Township
12:18to check Chris Reagan's car.
12:23I had talked to one of his co-workers
12:25and they said that they had seen his car
12:27at the park-and-ride
12:29and I thought that was really, really strange.
12:32His car was his baby.
12:34He would have never drove it there himself and left it there.
12:36He was very meticulous about it.
12:39That his knee brace?
12:41Yep.
12:42Does he normally wear the knee brace?
12:44Yep.
12:45Okay.
12:47I asked Terry, would he have left his knee brace in the car
12:51and she says, definitely not.
12:53Yeah, he's still lifting.
12:55Okay.
12:57She was concerned that something had happened
13:02because Chris would have had to have the knee brace on.
13:07On the passenger side front seat was a post-it note.
13:11It looked like directions to somewhere.
13:15I told Sergeant Barrett that
13:17wherever those directions went,
13:19that was the last place Christopher was.
13:21That's the last place he went.
13:25After I left the station, on my way home,
13:28I was thinking about what Terry told me.
13:30I made a few phone calls.
13:32Terry O'Donnell told me that Chris Reagan worked at Oldenburg,
13:36a local factory that manufactured parts for the Navy.
13:40And being a small town, it just so happened that
13:43I knew the human resources director.
13:45So I called her to see what she might know about Chris.
13:48And she told me that he was having an affair
13:52with a married woman who also worked at Oldenburg,
13:56named Kelly Cochran.
13:58I said, well, maybe we should make contact with Kelly Cochran
14:01and see what she knows.
14:03The HR director told me that two months prior,
14:06Kelly had told her that her husband was abusive
14:09and had threatened to kill her.
14:11And on one occasion, a deputy was sent to the house
14:14to check on Kelly.
14:15So then I got in touch with the deputy
14:17and asked if he knew Kelly's address.
14:19And he said, well, I'm not at work right now,
14:21so I don't know the exact address,
14:23but I can give you directions.
14:26He starts giving me these directions
14:28to Kelly Cochran's house.
14:30And as soon as we got done talking,
14:33I got a call from Sergeant Barrett,
14:35who had checked Chris Regan's vehicle.
14:38There was a sticky note, and she read it to me,
14:41and it was directions.
14:45This is the exact directions that the deputy just gave me
14:48to Kelly Cochran's house.
14:50Chief Rizzo asked me to go and interview Kelly Cochran.
14:56We got to the Cochran house,
14:59and a mail subject came out.
15:02I asked if he was Jason Cochran.
15:04He said, yes.
15:05I said, is Kelly Cochran your wife?
15:07He said, yes.
15:08I said, is she here?
15:10And he said, no, she isn't.
15:13The state trooper whispered to me
15:16that there's someone looking out the upstairs window.
15:19And shortly thereafter,
15:22a woman comes out of the house.
15:25I asked if she was Kelly Cochran.
15:27She said, yes.
15:30I asked Kelly Cochran about her relationship with Chris Regan,
15:34and she told me that they'd had a relationship.
15:37Her husband is standing there.
15:39I said, is your husband aware of this relationship?
15:43She said, yes, he is.
15:45Chief Rizzo asked me,
15:48Jason Cochran was not saying a word.
15:52He was very stoic, didn't say anything,
15:55just like a statue.
15:59I asked her, when was the last time that you talked to Chris?
16:05And she said something like October 13th or 14th.
16:09I told her that we were concerned because his car
16:13was parked out west of town at the park and ride.
16:17And Kelly said to me, he loved that car.
16:22And immediately in my mind,
16:25I said, she used the past tense.
16:30As soon as I left the Cochran residence,
16:33I called Chief Rizzo.
16:37I said, I have a really bad feeling.
16:41I says, they know something,
16:45and something is very, very wrong.
16:50I think I knew right then,
16:52we really needed to investigate Kelly Cochran.
17:03I knew that we were going to need help.
17:05We're short-staffed, so we needed the extra manpower.
17:08I reached out to the Michigan State Police at that time.
17:11The Cochrans needed to be interviewed.
17:14In talking with the detectives from the state police,
17:18it was their desire to do the interviews.
17:21I knew that we should probably proceed immediately with search warrants.
17:25So I sat and worked on search warrants
17:28while I viewed the actual interviews going on at the same time.
17:36They bring Jason Cochran in first for his interview.
