True Crime Vault: Where Monsters Hide

[0:01] Step into the 2020 True Crime Vault. [0:04] Listen to our most gripping stories. [0:14] From the outside, it honestly looks like a dark Hansel and Gretel kind of house. [0:20] Your dog. [0:23] Okay, what do you mean? [0:25] We're not friendly. [0:26] As soon as you walk into the house, the hair stands up on the back of your neck. [0:31] It's pretty creepy. [0:32] It really was. [0:34] To this remote part of Michigan's Upper Peninsula, it seems haunting. [0:39] But maybe that's because this is where the mystery unfolds. [0:46] There's more media attention to our missing person, Chris Reagan. [0:51] This doesn't look like Chris's apartment at all. [0:54] It's all disheveled. [0:57] He was always very neat. [0:59] Everything was always put away. [1:00] It was pretty crazy. [1:01] It was always heart-wracking. [1:06] And no signs of forced entry or chaos? [1:09] Absolutely not. [1:10] Something happened to him. [1:11] I knew that in my heart, and I knew that in my gut. [1:15] He had another side to him. [1:16] So, immediately, this is a lover's triangle. [1:20] Hi guys, what are you actually seeing? [1:24] Same time. [1:25] My husband, Eric and Chris. [1:27] Not a love triangle, but a love quadrangle. [1:30] Tell me something, you guys. [1:33] What happened to Chris Reagan? [1:35] That's the stuff of horror movies. [1:48] The Upper Peninsula is kind of its own little world. [1:55] The Upper Peninsula is also known as the UP. [1:58] People are Youpers. [2:01] Youpers are unique people. [2:04] The Upper Peninsula is separated by the Mackinac Bridge from Lower Michigan. [2:11] It's an absolute rural, forested woodland, and kind of terrifying in its isolation. [2:27] We can get windchill readings 30 below zero in the wintertime. [2:32] It looks like the Arctic sometimes, and, you know, you can kind of feel lost. [2:48] One town in the Upper Peninsula is the small town of Iron River, which was named because [2:54] of the local mining. [2:57] Iron River, Michigan has a population of about 3,000 with one stoplight in their town. [3:04] My name is Laura Frizzo, and I'm the former police chief of Iron River, and also the first [3:14] female police chief actually to serve in the entire Upper Peninsula. [3:19] It was a lot of double takes when I first started with some of the old timers who were like, [3:23] what's going on here? [3:24] The people of Iron River are really good-hearted people, accepting, but I think when someone [3:31] new comes to the area, they're a little skeptical at first, and they take their time to make [3:37] sure that you're worthy of being included into their little circle. [3:43] One of those outsiders who came to live in Iron River was 51-year-old Chris Reagan. [3:48] We had to actually go up and buy him all new clothes, what he called his duper clothes, [3:53] because he had city clothes. [3:55] Terry O'Donnell was an old flame of Chris Reagan's, and the two had recently rekindled [4:00] their romance. [4:03] He decided that he was going to move to Iron River so that we could be closer together. [4:08] It was a whirlwind. [4:11] God, I was so in love with him. [4:15] Christopher and I used to come down our Apple Blossom Trail and then walk around the river. [4:21] We'd sit, listening to the water, just enjoy time together. [4:34] So when Chris moved to Iron River, he got a job at a manufacturing company called the [4:38] Oldenburg Group. [4:43] Chris was very meticulous about things. [4:45] He was probably one of our best team leaders that we had. [4:50] He was actually holding people accountable. [5:00] Chris was former military and had a reputation as a reliable worker. [5:04] So it came as a bit of a surprise when he didn't show up for his job. [5:08] That was October 14th. [5:09] I sent a message to Chris. [5:13] You know, we haven't heard from you. [5:15] Is everything okay? [5:16] Chris had missed two days, and one of my team leaders came forward and told me, [5:25] Laura, just so you know, Chris had applied for another position, and he's moving to North [5:31] Carolina. [5:33] You know, if he was doing long hours for a pretty demanding company, then maybe he just said [5:38] enough of that. [5:41] After three days, no call, no show is termination. [5:47] Remarkably, two whole weeks had gone by and no one had heard from Chris. [5:51] That's when Terry decides to go to the police. [5:56] By this time, the two had broken up, but they remained close friends and talked regularly. [6:03] I saw this vehicle pull up and park in front of the police department. [6:08] I saw this woman get out of the vehicle, and she was crying. [6:13] And she said that her friend was missing. [6:16] I was shaking. [6:17] I had tears. [6:18] What was that interaction like when you first encountered Terry O'Donnell? [6:26] She was very upset. [6:27] You know, clearly she knew something wasn't right because she knew him very well. [6:33] Chief Frizzo sends Sergeant Cindy Barrett to investigate. [6:37] First stop, Chris Reagan's apartment. [6:40] Terry O'Donnell's parents are landlords to Chris Reagan. [6:46] So Terry had access via key from her parents. [6:51] This doesn't look like Chris's apartment at all. [6:58] It's all disheveled. [7:00] He was always very neat. [7:02] Everything was always put away. [7:04] It was evident that he was in the process of packing up to move to his new job. [7:13] There's packing boxes, and on the bed there were suitcases. [7:19] Packing. [7:23] And there was papers there for his new job. [7:26] This is his paperwork to accept the position. [7:28] It's not even sent yet. [7:30] The calendar shows that he was going to resign on the 14th. [7:34] He has the 23rd and the last day of work. [7:36] So not a guy who's running away? [7:39] Absolutely not. [7:40] And no signs of forced entry or chaos? [7:43] Not at all. [7:44] In fact, he had a list started, you know, things that he wanted to get ready for his move. [7:49] It said he has everything that he needs to do to move. [7:53] All of his notes. [7:54] And on the dining room table were legal pads with to-do lists like call the power company [8:00] and shut the power up. [8:01] It really started to bother me that something was very, very wrong. [8:07] Now was this window left open? [8:09] The windows were left open. [8:11] It appeared that he had left the apartment with full intentions of returning. [8:18] Something happened to him. [8:21] I knew that in my heart and I knew that in my gut. [8:26] And I said, we're going to go out and we're going to check the car. [8:30] And when we're done with that, I will enter Chris Reagan as a missing person in the national database. [8:41] From there, they went to the park and ride where Terry had seen Chris's car abandoned for days. [8:47] Hello, Dad. [8:53] Christopher's Hyundai Genesis, his vehicle, was there. [8:58] And that was his baby. [9:00] He took such good care of it. [9:02] And so it didn't make sense to me that it was at the park and ride. [9:05] When Sergeant Barrett went to take a look at the car, she found, you know, a couple of things in the car, [9:12] like his knee brace that he should have been wearing. [9:15] That is a knee brace? [9:16] Yep. [9:18] Do you normally wear the knee brace? [9:19] Okay. [9:22] And I understand in the car there was an intriguing post-it note. [9:26] Yeah. [9:26] She found like a post-it note that was flipped upside down on the passenger side. [9:32] We didn't know at first what was written on it and what it would come to mean later. [9:37] Christopher always wrote things down on post-its and the post-it note had directions on it. [9:42] And I told her that wherever those directions went to, that was the last place he was. [9:46] This is believed to be the last known video of Chris Reagan. [10:02] He's caught on a surveillance camera at a gas station on the afternoon of October 14th, 2014. [10:10] Leading up the investigation into Reagan's disappearance is a new, inexperienced chief of police, Laura Frizzo. [10:18] She is a leader in a profession in the Upper Peninsula where there aren't a lot of female leaders. [10:26] How many people on the force? [10:27] Four full-time. [10:28] She truly cared and she truly wanted to solve this. [10:33] As Chief Frizzo investigates Chris Reagan's disappearance, she discovers that he had dated multiple women in his short time in Iron River. [10:41] And some of those relationships overlapped. [10:44] I dated Chris Reagan back in 2013 from around May till the end of October for about six months. [10:52] He would always send me a text weekly. [10:55] He was very suave, very sweet, charismatic, just kind of knew how to make you feel