17:40And I hear him come into the room and say,
17:43I've got some health issues. I've lost a kidney.
17:45They want to do back surgery,
17:47and I don't kind of move around or function the way I should sometimes.
17:51So I've kind of withdrawn and became real depressed.
17:54I'm taking medication.
17:56I've recently been hospitalized.
17:59Pretty soon he's crying.
18:00My marriage has fallen apart.
18:03It didn't help me.
18:05Yeah, that didn't help either.
18:07Um, so you were very much aware of
18:13um, what Kelly was doing.
18:18I either had to accept it or to let her go.
18:21So I decided that I could at least accept it for a little while
18:25and see if it's, you know,
18:28if what she really wanted was to not be with me,
18:30then I was going to let her go.
18:32I just remember thinking to myself,
18:34why is he crying?
18:36To me, that was the hugest red flag ever.
18:39Had you ever met Chris?
18:41No.
18:42I never physically met the guy.
18:44Do you know where he lives?
18:46I've seen Kelly's truck parked
18:48in an apartment building
18:50on, um, right on the main drag right there.
18:53And since I've seen her truck there often,
18:55I assume that that's where he lives.
18:57Had you ever been there?
18:59I've walked past the house.
19:01I've seen the truck there.
19:04Do you kind of understand why you're here?
19:07I, yeah.
19:10I think so.
19:11You know, I mean, there's somebody that's missing.
19:13I'm going to guess that I'm probably the jealous husband.
19:16Yeah. Yeah.
19:18You know, I want to try to be as open about anything as I can with it.
19:22Unfortunately, I didn't know about some of the stuff, you know.
19:27After he goes into this long conversation about how
19:30he hasn't been the greatest husband because he can't perform well.
19:33Because of my back.
19:35A lot of times I do have some sexual dysfunction
19:37where I don't, um,
19:39even if I wanted to, you know, I'm in so much pain,
19:41I couldn't get hard or get off or anything for it.
19:44And then he basically just says,
19:46I've never seen Chris Reagan, don't know who he is,
19:48wouldn't know him if I passed him on the street.
19:50I don't even know what the guy looked like.
19:52Other than knowing his first name.
19:55You know, that's about my extensive.
19:59Okay.
20:00Okay.
20:01No questions for us?
20:02No, you guys have been real helpful.
20:04Okay.
20:09His interview ends and Kelly comes in.
20:11Kelly is totally different.
20:13Did you have an intimate relationship?
20:15Yeah, we did.
20:16And obviously your husband knows or doesn't know about it?
20:19He knows.
20:20He knows.
20:21She was very well controlled.
20:23She knew how to control her body movement, her body language.
20:26When was the last time you saw Chris?
20:28They asked me that last night.
20:31I want to say probably two weeks ago.
20:33Yeah, it was probably two weeks from today, I think.
20:37You saw him or talked to him?
20:39I talked to him, I think.
20:41Because the date today is what?
20:4328th?
20:45I would say between the 12th and the 15th was the last time I saw him.
20:50We had dinner.
20:53Where did you see him?
20:55I seen him at his apartment, I think.
20:57She knew exactly how to project herself while she answered questions.
21:02Kelly, assuming that you may have been the last person to see him,
21:09tell us what you did that night.
21:11Tell us what went on.
21:13We ate.
21:15That was pretty much it.
21:17And it was working.
21:19The Michigan State Police seemed satisfied with all of her answers.
21:23So, I asked you basically three questions there.
21:27Whether or not you were involved in what happened to Chris.
21:30Whether you know what happened to him.
21:33And...
21:35Did I play a part in it?
21:37That was your last one?
21:39No.
21:44Why would I?
21:46Something told me, with the way she was coming across to me anyway,
21:52that she knew how to be controlled.
21:55She knew exactly how to answer, how to project herself
21:59while she answered questions where Jason did not.
22:06Is it warm in here or is it just me?
22:08I feel good.
22:10But at that point I thought,
22:12these people are definitely involved in the disappearance of Chris Reagan.
22:15I just felt that very strongly.
22:17I remember asking the one detective,
22:19so, you know, what did you think?
22:21And the detective said,
22:23I don't think they're involved.
22:25I don't think they're capable.
22:27And I just don't think that they had anything to do with it.
22:30And I was really taken aback.
22:32The Michigan State Police detectives told me
22:35that they had started focusing on Terry O'Donnell
22:38and ruled out the Cochran's as suspects.
22:40Things were very frustrating with the investigation.
22:44I was questioned as a suspect a couple of times
22:47and during that time, I had actually moved out of my house.
22:54Detectives came knocking on my door.
22:56They were wondering why I changed my address,
22:59why I moved,
23:01and they were asking me,
23:03why did I change my address?
23:06They were wondering why I changed my address,
23:09why I moved.
23:11They sat for over an hour at my house.
23:17Chief Rizzo told me that I was never a suspect in her eyes,
23:21but I was in the other detectives' eyes.
23:24They were looking at Kelly and Jason
23:27because they were thinking that I was a jilted lover,
23:31that I wanted to take revenge on Christopher,
23:34and that I did something to him.
23:41Christopher and I first started dating in 2013.
23:45We had a lot of fun together.
23:47He was kind and caring and fun and laughed a lot.
23:52He had two grown sons and I had a son and daughter.
23:56He was a 20-year veteran of the United States Air Force.
24:00He was very proud of that.
24:02He was happy and Christopher loved life.
24:06But after just a little over a year,
24:09I broke things off with Chris,
24:11but I still loved him and I cared about him.
24:14And I guess that's why we still stayed in each other's lives
24:18and remained friends,
24:20even though we weren't a couple any longer.
24:25At this point in the investigation,
24:27I was getting frustrated with the Michigan State Police.
24:31It would have been really easy for me to just say,
24:34okay, you know, let it go and let them do their job.
24:38But I just, I couldn't.
24:41This was still my case.
24:44It happened in my jurisdiction, in my town.
24:48I think with Kelly, there were questions I had
24:51that should have been followed up on that weren't.
24:54And so I was kind of determined to do that myself.
24:58It was November 10th of 2014.
25:01It was the biggest snowstorm we had that whole winter.
25:05Kelly came to the door.
25:07I introduced myself.
25:09Hi, Kelly.
25:10Hi.
25:11Hi.
25:12I'm Chief Laura Frizzo with the Agriculture Department.
25:15I'm Chief Laura Frizzo with the Agricultural Police.
25:18Nice to meet you.
25:19Nice to meet you.
25:20Is it possible to put the dog away
25:22so I can come in and talk with you for a minute?
25:24Yeah.
25:25Your husband's here too?
25:27Yeah.
25:28So you want to just have him come in here as well?
25:30Yeah.
25:31Jay?
25:34Hi, Jason.
25:37I wanted really to bring Jason down first
25:40because I actually knew already
25:43that he was going to be the more vulnerable one.
25:46I would like to talk to you separately if possible.
25:50So I know you only have one vehicle, right?
25:53Right.
25:54I wanted to have him come in
25:56without giving Kelly the opportunity to coach him
25:59or tell him what to say or not to say.
26:02So it was right on the spot, and I just said...
26:05So I guess I'm wondering if one of you
26:07would be willing to come with me now.
26:09The other one would come down in about a half hour.
26:12Sure, absolutely.
26:15I didn't want him to go in the same direction
26:17he did with the state police, where it was like,
26:19pity party, I'm going to be emotional,
26:22you know, so I can mask my anxiety.
26:27So again, Jason, I'm Laura Brizzo,
26:29and I'm the chief here
26:31and handling a large amount of our investigations.
26:36So I just jumped right in to some of these questions
26:39I had from his initial interview.
26:41So what I was doing was just trying to disprove
26:43what he initially said,
26:45right around the time of Chris' disappearance.
26:58I wanted to know how he found himself
27:01in front of Chris Reagan's apartment,
27:03you know, where he was able to see Kelly's truck
27:05parked at these apartments,
27:07as he had described in his first interview.
27:11You walked there, you walked back to your house
27:13after seeing the truck and Chris' vehicle,
27:15you assumed it was Chris' vehicle.
27:18What did you say to Kelly when she got home?
27:23I didn't even know if I talked to her when she got home.
27:26Like I said, at that particular point,
27:29all I was going to say, I didn't want to talk about it.
27:32My goal was to establish that he
27:34already knew where Chris Reagan lived.
27:36It's not like he by chance walked upon
27:38a place where he saw, you know,
27:41Kelly's truck parked and thought,
27:43that must be it.