good. [11:02] As far as Terry O'Donnell knew, she thought that she was in an exclusive relationship with Chris and this behavior came as a real shock to her. [11:11] I asked him why, you know, he was doing that and he said, well, you're going to be gone to Europe for three weeks. [11:18] What happens if I get lonely? [11:20] So, sadly to say, I broke it off with him. [11:24] When Chief Frizzo digs deeper into Chris's life, she discovers another woman he'd been dating, a 33-year-old co-worker by the name of Kelly Cochran. [11:36] Either one of us were all in. It was never going to be because I was married. [11:43] She was an employee at Oldenburg. Chris was actually involved in her hiring. [11:48] Kelly was also new to town and I think they bonded over that, being two city folk in this small town. [11:55] I would go over to Chris's and usually cook and then, I mean, we were intimate and then usually I would leave. [12:02] A post-it note found inside Chris's car at this park and ride could have led to any one of his girlfriend's homes. [12:13] Turns out, it was Kelly Cochran's. [12:18] Chief Frizzo had told me to go and interview Kelly Cochran to see if she had any information as to the whereabouts of Chris Reagan and a man came out. [12:32] So I said, are you Kelly Cochran's husband? And he said, yes. [12:37] I said, is Kelly home? And he says, no, Kelly's not home. I don't know where she is. [12:41] And shortly thereafter, this woman comes out. I asked her if she was Kelly. [12:49] She said, yes, I'm Kelly. [12:53] It's not unusual for a husband or a wife to say, no, he's not here. That is very common. [12:59] I was actually surprised she came out. [13:01] So I says, is your husband aware of your relationship with Chris Reagan? [13:06] She says, oh, yes, he's fine with it. [13:08] Jason Cochran is standing there just stoically not saying a word, just like a statue. No emotion. [13:20] She says, I figured Chris left for North Carolina without saying goodbye to me. [13:25] So I told her, I said, we were wondering why the car was at the park and ride. [13:30] And Kelly Cochran said, in the past tense, he loved that car. [13:37] And Sergeant Barrett called me afterwards and said, I found that to be very chilling and odd that she said, past tense, he loved that car. [13:45] Because of her tiny department's limited resources, Chief Frizzo asks for help from the Michigan State Police. [13:52] They sent two detectives who questioned the Cochrans the very next day. [13:56] And I'll tell you guys in advance, I see a therapist for high anxiety. [14:00] I'm listening to Jason Cochran's interview with the detective. [14:04] He immediately, I mean, there's no questions asked even yet. [14:08] And he's like, I just want to let you know that I haven't been doing too well lately. [14:11] I actually was institutionalized a little over a month ago. [14:15] So, you know, I seem like I'm getting bombed up. [14:19] I do see a therapist for it. [14:22] Lost a close friend, a depressed person. [14:24] Did you think that's what caused all your issues? [14:28] A huge part of it. [14:29] And don't get me wrong, knowing that my marriage has fallen apart. [14:34] So you were very much aware of what Kelly was doing? [14:37] I either had to accept it or to let her go. [14:41] So I decided that I could at least accept it for a little while and see if it's, you know, [14:48] what she really wanted was to not be with me, then I was going to let her go. [14:53] Kelly, right? [14:54] Yes. [14:54] K-E-L-L wife. [14:56] When Kelly came in for her interview, the one thing I noticed about her right out of the gate [15:00] was her ability to control her body language. [15:03] Tell us everything you know about Chris. [15:07] We actually got pretty close in the last four months, like a best friend. [15:14] Did you have an intimate relationship? [15:15] Yes, we did. [15:17] And obviously your husband knows? [15:19] He knows. [15:20] He knows. [15:20] He knows. [15:20] She was leaning forward. [15:22] She had eye contact. [15:25] And her voice was calm and collected the whole time. [15:29] When was the last time you saw Chris? [15:31] I would say between the 12th and the 15th was the last time I saw him. [15:35] Where did you see him? [15:36] Um, I've seen him at his apartment, I think. [15:39] Was, um, Jason upset about that? [15:42] No. [15:43] Kelly, she would be looking at Jason. [15:45] I don't see why you would. [15:48] Well, I'll tell you why. [15:50] Because husbands get jealous. [15:54] I understand that. [15:55] I've heard Chris. [16:00] Anybody would hurt him. [16:01] I would like to know what happened as well. [16:04] That's why I'm willing to be here. [16:07] I'm a good person. [16:08] Despite the love triangle between the Cochran's and Chris Reagan, there's still no evidence of any crime being committed. [16:16] But Chief Frizzo still suspects that Reagan's disappearance might be the result of foul play. [16:21] Frizzo and her small team continued pressing on. [16:25] And they quickly learn that Kelly also had multiple relationships, including a gentleman who also worked at the Oldenburg Group. [16:33] Kelly was dating another employee there by the name of Eric Erickson. [16:38] Eric's supervisor was Chris Reagan. [16:42] So now police are wondering, could Eric have been upset enough to have harmed Chris? [16:47] How would you feel about taking a polygraph test just to prove that you didn't have anything to do with Chris's disappearance? [17:02] As Chief Laura Frizzo is investigating the disappearance of Chris Reagan, she discovers evidence of not a love triangle, but a love quadrangle. [17:12] Even though Kelly Cochran is married to Jason, she is having an affair with Chris and another co-worker, Eric Erickson. [17:21] Eric Erickson was hired as military assembler. [17:25] Eric was a good employee. [17:26] He showed up. [17:27] He was dependable. [17:30] Eric was a suspect. [17:32] Could he have done something to Chris because he was angry and jealous and outraged? [17:37] So it was important to eliminate him. [17:40] There was a point with the participation of the Michigan State Police Detectives where I think they wanted to take more of a lead in the case and handle it. [17:50] There was no warning. [17:51] It was just basically like, hey, Laura said they want to talk to you. [17:54] And the next thing I know, they're coming at night, pulling up into my driveway, telling me to get in the car. [18:00] Thanks for coming. [18:01] Did you have to just cut them off work? [18:02] Yeah. [18:03] Yeah. [18:04] She wanted me to go over there a couple times, like at night. [18:10] I think for me, it was kind of fun. [18:14] You know, at first, whatever. [18:15] I had moved back here and I didn't know anybody. [18:18] And having somebody gave me some attention, too. [18:25] I still have. [18:28] I said, yeah, here, take a look at my phone. [18:30] This is our conversations that we've had. [18:32] When I looked at his conversations with Kelly, there was a point in time where he got very irritated with her. [18:42] And it was the week before Chris went missing. [18:45] There was a time where we went down to the lake and we were going to have just a couple beers. [18:55] Well, her phone was going off, right? [18:57] And I'm like, you know, somebody's really trying to get a hold of you. [19:02] Who is it? [19:03] And she said that it's Chris, you know. [19:08] So maybe he was the jealous lover. [19:10] Yes. [19:10] And I did think that it could happen. [19:12] The next step for Erickson, a polygraph or a so-called lie detector test. [19:18] How would you feel about taking a polygraph test to prove that you didn't have anything to do with Chris's parents? [19:23] Yep, I told him I would do that, too. [19:25] I scheduled a polygraph for him. [19:28] We went over everything. [19:30] Yeah, I totally, I totally understand that. [19:33] All of a sudden, the door goes click and walks in, you know, the officer. [19:37] And he goes, you passed. [19:39] And I was like, I did? [19:42] So. [19:42] And because of the alibi that he had to check out, I was able to put him to the side and focus more on the Cochran's as the suspects. [19:53] So as you're doing your sort of criminal profiles, what made Jason a potential suspect in your mind? [20:01] Jason really had motive. [20:04] You know, he was the husband who was being cheated on. [20:07] Our marriage has kind of been on rocky roads for a little while. [20:10] The story that I had gotten from Kelly was that they were separated, however, still living under the same roof. [20:20] What I came to learn about this marriage was that it had been in trouble for a while. [20:24] Kelly, you