27:58I could tell that he got more and more nervous,
28:01his face got more and more red.
28:03He didn't really have an answer.
28:11I watched Jason Cochran fall to pieces
28:13right in front of me.
28:15It's like he had things he wanted to say,
28:17but he was scared.
28:27Because I asked targeted questions
28:29and he didn't really know how to answer those.
28:32I think he walked out of there thinking,
28:34we might have a problem.
28:36Then Kelly came in for her interview.
28:39She told the detectives that the last time
28:41she saw Chris Reagan,
28:43she brought lasagna that she had prepared.
28:46But when we went into Chris Reagan's apartment,
28:49there was a huge box in front of the stove.
28:52I'm not sure how someone would have been
28:54cooking on the stove or doing anything
28:56in the kitchen for that matter.
28:58I wanted to know, was she actually in there?
29:00Does she know what the apartment looked like?
29:02Because we knew that Chris was boxing
29:04things up to move for his new job.
29:06And there were boxes everywhere.
29:09I wanted to know, was she actually in there?
29:11Does she know what the apartment looked like?
29:13Because we knew that Chris was boxing
29:15things up to move for his new job.
29:17And there were boxes everywhere.
29:31I just started targeting questions like the lasagna.
29:33You know, you told the detectives
29:35that you went and had dinner at Chris's apartment.
29:37And I said, you did cook, you cooked the lasagna.
29:39And I said, you did cook, you cooked the lasagna.
29:41I'm thinking again, you didn't use the oven.
29:43And she said,
29:45well, I brought it there.
29:47I cooked it at home and I brought it on a plate.
29:59Probably clicked in her head.
30:01She knows I didn't use the stove.
30:03You know, I couldn't use it.
30:05No.
30:09I just got the direct feeling like
30:11you're just making shit up as you go.
30:13I thought that it was important with Kelly
30:15because of how controlled she was
30:17to not give her a minute to think.
30:35Anyone who's telling the truth
30:37isn't going to have a problem answering all of these questions.
30:39But when you're throwing questions
30:41about a statement that was a lie,
30:43it's going to be really hard to quickly answer
30:45those questions with any answers
30:47that really make sense or fit.
31:05What?
31:15In the beginning,
31:17she thought she was going to manipulate me
31:19just like she had before to the other detectives.
31:21And then I think as these questions
31:23kept coming from me that she was struggling with,
31:25you could see in her demeanor.
31:27You know, her body dropped.
31:29She wasn't happy anymore.
31:35You guys didn't fool around at night?
31:37No.
31:39Do you remember the last time once that you did?
31:41Probably the time right before it.
31:43And when was that?
31:45It was there.
31:47I was convinced then that
31:49that didn't actually happen at his house.
31:51You know, the last time she saw him
31:53was not at his apartment.
31:55That was likely a lie.
31:59After that discussion,
32:01Kelly apparently went to one of the state police detectives
32:03and told them that I'm harassing her.
32:05She wanted everything to look like
32:07she was a victim.
32:09The detective came into my office and said,
32:11you need to back off of her.
32:13And I was like, what did I do?
32:15At that point,
32:17I just decided you can help me
32:19or you don't have to help me,
32:21but this is what I'm doing.
32:23And I just went forward.
32:25I felt like from that point on,
32:27I was just kind of on my own.
32:29But every time
32:32I'd get to a dead end,
32:34in this case,
32:36or feel like I don't know where to turn from here,
32:38someone else, like an angel,
32:40would appear out of nowhere
32:42and just kind of guide me to the next step.
32:44And at around this point
32:46is when Mike Niger came to my office
32:48and introduced himself to me.
32:54My name is Michael Niger.
32:56I work on long-term missing person cases
32:58and cold case homicides in the wilderness.
33:00What enables me to do that,
33:02unlike a lot of others,
33:04is that I've been a wilderness guide for 40 years.
33:06So that allows me to work
33:08in very remote areas,
33:10live out of a rucksack,
33:12you know, for 10 days at a time
33:14and conduct an investigation.
33:16I spent 26 years
33:18in the Michigan State Police
33:20working in a crime lab
33:22doing a lot of computer forensics work.
33:24And then I retired as a detective sergeant.