know, was living a life of a single person. [20:28] She was constantly running around with different men. [20:30] There were times when she came home about 1.30, didn't even tell me where she was at, and I didn't really want to know. [20:38] I hate to say it. [20:39] Do you kind of understand why you're here? [20:45] Yeah, I think so. [20:48] You know what I mean? [20:49] There's somebody that's missing. [20:51] I'm going to guess that I'm probably the jealous husband. [20:53] As police start going through Jason's text messages, they seem to reveal how Jason really feels about being cheated on. [21:01] He doesn't seem happy at all, texting her, I cannot take it, and you promised me you would stop. [21:06] Was that a lie also? [21:09] It wasn't long before Chris went missing. [21:12] Jason found himself down by Chris's apartment and telling her, don't go to those apartments again. [21:17] You're a married woman. [21:18] The guy in the cast says I was not the only guy trying to date you. [21:24] Please don't go back to those apartments. [21:25] You are married. [21:27] Your husband in front of you about the time when he said he was on a walk and he saw your truck parked by Chris's apartment. [21:37] He didn't mention that you. [21:38] What did he say? [21:40] Did you see my truck there? [21:42] Which sounds almost like stalking behavior. [21:44] Right. [21:45] So I'm thinking, okay, he's now put himself in a position where he's made contact with Chris Regan. [21:52] I thought, you know, maybe he snapped. [21:54] Things had boiled over, and Jason needed to go and get some help. [21:59] Jason's admission to the mental hospital was two days after Mr. Regan went missing. [22:07] Chief Frizzo now has some serious suspicion that Jason Cochran's got something to do with Chris Regan's disappearance. [22:14] It started to get close to the holidays. Thanksgiving was approaching. [22:21] And then out of the blue, Chief Frizzo gets a phone call that takes her by complete surprise. [22:27] And when I pick up the phone, the voice on the other end said, hi, this is Chris Regan. [22:31] And I almost dropped the phone and said, oh, yeah, where have you been? [22:36] Winter is coming to the Upper Peninsula, and Chris Regan is still missing. [22:52] The investigation into his disappearance looks like it's growing cold, too. [22:57] But Iron River Police Chief Laura Frizzo remains convinced that Regan was the victim of foul play. [23:03] You thought maybe he's been murdered. [23:06] Yeah, I just thought something's wrong. [23:10] It seemed like everything was a dead end. [23:13] I would stop in and check with Laura and just ask her how things are going. [23:18] And then she'd say, I was thinking about you. [23:20] Laura was very dedicated to the case. [23:23] She knew that Chris had sons who wanted closure, and she wanted to be able to get that closure for them. [23:30] I was in the office, and I got a phone call. [23:36] And when I picked up the phone, the voice on the other end said, hi, this is Chris Regan. [23:41] And I almost dropped the phone and said, well, where have you been? [23:45] And he said, Junior, this is his son. [23:49] And it was really sad for me to hear his voice. [23:54] It was even harder for me meeting him in person. [23:58] Chris Jr. is on his way to Iron River with his brother to clean out their father's apartment. [24:04] The first time I went to Iron River to clean out his apartment and stuff like that was not fun. [24:12] I didn't know what to do or, like, where to start. [24:14] It just was heartbreaking. [24:15] They were young. [24:17] They were lost. [24:18] They didn't know what to do, where to go. [24:20] She knew that Chris was a veteran and that his military service was something he was really proud of. [24:26] So she wanted to make sure that his son got his dog tags, which they recovered from his apartment. [24:31] I went to hand him to him, and he told me, I think you should just keep them with you. [24:35] I carried those dog tags in my pocket every day. [24:40] This is a complicated case, and the Iron River Police Department is small, just four people. [24:50] And as a result of that, people offered their help. [24:54] So you think these profile questions are pretty good? [24:57] Jim McNeil and Molly Barron worked together as private investigators. [25:02] And, you know, we got together after being introduced by a high school friend of mine who's like a mutual friend. [25:07] I feel that it's a tight community where everybody seems to know each other. [25:12] And especially if you have a missing person, that's concerning to the community. [25:19] Because of where we're from, we just don't have missing people like that. [25:24] We're not going to not do anything when somebody is missing. [25:28] It was at this point where the prosecutor was ready to sign the search warrant for the Cochran residence. [25:36] So Molly and Jim show up at my office, and I'm like, oh, well, as a matter of fact, I said, I'm going to be doing a search warrant there tomorrow. [25:45] On March 16, 2015, Chief Frizzo goes to the Cochran's house with the long-awaited search warrant, accompanied by those two private investigators. [25:56] I think Molly and I brought, you know, a lot of experience there to her to assist her with a search warrant. [26:36] I've never worked with a PI like that before. That was my first experience. [26:40] This is a little unorthodox. [26:41] It is, and I was kind of concerned about it when it first happened because I'm kind of a control freak, and I didn't want anyone messing around. [26:47] But it actually worked out to our advantage. [26:50] Hi, Jason. How are you doing? [26:52] I'm hanging in there. How are you? [26:53] Okay. [26:54] One of the first things you want to be very careful of is weapons. Do you have any weapons in the home? [27:00] I'm not on a, but I don't have weapons in the house. [27:03] Tell me we're there. [27:04] I've got a .22 under there. You should be able to reach right in and get it. [27:09] And you immediately go to these weapons and secure them. [27:12] Central 200, we're secure. [27:13] And they had all kinds of weapons that were, like, all over the place. But that's not illegal, you know? [27:22] Jason had a fetish with knives, swords, things like that, and he had a lot of them that were found and collected during the search warrant. [27:29] It was the kind of arsenal you see in a movie. [27:32] He had swords, crossbows. Everywhere you go and at home, you can put your hands on something tangible and use it as a weapon. That was a very eerie feeling. [27:47] Do you want a jacket or something? [27:49] Yeah, actually. [27:49] Typically, you don't allow the residents to stay in the house. They're going to have to leave. [27:54] You guys aren't going to turn the computer off, are you? [27:56] No. [27:57] Okay. [27:57] Is there something on there you don't want to? [27:59] No, no. [27:59] She's working on something? Okay. [28:01] It happened to be one of the coldest mornings of the winter. It was, like, zero. [28:05] As soon as you walk into the home, there's, like, a punch hole of some sort through the door, and the door frame was awry. It was cracked or something. [28:17] At that point, Laura calls the crime lab. Hey, let's get the crime lab here. And we're standing there for quite a while waiting for that crime lab. [28:26] So we're just standing there waiting, and I looked up. [28:29] And something caught my eye, and I looked at it again, and I kind of stepped to the side, and I looked at it again. [28:40] The ceiling was white, but there was these certain spots up there. [28:44] So I finally said something to Jim, and then Jim looked up and looked at it, and the media was like, ooh. [28:49] To the private investigators, those spots on the ceiling look suspiciously, like, painted over blood. [28:56] It's like a splatter pattern. [28:58] And she said, yeah, we've done remodeling, and replaced some ceiling tiles. That's probably where the cast off is. [29:05] It could have happened right here. [29:09] It's already dark by the time the crime lab unit gets there. [29:13] Tell me something, you guys. [29:15] Okay, well, I'm going to step in here. [29:19] We got a positive reaction with the luminol on the ceiling here. [29:25] They bring in luminol, which is a chemical that detects the presence of blood. [29:28] Right here, and then there was something over here in this gentle area. [29:35] They did get a positive reaction from that area above the doorway, where it looked like something happened right under the door, [29:41] and kind of spread as it went back on the ceiling. [29:45] And they said that they got a positive reaction from that. [29:48] I'm thrilled. I'm thrilled. I'm sorry. [29:53] We had finished the search warrant at approximately, like, 10 o'clock at night, so it's late. [29:57] Investigators think that they have uncovered a goldmine of evidence against the Cochranes [30:02] until something shocking happens the next day. [30:06] I got a phone call from one of the neighbors in the morning and said, [30:09] I just want to let you know that they totally loaded up their truck and skipped town. [30:12] The Cochranes have disappeared. [30:15] Tell me something, you guys. [30:27] We found a couple areas of interest. [30:29] When investigators get the warrant to search the Cochranes' home, [30:34] they find a litany of disturbing items, including battle axes, frostbows, daggers and knives, [30:43] a shotgun, a .22 caliber pistol. [30:47] But more important than that is what appears to be bloodspend. [30:51] We got a positive reaction with the luminol. [30:55] You're telling me that's blood, right? [30:56] We haven't confirmed it yet. [30:57] It was looking pretty good that they were going to get some positive results back. [31:04] At this point in the investigation, [31:06] Chief Frizzo feels like she's got a lot of evidence on the Cochranes. [31:11] Until the very next morning, she gets a call from one of the neighbors. [31:15] And that neighbor calls in the morning and said, [31:17] I just want to let you know that they totally loaded up their truck and skipped town. [31:21] So I knew this was happening. [31:23] What was your reaction? [31:24] I was worried a little bit just because I was the one that was kind of the thorn in their side. [31:29] And so I wanted to be sure they weren't going to look for me or come over and find me. [31:35] Todd and David Saylor, the neighbors who reported the Cochranes missing, are brought in for questioning. [31:42] They tell police about another very interesting detail they say they observed around the time of Chris Reagan's disappearance. [31:50] According to David, the Cochranes started renovating their house, but not during the day. [31:55] He could hear them in their basement using power tools for multiple nights. [32:02] You guys had heard them using these sanding tools and stuff, and you figured that was when? [32:08] In October. [32:12] Sanding away. [32:13] It's red. [32:14] Sanding. [32:15] It's a precipitating saw. [32:17] It was good. [32:19] And they were doing it at odd times? [32:20] Not at all. [32:22] You're on, like two, three in the morning. [32:24] You heard them all night. [32:26] One, one, one, one. [32:27] And so what went through your mind when you heard that? [32:35] The worst thing imaginable. [32:36] And I thought, you know, I can't, that can't be. [32:38] But at the same time with what they're telling me, it makes sense. [32:43] That's the stuff of horror movies. [32:44] Yeah. [32:47] Also seemingly out of a horror movie, a chilling discovery Chief Frizzo later makes inside the Cochran's basement. [32:54] A journal written by Jason. [32:57] And he had titled it, Where Monsters Hide. [33:00] Then he goes on to talking about being a hunter and how the hunter hunts the prey and feels this tingle through their body. [33:09] And it's, it's kind of eerie, almost like he was writing about this situation. [33:15] It's almost like a thinly veiled confession. [33:18] Yes. [33:19] It just, again, pointed in the direction of definitely this couple had something to do with his disappearance and definitely Jason could have snapped. [33:28] Chief Frizzo is sure that the lab results from those blood samples taken from the house will prove that Chris was brutally murdered there. [33:37] But she's in for bitter disappointment. [33:41] When they called me and said, you know, we didn't get anything. [33:48] They weren't good samples or had been treated with chemicals or whatever the case may be. [33:53] And I remember just being so upset about that. [34:00] You know, I was mentally drained a lot. [34:04] With her main suspects now gone into the wind, the case seems to have hit a dead end. [34:09] But then there's a break. [34:10] It turns out that on the night before the Cochran's left town, those private investigators had put a tracking device on the Cochran's truck, which is legal for PIs to do in the state of Michigan. [34:21] What made you put the GPS tracker on? [34:23] Well, we were hoping that they would go to where the body was. [34:27] That's one of the most dangerous moments in the whole investigation, I feel, is deploying the GPS unit because of the risk of danger. [34:38] What does that danger look like? [34:40] What does that feel like? [34:40] Like somebody coming out with a shotgun and shooting us on the spot. [34:44] Okay, ready? [34:45] Yeah. [34:47] Right next to that spare tire is the back frame of the vehicle. [34:51] And as I get closer, it just sucked it right out of my hand. [34:53] And, you know, you hear the loud bang. [34:55] It's an exciting moment. [34:58] You know, you can feel your heart beating through your chest. [35:01] There's a lot of things that could go wrong at that moment in time. [35:04] I talked to Jim McNeil, and he said, we put a GPS device on the truck, and I need to tell you that. [35:13] And I immediately did a search warrant for their GPS information so that we knew where the Cochran's were and what was going on. [35:19] We monitored the GPS movement all through exiting the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, through the state of Wisconsin, the top part of Illinois there in Indiana. [35:32] And then they ended up nearby within the Hobart area. [35:37] And sure enough, you know, we located them. [35:40] They were back at Kelly's parents' house in Hobart. [35:42] Chief Frizzo wants to get DNA samples from Kelly and Jason Cochran, but they're no longer in her jurisdiction. [35:53] So she contacts the Lake County Sheriff's Department in Indiana. [35:57] When I spoke with her, we made a connection on the phone. [36:02] She gave me all the reasons that she believed that this was a criminal case. [36:07] And, yeah, I believed her. [36:10] We told Jason that we had a search warrant for his DNA, and we needed to transport him to the Hobart Police Department. [36:17] He did not say a word the entire time. [36:20] He was just sitting in the back of the car, shaking and sweating and, like, wringing his hands together. [36:28] He's sitting in a room, waiting to give his DNA swab, and then he gets the surprise of a lifetime. [36:39] He looked up at me, and his face just started to turn red immediately. [36:54] That was a shock to his system, I'm sure. [36:57] And my whole plan was to try and give him the opportunity to be the victim and to tell me what happened to Chris. [37:04] You're baiting me. [37:05] Just write in your message to go back to the department. [37:17] I feel like answering any questions. [37:26] Since I feel like you violated my constitutional rights, I'm a lawyer. [37:31] Awesome. [37:33] Can you get your DNA? [37:34] In the meantime, actually, Kelly is just calling. [37:38] She knows something's up. [37:40] She's calling Jason's phone over and over again. [37:44] When Kelly Cochran saw Laura Frizzo, you could tell that it seemed to be her nemesis. [37:51] Hi, you know. [38:14] Claire, I'm done with the question. [38:18] Okay, I'm fine doing the DNA. [38:20] I told you before I was fine doing the DNA. [38:22] Okay, let's get this done. [38:23] So as I started to leave the room to get to the technicians to take her DNA, she said, where's my husband? [38:33] And I just kind of looked back at her because I had kind of fed her a line that, you know, Jason's already told us everything. [38:39] We already know what happened. [38:40] What Laura effectively does is create distrust between the couple. [38:50] And come February of 2016, that distrust is going to implode the Cochran household. [38:57] 911, operator 17. [39:00] A 911 call from Kelly Cochran comes in that could unravel the mystery of what happened to Chris Reagan. [39:07] Here we have one of the most sensational murders, but very few people have actually heard about this case. [39:29] Some really heinous and atrocious crimes. [39:32] So what made you call the FBI? [39:33] I found the flyer on Chris Reagan being missing. [39:38] On this call, my instincts were just yelling at me that something's not right with this scene. [39:43] What makes the Caspian Pit such an excellent place to hide evidence? [39:47] A burn barrel was actually found by the divers just offshore here. [39:52] And back in these woods, an even more important discovery. [39:55] I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to get somebody