33:26Now I monitor missing person cases
33:28in the Midwest and up in Canada
33:30and I work for the victims' loved ones
33:32for free. There's no money changing hands.
33:34Chris Ragan case
33:36was on my radar, so to speak,
33:38and after it was unresolved for a few weeks
33:40I reached out to Chief Frizzo.
33:42He came to my office
33:44and he said he would like to help out
33:46with the case.
33:48My first impression was there was dirt on her uniform.
33:50And to me, that's a positive
33:52because that's a working chief.
33:54He was my partner for the next year and a half.
33:58I knew I would need help and he's just
34:00the master of tracking
34:02and locating missing persons.
34:04He genuinely cares about
34:06missing people and their families.
34:08He offers up his own resources to help people
34:10just because they need help.
34:12He was doing all of this
34:14at no cost.
34:16Literally, he became
34:18my right-hand man
34:20and the first thing he did is
34:22prepare some missing person posters
34:24to put up all over, which he did,
34:27which was great.
34:29He actually even put up
34:31the reward money himself.
34:33Then I went and spent quite a bit of time
34:35looking for more evidence,
34:37for example, I offered to search
34:39around where his vehicle was found
34:41to see if perhaps something had happened to him
34:43in that area.
34:45I was out processing the vehicle
34:47seeing if we could leverage anything more there
34:49and she had told me that she had
34:51a meeting with the state police,
34:53basically a task force meeting.
34:55There were six, seven detectives there
34:57and a supervisory lieutenant,
34:59so I agreed.
35:01There's a big conference table,
35:03the chief sitting on one side,
35:05Chief Frizzo, and all the detectives
35:07lined up on the other side.
35:09It didn't take very long for me to see
35:11that it was a confrontational situation.
35:13Whether it was because
35:15she's a female police chief
35:17or just because she's a small-town police chief
35:19and they're the best of the best, supposedly,
35:21but they were challenging her,
35:23and they were not involved in this case
35:25because they had talked to them
35:27and there's no way they're involved.
35:29And it really pissed me off
35:31how Chief Frizzo was being treated.
35:33Eventually, it became so frustrating
35:35working with interagency rivalry
35:37and whatnot that I said,
35:39you know, go ahead and just turn the case over
35:41to the state police.
35:43And then she did that and I checked with her
35:45like a month and a half or two months later
35:47and I said, how's the case going?
35:49And she said, well, I haven't heard anything.
35:51And I said, well, I'm going to turn the case back.
35:53And so she took it back.
36:07Of course, by now,
36:09this case has gotten a lot of publicity.
36:11People are aware of it.
36:13Everyone wants to help out.
36:15At around this point,
36:17this man walked into my office and introduced himself.
36:19He said, I'm Jim McNeil.
36:21I'm a private investigator.
36:23He explained to me there's things we can do,
36:25things I couldn't.
36:27And he felt like we can pop a GPS on their vehicle.
36:29I had no idea
36:31what private investigators could do
36:33or couldn't do differently,
36:35you know, aside from law enforcement.
36:37So the following morning,
36:39before it got light out,
36:41these private investigators went
36:43to the Cochran residence
36:45and placed a GPS on their truck.
36:47It turned out to be
36:49very important for this case.
36:53At this point,
36:55the state police really think I'm just
36:57completely on the wrong track,
36:59and I just started doing my own thing.
37:01I knew that we should proceed
37:03with search warrants at the Cochran's house
37:05immediately.
37:07So I put all my probable cause together.
37:09I took that over to the prosecutor then,
37:11and I said, I really want to do a search warrant.
37:13And she looked at it,
37:15looked at me, and she said,
37:17well, why haven't you done this yet?
37:19And I said, because I was told
37:21I didn't have enough to do it.
37:23So she authorized it right there.
37:25The judge
37:27granted the warrant.
37:29It was March 5th of 2015,
37:31around 8 a.m.,
37:33and myself and other law enforcement people
37:35went up to Cochran's to serve the search warrant
37:37on their residence.
37:39And she said,
37:41okay.
37:43I'm sure she was wondering, how did you do that?
38:05I told her, while we do the search warrant,
38:07you're not allowed to be in the house.
38:13I said, you can either sit in our patrol car,
38:15you can go to a neighbor's,
38:17whatever you want to do.
38:23They chose to sit in our patrol car
38:25for a little while.