to tell you a secret that only they know. [40:03] I told you before, you can be a witness, you can be a suspect. [40:08] It's almost like the two of them were having a chess game. [40:12] Absolutely. [40:14] I think she wanted to play the game. [40:15] You were basically having to convince Kelly that her dead husband was sending a message from beyond the grave. [40:24] I'm not sure. [40:26] I'm not sure with you. [40:28] And the reason this case is so engaging, it's the amount of police video that's available. [40:34] It's amazing. [40:36] The Kelly Cochran case, just biggest case we've had maybe ever. [40:39] With her, it was like, lie, lie, lie, truth, lie, truth, lie, lie, lie, truth. [40:44] You've got to figure it out. [40:54] The end of 2014, there was a missing man in the Iron River area. [40:59] He wasn't found. [41:01] Chris Reagan is missing, and it is a mystery. [41:07] Police Chief Laura Frizzo discovers that Reagan is romantically tied to a married co-worker, Kelly Cochran. [41:13] She and her husband, Jason, are brought in for questioning. [41:16] Jason really had motive. [41:20] You know, he was the husband who was being cheated on. [41:24] But as soon as he's in front of police, he falls apart. [41:27] He's shaking. [41:29] He's fumbling over his words. [41:30] I actually was institutionalized a little over a month ago where I get, I just really flustered in that. [41:38] So. [41:39] Okay. [41:39] When Laura and her team search the Cochran's home, they find a litany of weapons from battle axes to shotguns. [41:47] They find this blood spatter, and they find a manuscript written by Jason called Where Monsters Hide. [41:53] The manuscript is this essentially fantasy-driven tale of a overlooked man, and it has various accounts of him and his wife killing people, [42:05] and includes one that almost perfectly mirrors what happened with Chris Reagan. [42:12] So at this point, investigators think that they have uncovered a gold mine of evidence against the Cochran's, [42:18] until something shocking happens the next day. [42:21] The Cochran's have now disappeared. [42:23] When Jason and Kelly Cochran fled their home in Michigan's Upper Peninsula back in March of 2015, [42:30] private investigators were already tracking their movements using a hidden GPS device. [42:35] The final destination? Their hometown of Hobart, Indiana. [42:42] Kelly and Jason were neighbors. They lived next door to each other all their lives. [42:47] I was trying to do what I thought was the right thing. You go to school, you go to college, get married. [42:53] Kelly wore the pants in the family, so whatever she wanted, Jason did. [42:58] I got bored from getting married. It was okay in the start, but, like, all I did was work. [43:05] She was wanting to help get their business, you know, up and running and make more money. [43:11] Even though the Cochran's are now out of her jurisdiction, [43:14] Chief Frizzo continues to investigate Chris Reagan's disappearance. [43:18] She's now focused on a place known as the Caspian Pit. [43:21] She enlists the help of a former police investigator, Michael Niger. [43:26] What makes the Caspian Pit such an excellent place to hide evidence? [43:30] Well, it's deep. [43:31] And also, it's within a couple hundred meters of where the Cochran's lived. [43:36] It'd be very easy to get to in the dark and drop something. [43:38] Were you able to dredge up a burn barrel? Was that here? [43:45] Yes, a burn barrel was actually found by the divers just offshore here. [43:50] There was a clothesline attached to this burn barrel with a cement block to it to weight it down. [43:56] We found cement blocks in the backyard of Cochran's and the actual clothesline, which was missing. [44:02] I think the implication was that perhaps Kelly and Jason were burning Chris's body, or parts of it, at least. [44:09] I was out in my garage, and, uh, what in the heck's that smell? [44:15] And I walked across the street here, and she came running out of her yard and met me in the middle of the street. [44:20] And I said, what the hell are you burning? [44:23] And she's there, I'm burning some brush out there. [44:26] I said, look, I lived up here my whole life, and I never smelled nothing like that. [44:31] The Cochran's had a fire pit, and there was a burn barrel that had been there. [44:35] Once we sifted through that fire pit ash, we found a saw blade. [44:38] We found the components to a pair of jeans, which was quite significant. [44:44] We felt confident that this was likely their burn barrel. [44:46] However, there was nothing in it, obviously. [44:49] I mean, it was open in the pit, and anything that was in it would have washed out. [44:53] Why did you need to get rid of it? [44:55] So, that was my validation, anyway, that we were on the right track. [45:02] But then, in February of 2016, back in Hobart, Indiana, there's a truly shocking development [45:07] that's about to upend the entire case. [45:10] A 911 call coming from the house where the Cochran's are living. [45:14] Lake County 911, operator 17. [45:17] My husband, his face is like 12. [45:21] He's breathing barely. [45:22] I don't know what's wrong. [45:23] He's throwing up. [45:23] He's sweating. [45:25] I need an ambulance right away. [45:26] Kelly calls 911. [45:28] Kelly calls 911 and says, you know, I need the ambulance here. [45:33] My husband's barely breathing. [45:34] You said he's breathing? [45:37] Difficulty breathing? [45:38] Barely. [45:39] On this call, my instincts were just yelling at me that something's not right with this [45:44] scene. [45:45] She seemed to kind of conveniently get in our way a lot, and she just didn't seem to have [45:51] the proper reaction to finding her husband, you know, in cardiac arrest. [45:57] Panicking, like, I'm trying to, you know, be of some use as much as I didn't want him in [46:03] my life. [46:03] I didn't want him dead. [46:05] Jason Cochran, unfortunately, was pronounced dead in the emergency room at St. Mary's. [46:09] After Jason died, Kelly reached out to his friend Walt to let him know that Jason had [46:16] passed. [46:17] And Walt was immediately concerned. [46:20] Kelly's tone was very strange. [46:22] Everything about it felt abrupt and staged. [46:25] And with encouragement from his wife, Walt called the FBI. [46:28] So what made you call the FBI? [46:31] I found the flyer on Chris Regan being missing, and it had two numbers on there, the Iron River [46:38] Police and the FBI. [46:40] So I figured somebody should know that Jason's dead. [46:42] Do you remember what you told the FBI? [46:44] I told them that I have some friends that lived in the UP. [46:48] They told me they're suspects, and one of them died Saturday. [46:53] The FBI routes the call to the proper jurisdiction, and it lands on the desk of Hobart Detective [46:58] Sergeant Jeremy Ogden. [47:00] Jeremy Ogden had a reputation as an amazing investigator. [47:06] Jeremy was known as a master interviewer. [47:10] I've never received a call like that before. [47:13] I knew that I needed to make sure that Jason wasn't being taken to a funeral home rather [47:18] than going for an autopsy. [47:22] It's not every day that a detective attends an autopsy. [47:26] And so what did you learn in that particular one? [47:28] I learned that, you know, Jason had petechial hemorrhaging around his eyes within the whites [47:34] of his pupils. [47:35] And what does that point to? [47:37] Pressure and suffocation. [47:39] The autopsy results lead Ogden to take a deep dive into Kelly Cochran's background and [47:45] Chris Regan's disappearance. [47:47] So he connects with Chief Laura Frizzo from Iron River. [47:52] And then ultimately Laura sent me all of the documents and the videos. [47:58] Immediately I knew that this was going to work out well because he was on the same page, [48:03] his thoughts, his words. [48:05] It was like, oh my gosh, somebody else gets it. [48:08] He gets it. [48:08] He's thinking like I do. [48:10] And that's for her. [48:12] What follows is a cat and mouse game between Detective Ogden and Kelly Cochran. [48:22] As Ogden hatches a truly bizarre scheme to get Kelly to open up about what really happened [48:28] to Chris Regan. [48:30] He decides to make a carving on the tree that will really freak her out when she sees it. [48:36] I thought maybe she would see it as a sign from the dead or maybe even something super [48:41] natural. [48:42] At this point, Jeremy Ogden is now leading the investigation into the Cochran's. [48:56] I'm running the case and I'm doing all the things that I think are necessary. [49:01] Detective Ogden has what will be the first of many interrogations