38:27We had a camera running
38:29in the patrol car at that time.
38:31One of the things we picked up
38:33when they were sitting in the car
38:35was Kelly saying,
38:37how did they get enough for a search warrant?
38:57This was a textbook blood spatter
38:59pattern on the ceiling.
39:01One that could indicate either a gunshot wound
39:03or blunt force trauma.
39:05But ultimately, the spatter came back as
39:07inconclusive.
39:09The ceiling had been cleaned to the point that there was no DNA.
39:11In fact, the whole house was cleaned
39:13so well, we weren't able to establish
39:15a DNA profile.
39:17Something that we found
39:19during the search warrant
39:21at the Cochran residence was almost like a book.
39:23Jason Cochran was
39:25keeping a book that he was writing
39:27that he had titled,
39:29Why Monsters Hide?
39:31And then he wrote, Where Monsters Hide?
39:33It had
39:35several chapters that were
39:37titled DUI,
39:39Child Molester,
39:41Rapist.
39:43They all kind of pertained to different people,
39:45different characters.
39:47And in that final chapter,
39:49it detailed perfectly
39:51where maybe Chris Reagan
39:53showed up at the house.
39:55Monsters know the smell of other monsters
39:57the same way the hunted
39:59know the smell of their hunter.
40:03He described smelling fear
40:05and
40:07how this tingle
40:09can come over him and a sign
40:11over the door saying, if you weren't invited,
40:13you're not welcome.
40:15And that was really eerie.
40:17Reading that months later,
40:19it's almost like he was writing
40:21a story before it even happened
40:23where he's maybe talking about
40:25his own life.
40:29So
40:31that needs to be evaluated further.
40:35When we left
40:37and cleared the scene
40:39at 10 o'clock that night, shortly thereafter
40:41I got a phone call from one of the
40:43neighbors saying,
40:45just want to let you know that as soon as
40:47you guys left here, the Cochrans
40:49packed up their vehicle and they were gone.
40:53So once the neighbor
40:55told me that they bailed, I contacted
40:57Jim McNeil and I just let him know, hey,
40:59just an FYI, they
41:01took off.
41:03He had put a GPS
41:05on their truck and he says
41:07looking at the GPS, you could see
41:09that they were at Kelly's parents
41:11in Hobart, Indiana.
41:13Right then I thought,
41:15if that's not guilt, I don't know
41:17what is.
41:23The first time I heard
41:25the name Kelly Cochran, I was
41:27working for the Hobart PD in
41:29Indiana. I just had surgery on
41:31my leg and a skin graft and I was
41:33at home with my leg up in
41:35the recliner basically just trying
41:37to heal up. My partner
41:39Steve Houck, he said, listen, there's
41:41this chief of police from the upper peninsula of
41:43Michigan and she wants to interview
41:45Kelly and Jason Cochran.
41:47A husband and wife
41:49duo that she believes are involved
41:51with the missing persons case.
41:53She truly believes the person was murdered.
41:55They're on the run now.
41:57Fled to Hobart, Indiana
41:59and the Hobart Police Department
42:01agreed to cooperate fully
42:03and Steve left that day and
42:05I didn't think anymore about it. I just
42:07went on my way in recovery and
42:09ultimately went back to work.
42:16After we did the search
42:18warrant and Kelly and Jason took off
42:20to Indiana, Michael and
42:22I kept pushing forward
42:24just to be sure we didn't miss anything.
42:26His experience in the Michigan
42:28State Police Forensic Crime Lab
42:30over the past 20 plus years was
42:32invaluable.
42:34A lot of times on these types
42:36of cases, we have to process
42:38a car once, go back, do it again,
42:40maybe do it a third time.
42:42So we found some leaves and
42:44stuff in the trunk that we were looking for
42:46to see if we could determine where the vehicle
42:48had been, possibly to deposit the body.
42:50We processed the
42:52vehicle for fingerprints,
42:54went through all the compartments to see
42:56what was in there and we found a hat.
42:58It had visible hair on it, we collected
43:00that for DNA.
43:02So, at around
43:04this point, I was then in communication
43:06with David Saylor and
43:08Todd Saylor, family that lived across
43:10the street and had become good
43:12friends with the Cochrans. Jason had
43:14weed and they'd get high together
43:16and that family
43:18did not care for me much.