with Kelly Cochran at [49:08] the Hobart Police Station following her husband Jason's death. [49:14] How are you doing? [49:16] How are you doing? [49:16] An easy thing to go through. [49:19] Kelly has a lot to say about what happened to Jason. [49:22] But when the conversation turns to Chris Regan, not so much. [49:26] I'm not trying to push you. [49:28] I'm not. [49:29] Not at all. [49:30] I just... [49:30] I just... [49:31] I didn't say you did anything. [49:35] I said, and by the time this is done, you'll tell me what happened to Chris. [49:44] I sat here and drank a Hawaii tea before you got here. [49:46] Hey, Jake. [49:47] Detective Ogden starts talking with Kelly and building a relationship with her. [49:55] That relationship building involves several conversations that Jeremy recorded undercover, [50:01] including at a local restaurant. [50:03] In the next chapter of your life, there's only one way for you to do this, though. [50:11] And that's 100% honest. [50:12] I think she wanted to see whether or not I was going to be a worthy adversary. [50:20] And I think she wanted to play the game. [50:22] I don't want to make a permanent decision on that temporary thought, you know, [50:28] but on the way I feel now because that's not fair to me or whoever else would have passed. [50:37] It's almost like the two of them were having a chess game. [50:42] Absolutely. [50:43] Yeah. [50:43] I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to get somebody to tell you a secret that only they know. [50:51] And I come up with this idea about a fake letter. [50:57] Detective Ogden calls Jason's friend, Walt Ammerman, [51:01] and tells him he wants him to be part of this plan to catch Kelly Cochran. [51:05] What he wanted Walt to do was become an actor. [51:11] They were going to have him call Kelly from a parked car to talk about this letter. [51:18] It is March 12, 2016 at 4.38 p.m. [51:22] He's going to be calling Kelly Cochran. [51:23] He wanted me to call her and tell her that I had a letter that Jason had mailed me. [51:33] But it's not true. [51:36] There is no letter. [51:37] This is all made up, made up for one purpose, to see what Kelly Cochran's reaction would be. [51:43] I got a letter like January 4th or 5th or something like that from him. [51:49] You were basically having to convince Kelly that her dead husband was sending a message from beyond the grave. [51:57] that he felt or knew that she likely was going to do something to him. [52:04] The note says, if something were to happen to me, please send this in a few weeks to the Iron River Police Department. [52:13] It's like I'm supposed to mail this, but I just wanted to tell you. [52:17] Please don't. [52:19] Please don't. [52:21] She says, please don't mail it. [52:23] I don't know. [52:26] And right then I knew, like, he got her. [52:31] Yeah. [52:32] Hook, line and sinker. [52:33] And what did that tell you? [52:35] Told me I did the right thing. [52:37] But that wasn't your only chest mood. [52:41] You had another trick up your sleeve, which was a tree and a carving? [52:48] Yeah. [52:50] The tree's over there? [52:51] Yeah, the tree's right over there. [52:53] And I had watched her several times there. [52:57] He's actually been following Kelly Cochran. [53:00] She doesn't know this. [53:01] And Detective Ogden knows that Kelly goes to this one park all the time and is by a certain tree. [53:09] She would just come and she would sit on that log. [53:13] And there was a couple times where I thought she was even crying. [53:19] So he decides to make a carving on the tree that will really freak her out when she sees it. [53:25] And what he carves into the tree is Chris is here. [53:31] I thought maybe she would see it as a sign from the dead or maybe even something supernatural [53:39] and just generate her to talk to me even more. [53:43] It's not exactly the way they teach it at the police academy. [53:46] No. [53:46] All I saw were her running through the woods. [53:52] And then all of a sudden the truck backed out and she took off. [53:57] That's the night that she decides to tell me everything. [54:01] You watched him die in his body. [54:11] You don't know? [54:13] No. [54:13] You caught Chris in your arms? [54:18] This is huge. [54:23] For the first time, Kelly is admitting Chris was murdered. [54:29] Chris is lying in your house, shot. [54:32] You told me that. [54:34] And that he died quickly, correct? [54:37] She says that Jason shot Chris. [54:40] Her portion is being forced to help clean up. [54:43] I'm the victim. [54:45] My husband was abusive. [54:46] I had no choice. [54:47] I couldn't tell anybody or he'd kill me too. [54:54] What? [54:54] I remember her words being, he downsized him. [55:12] And it just made my stomach turn. [55:14] That was the first time she admitted not only had Chris been murdered, but that he'd been dismembered. [55:19] Correct. [55:19] And she goes on to give a very specific detail that will come into play later. [55:27] She claims that Jason forced her to pull the bullet out of Chris's body with a pair of forceps. [55:35] Why not arrest her? [55:37] You have to understand, I put her in a position to play the victim. [55:40] She had to do all of these things under duress. [55:43] And that's how she's going to be able to disclose other information so that we can recover Chris Reagan. [55:51] But you know where he put teeth in. [55:54] Yes. [55:55] You're going to go with me, okay? [55:56] You're going to go. [55:59] He says, we're going to Michigan. [56:02] You're going to show us where the body is. [56:07] Detective Ogden and Kelly drive all night. [56:10] He is counting on her to help him. [56:12] But will she? [56:15] With her, it was like, lie, lie, lie, truth. [56:18] Lie, truth, lie, lie, lie, truth. [56:20] It's the middle of the night. [56:29] Kelly Cochran is driving with Detective Jeremy Ogden back to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan [56:34] to show him where she and her husband Jason buried Chris's remains. [56:39] Driving up there with her, it was interesting. [56:44] I mean, she did what most people do after they tell you their deepest, darkest secret. [56:50] She slept. [56:51] They drive all night. [56:56] They leave at like midnight. [56:57] They get to Iron River, you know, at like 7 in the morning. [57:00] It's just miles and miles of trees and rolling hills. [57:06] You could literally go to a place here where nobody else had ever been. [57:11] Pretty easy to hide a body. [57:13] Yeah. [57:14] It's weird how beautiful it is and at the same time, eerie. [57:19] So as I'm following them, they, you know, go down to this one particular area. [57:25] We're just like on a flat, straight spot in the road. [57:30] And she's like, it's right here. [57:32] There are other police officers there to search the area, but they find nothing. [57:43] So the question is, did Kelly get the spot wrong or is Kelly lying? [57:50] Detective Ogden then asked Kelly to show him around her house where the murder happened. [57:56] I wanted her to explain to me what happened to Chris and how he died. [58:05] And then we'll go upstairs and then I'll work our way down. [58:08] All right. [58:09] And it for all be on film. [58:11] She started to take me upstairs. [58:15] This was your room, Kelly? [58:16] Yes. [58:17] She told you basically that they had had sex upstairs. [58:21] Right. [58:21] There was some kind of sex involved. [58:23] You and him ended up up here in this room. [58:26] And that's right, right? [58:28] On the 14th, you did. [58:29] Mm-mm. [58:30] You know, it's like you can see her mind working. [58:32] Whatever story she was going to tell me was going to have to match the physical evidence [58:36] that we may or may not discover. [58:38] She takes him back downstairs and says, you know, actually it happened out here in the [58:45] hallway, in this back hallway. [58:46] You were having sex right here, okay? [58:50] So she says that once they're done, Chris starts to walk up the stairs into the kitchen [58:55] and Jason, unbeknownst to her, shoots him from the basement. [58:59] You're telling me that Jason shot him from behind? [59:02] And that Chris falls back on her and that they both tumbled down the stairs. [59:06] Is he still on top of you when you get to the bottom? [59:10] Is he, are you actually under him? [59:12] Yeah. [59:12] Okay. [59:13] With her, it was like, lie, lie, lie, truth. [59:16] Lie, truth. [59:17] Lie, lie, lie, truth. [59:17] You got to figure it out. [59:19] What's Jason say to you? [59:23] Nothing. [59:25] He's so telling you. [59:29] As incriminating as all this is, Detective Ogden is sure she isn't telling the whole truth. [59:34] You continue that conversation back in Indiana. [59:38] Yeah. [59:39] Hours and hours of conversation. [59:42] Yeah. [59:42] There's over a hundred hours. [59:44] What don't you believe? [59:45] Again, it's all recorded undercover. [59:48] What don't I believe? [59:49] Um, I'm not sure. [59:52] I'm not sure with you. [59:54] His communication with her really picked up speed back in Indiana because he's now determined. [1:00:00] I'll meet her at a park. [1:00:01] I've sat down at a restaurant with her. [1:00:03] I only have one goal. [1:00:06] It's to bring Chris home. [1:00:08] Detective Ogden believes that the more they talk, the more likely Kelly is to slip up. [1:00:13] And if she slips up, she may just lead them to Chris Regan's body. [1:00:17] I'm not saying I'm care if you believe you're not. [1:00:21] He's not a big girl. [1:00:24] He's not a big girl. [1:00:26] I'll give you my word. [1:00:28] It seems like Kelly kind of wanted to be playing with Detective Ogden, the sort of cat and mouse game. [1:00:34] You have to understand that there are things that you've said throughout this that would cause concern, okay? [1:00:42] And changes and variations of your story. [1:00:44] She continues to maintain throughout all these hundreds of hours that she's the victim. [1:00:52] It's always my husband forced me to do this. [1:00:56] You have said that you're the victim when it comes to Chris. [1:00:59] That you were put in this bad position, right? [1:01:02] Yes. [1:01:02] At one point, you put your foot down and say, stop lying. [1:01:08] No more of this crap lying to me. [1:01:09] No more, no, all the f***ing back and forth are with you. [1:01:14] All the f***ing back and forth. [1:01:15] What brought that on? [1:01:18] Frustration, probably. [1:01:20] Ogden thinks Kelly realizes he is losing his patience and might finally just arrest her. [1:01:26] It was all about to come to a head. [1:01:30] Soon after, Detective Ogden gets a misspelled text from Kelly. [1:01:34] Ever been to the West Coast? [1:01:36] I was driving last night. [1:01:37] Sure enough, she skipped town. [1:01:40] Except she didn't head west after all. [1:01:43] The police tracked her as she fled south to Kentucky. [1:01:48] 33-year-old Kelly Cochran was arrested in Graves County, Kentucky after a tip to the U.S. Marshals. [1:01:54] Cochran was wanted in Michigan. [1:01:56] And so, when you interview her in Kentucky, in many ways, it was a breakthrough confession. [1:02:04] Yes. [1:02:05] Things are different now. [1:02:08] Why are they different? [1:02:10] Because I'm here. [1:02:11] I interviewed her all day that day, and then I interviewed her for a portion of the day the next day. [1:02:18] Now Kelly drops another bombshell. [1:02:20] If I cheated, it'd be my responsibility, regardless of if you helped or not. [1:02:24] Her news story, she now claims she knew in advance that Jason was going to kill Chris Reagan the night she invited him to their home. [1:02:34] You took part in the planning of it. [1:02:36] You allow it to occur when you didn't have to allow it to occur. [1:02:39] And she tells Ogden she knew this because they had an agreement. [1:02:43] When does that agreement occur? [1:02:45] The wedding night. [1:02:47] And your agreement from the time you were married was that you had the affair. [1:02:51] It's your responsibility to kill off that person. [1:02:54] Right, Johnny. [1:02:55] Or he would kill you. [1:02:56] Vice versa. [1:02:57] Right. [1:03:00] If either spouse were to cheat during the course of the marriage, the cheating spouse would have to either kill their lover or be killed by this other spouse. [1:03:11] You heard that right. And yet that bizarre alleged wedding day pact is just the start of what she reveals. [1:03:22] I'm going to get emotional. I can't wait one second because it still gets me every time. [1:03:36] Now in jail in Michigan, charged with murder, Kelly Cochran is taken out of herself to go on what cops are calling a field trip. [1:03:44] This is just, you know, giving consent to what your house would do. [1:03:47] Kelly had agreed that she would take me to Chris's remains where she left them. She wanted to do the right thing. [1:03:55] Do you have a crazy idea? See where it starts to curve to the left? I'd park there. [1:04:04] She takes her a little further east than she took us on the first day. [1:04:19] What would the biggest piece of bone be that you, I mean, the torso and that was here? [1:04:25] So then we should find ribs. And I think that generally your skull should be the biggest, though. [1:04:30] As she's talking, she has no guilt at all. So carefree, like no big deal. [1:04:39] This was not exactly a somber day for her. [1:04:42] Can I smoke for dinner? [1:04:43] Yeah. [1:04:44] She had a lot of cigarettes and then she asked for a cheese pizza for lunch. [1:04:52] How do you cheese pizza? [1:04:54] Just cheese? [1:04:55] Maybe a soda. [1:04:56] Can you bring pizza? [1:04:57] While the searching continues, Chief Frizzo takes her to the house. [1:05:03] You say that, you know, he, Jason pulled him into here and that's where he cut him out? [1:05:08] Yeah. [1:05:09] And she's eating a piece of pizza, of course, when we're doing this. [1:05:14] Then Kelly also is just nonchalantly walking past the kitchen sink and says, oh, there's the forceps. [1:05:24] You're saying you use those? [1:05:26] Yep. [1:05:27] It had been sitting there the whole time. [1:05:29] And I said, are you saying you use those to try and get the bullet out of Chris's head? [1:05:34] And she said, yep, just like that. [1:05:37] It was critical evidence matching what Kelly had said in that early interrogation when she first admitted that Chris had been murdered. [1:05:45] But back in these woods, an even more important discovery. [1:05:54] Chris Regan's skull itself. [1:05:57] I'm going to get emotional. [1:05:58] I can't wait one second because it still gets me every time. [1:06:02] I said to myself, I finally found you. [1:06:07] I just literally, like, said that to myself, you know, so. [1:06:12] That was a very sobering moment. [1:06:18] And the only bright spot on that is they could link Kelly Cochran into his murder. [1:06:25] And that got things going so that she would go to trial. [1:06:31] The Kelly Cochran case just is the biggest case we've had locally, maybe ever. [1:06:36] Kelly's life was riding on the trial. [1:06:39] Despite all that she's admitted in those interrogations, Kelly Cochran pleads not guilty. [1:06:45] I was definitely afraid that she was going to get off. [1:06:48] You never know how a jury's going to go. [1:06:51] Ladies and gentlemen, Kelly and Jason Cochran were bonded in blood. [1:06:54] Case was prosecuted by Iron County prosecutor Melissa Powell. [1:06:58] We were pretty confident going into trial that we could convict her of being an aider and a better. [1:07:02] Kelly Cochran was a willing participant. [1:07:04] And because of that, she's just as guilty as he is. [1:07:08] Michael Schulke was the defense attorney for Kelly Cochran. [1:07:11] One of the evidence that the people have to get to their burden is the word of Ms. Cochran. [1:07:17] What's your word worth? [1:07:20] She's a liar. [1:07:21] We believe that Jason acted alone because he was not into this open marriage [1:07:28] and was jealous and angry that Kelly was involved with another man. [1:07:36] Please be seated. [1:07:38] The trial would last almost three weeks. [1:07:41] She has already admitted that she knew what was going to happen. [1:07:44] And though there were some 60 witnesses, the case pretty much boiled down to just one, Kelly Cochran herself. [1:07:53] Kelly testified about the abuse that she claimed she suffered in her marriage. [1:07:57] There was a lot of times where he would grab me and push me, shove me. [1:08:02] He became very jealous, very angry. [1:08:06] There was times where he had threatened me in the house, outside of the house. [1:08:11] There was stuff at me. [1:08:13] Kelly Cochran testified for several days. [1:08:15] I don't think she helped herself at all. [1:08:17] You never told people that he was abusive until this case came about, did you? [1:08:22] Until after. [1:08:23] And you never told people that he threatened you until this case came about, right? [1:08:28] Until after. [1:08:28] When I saw Kelly in person, I couldn't believe Christopher would have had a sexual relationship with her. [1:08:37] She looked like the devil. [1:08:42] Her eyes were blank. [1:08:43] I don't know if I would have been capable to shoot him or even do anything about it. [1:08:49] There's nothing that comes out of her mouth that I would