43:20I had to find a way
43:22to become
43:24friends with them because I wanted to talk
43:26to them.
43:28One day I just decided I'm going to
43:30drive around back when they're all standing out there
43:32and get out and try and strike
43:34up conversation and
43:36be charming.
43:38So I
43:40did
43:42and I never expected it to turn into what
43:44it did.
43:46They were telling
43:48the story from their memory of
43:50this incident that occurred in
43:52October.
43:54October
43:5614th, yeah, I woke
43:58up, I came downstairs
44:00and my mom said, did you hear them gunshots?
44:02And I said, yeah,
44:04kind of. I said, it sounded like a .22
44:06going off.
44:08And she said, yeah.
44:10I talked to
44:12Todd and his brother, David Saylor.
44:14David said, we knew that Kelly was
44:16having an affair and we knew that this was
44:18the guy she was seeing. Then David
44:20said a couple weeks later, we saw the
44:22article about the missing man
44:24and then they said, you know, one night
44:26we could hear this like
44:28song going on over there all night long,
44:30you know, and just two, three
44:32in the morning.
44:35And it was like a few days
44:37later, Kelly and Jason
44:39said they were going to
44:41have shish kebabs
44:43and they made
44:45some and they bought some
44:47beers and stuff and we all went
44:49over there and I never
44:51ate anything. I just went over there to
44:53drink a couple beers.
44:55Days later, Kelly
44:57and Jason were actually by the fire pit
44:59at my house
45:01and one of my friends said, well,
45:04I hope you don't do nothing like that
45:06to none of us if you did that.
45:08And then
45:10one of them Cochran's,
45:12I don't know if it was Kelly or Jason,
45:14said, what, you think them were
45:16crisp kebabs?
45:23Kelly, she didn't really
45:25stay long, Jason stayed.
45:27She said, well, I'll let
45:29you know if I want you to
45:31come home and stuff like that.
45:33And it was like maybe a half
45:35an hour later, she called
45:37him. It was like
45:39as soon as that phone rang, he jumped
45:41up, stood right
45:43up and just left.
45:45And we
45:47actually all looked at each other,
45:49where did he go?
45:51He just left, wouldn't say a word.
45:53I'm just
45:55listening to this whole story
45:57and that was the first time that I ever
45:59heard anything about a gunshot,
46:01possibly dismembering,
46:03sawing in the basement,
46:05or what could have happened to Chris Regan's body.
46:09I would have never even
46:11thought that could have happened in our town.
46:17By July of 2015,
46:19it had been four months since Kelly
46:21and Jason fled to Indiana. And in that
46:23time, we continued searching
46:25their home, Chris's car,
46:27and every place else that
46:29might contain DNA evidence.
46:31I really want to go get
46:33their DNA for things like
46:35a knit hat that was found in Chris Regan's
46:37car. So I put together
46:39a search warrant for DNA for the Cochran's,
46:41but knowing I'd have to serve that
46:43in Indiana, I needed someone
46:45to help me collect that.
46:49So Jason's brought into the
46:51police department in Holbert,
46:53Indiana, to get his DNA collected.
46:57I'll never forget when I walked in the room.
47:01He looked up, and his face just instantly
47:03turned three shades of red.
47:05He was gulping.
47:09I'm sure that he was thinking,
47:11this bitch is following me everywhere.
47:13I can't get away from her.
47:15We got him taken care of,
47:17and they went and picked up Kelly.
47:19I walked into her,
47:21and it was a completely different scenario than it was with Jason.
47:23She was pissed.
47:25Just pissed off.
47:29She just basically said,
47:31I'm going to give you my DNA, and I'm leaving.
47:33And that was it.
47:41Unfortunately, nothing came back
47:43that was going to help our case.
47:45But I knew they did it.
47:47I was just trying to figure out,
47:49how am I going to prove this?
47:55Ultimately, I come back to work
47:57five and a half months later
47:59after making a full recovery,
48:01and I went in my office,
48:03started working on some other cases.
48:09I answered the phone,
48:11and it was the FBI.
48:13And I find out that Jason Cochran
48:15had turned up dead.
48:19And right about then,
48:21everything started to click.
48:23Kelly Cochran covered her tracks
48:25by killing her husband.
48:53For more stories, visit nyseagrant.org