ever believe. [1:08:53] I think the jury wanted to hear from her and how she was going to explain away hundreds of hours of previous statements. [1:09:04] Remember, her story changed in all those recorded interrogations from I Know Nothing to Jason forced me to help kill Chris. [1:09:13] When does that agreement occur? [1:09:15] A wedding night. [1:09:16] To we had a wedding pact and I was part of the murder. [1:09:20] And also I'm glad. [1:09:22] Because every time I had an interview or an interrogation with him, everything I said was wrong. [1:09:29] What do you mean, anything you said was wrong? [1:09:31] He would question me until I said what was supposed to be said. [1:09:35] What was it like watching Kelly on the stand? [1:09:39] Excruciating. [1:09:41] So it's your testimony today that you've had no plans to kill Chris at all, correct? [1:09:45] I've never wondered that. [1:09:46] And you lied to Detective Agnew when you said there was a plan, correct? [1:09:50] Correct. [1:09:51] She swears this testimony is no lie. [1:09:55] Today, you're telling the truth to these 12 or 14 strangers. [1:09:58] Yes, I am. [1:09:59] With Kelly admitting so many lies, the defense asked the jury, how can they believe one story versus any other? [1:10:07] Why is she truthful when she says she's acting with Jason versus the times that she said he acted alone? [1:10:14] What makes her more truthful then? [1:10:16] I think at that point in time, she's overwhelmed. [1:10:18] She's made so many statements. [1:10:20] She's told so many lies. [1:10:21] It's time to tell the truth. [1:10:23] People disclose the truth in bits and pieces when they're ready and when they're caught. [1:10:27] The defendants in this matter were bonded in blood. [1:10:30] Chris Regan was bathed in it. [1:10:33] And at this time, I'm asking you to wash away the blood. [1:10:37] I'm fined if I'm guilty of all counts. [1:10:41] There is a reasonable doubt here. [1:10:42] People have failed to do their burden. [1:10:45] And if you believe that, you have to acquit. [1:10:49] Kelly had made the comment before trial, you don't think I can turn just one juror? [1:10:56] I was concerned that there might be one juror that buys her story. [1:10:59] And as those jurors start to deliberate, there is something else. [1:11:03] What is it that they haven't heard? [1:11:06] The jury deliberated for about three hours, which, considering it was a two and a half week long trial, wasn't very long at all. [1:11:24] The jury comes back in. [1:11:26] And as they're standing in the jury box, I felt confident because, you know, a couple of them did. [1:11:31] Look over and smile. [1:11:33] Just kind of give a look. [1:11:34] Count number one, open murder, guilty of first degree, premeditated murder, aiding and abetting. [1:11:42] Everybody just cried. [1:11:45] And Chris's family was sitting right behind me. [1:11:51] And the first thing I did is just turn around and hug them. [1:11:55] Kelly was just straight faced during the reading of the verdict. [1:11:58] I didn't notice any changes in her at all. [1:11:59] Unfortunately, the jury bought the story that the prosecution put forth. [1:12:04] 35-year-old Kelly Cochran will never again walk free. [1:12:08] Guilty of five total felony counts. [1:12:10] Kelly was convicted on first degree premeditated murder, which carries a mandatory life sentence in Michigan and without the possibility of parole. [1:12:20] For me, it's not going to change anything. [1:12:23] You know, Chris is gone. [1:12:25] And what she did is just horrible. [1:12:28] I hope she rats in hell. [1:12:31] Kelly Cochran is convicted and sentenced, but there's much more to her case than what was presented in court. [1:12:42] Dark and twisted allegations that the jurors never heard. [1:12:46] These are some really disturbing allegations that were brought forth by the neighbors of the Cochran's, [1:12:53] who said they heard these weird construction noises coming from Kelly and Jason's house late at night. [1:12:59] Kelly and Jason asked me if I want to come over for dinner one night. [1:13:22] I was like, yeah, sure. [1:13:24] And this was like two days after Chris was missing. [1:13:27] It was like mind-boggling how much meat they had. [1:13:31] So we were always wondering about that. [1:13:33] What if they were that kind of people and actually did kill a guy and then butchered him up and had us over for dinner. [1:13:43] I think they hacked him up and threw it to us. [1:13:47] I'm like, oh God, oh God, like no. [1:13:53] When I realized that I might have ate the dude, I didn't want to believe it. [1:13:58] It changed me. [1:13:59] It changed me 100%. [1:14:01] It was a theory that they came to a conclusion on their own. [1:14:07] That wasn't something that we ever even brought into the case investigation. [1:14:14] It's not that I didn't think it could happen, but it wasn't significant at the time. [1:14:19] But one thing investigators took very seriously was the allegation that there could be other murder victims out there. [1:14:31] Kelly's own brother told Detective Ogden that Kelly said herself that there were more victims. [1:14:39] And how many more bodies did she tell you? [1:14:46] Mostly there was nine total. [1:14:48] Police were recording all of Kelly Cochran's phone conversations while she was behind bars. [1:14:53] And you can hear her own mother asking her, is it true? [1:14:57] Are there other murder victims? [1:15:28] She's never had emotions. [1:15:30] She's never had sympathy. [1:15:32] There is no evidence that has been brought forth that would indicate that any stories that were told by Kelly of being involved in murders of other people are true. [1:15:46] There are no bodies coming out of the woodwork that are tied to Kelly Cochran. [1:15:51] But what does Kelly Cochran herself now say about the allegations that she's a serial killer? [1:15:57] You had told police that you had killed others in the past. [1:16:01] Is there truth to that? [1:16:03] And in a case where they uncovered so much darkness and evil, there would be a surprising light at the end of the tunnel for the two lead investigators. [1:16:21] Following the guilty verdict, Kelly is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Chris Reagan. [1:16:28] Eleven months later, Kelly pleads guilty to murdering her husband, Jason Cochran, in Indiana, and is sentenced to an additional 65 years in prison. [1:16:38] I believe that the idea behind this evil and her, I mean, it's the purest form of evil that you're going to get. [1:16:47] I spoke to Kelly Cochran from her prison in Michigan where she's serving out her life sentence. [1:16:52] You told police that you had killed others in the past. Is there truth to that? [1:17:00] Then why would you tell investigators you had and lead them on wild goose chases? [1:17:06] They said they spoke to neighbors who live down the street from you who were convinced that they had a barbecue that consisted of human remains. [1:17:17] I heard about that. Here's the thing. I never had a barbecue with anybody. Nobody was ever cooked. Nobody was barbecued. [1:17:24] I've spoken to investigators, Kelly, who said that when they talked to you and heard your story that it made them believe in pure evil. [1:17:34] What would you say to that? [1:17:35] I believe that's not a bad person. It's by good people. I've never harmed anybody. [1:17:43] And so in your view, what did happen that night when Chris died? [1:17:48] My husband disabled the man and cut him up in front of me. [1:17:52] And you just stood there doing nothing? [1:17:54] What are you talking about? [1:17:55] You didn't call the police. You didn't... [1:17:58] I was tied up. [1:18:00] This is the first I'm hearing of her ever saying she'd been tied up. [1:18:04] This is a game. She's going to continue this game as long as she can. [1:18:09] And she's not done with it yet. [1:18:11] There probably is not a punishment on this earth that can match what she did to Christopher. [1:18:20] I feel Christopher with me when I'm around Apple Blossom Trail. [1:18:30] I feel a little warm. I enjoy a happiness because it was a good place for us. [1:18:34] Laura Frizzo, the case had a bittersweet outcome. [1:18:41] Although she was able to help bring justice for Chris Reagan's murder, [1:18:45] she was fired from her job as police chief after Kelly's arrest. [1:18:49] I started to have some issues with my boss at work and those issues kind of got heated. [1:18:55] But while Laura may have lost her job, she found romance in an unlikely place. [1:19:02] I felt immediately connected to him just because of the person he was. [1:19:07] And so you kind of made the first move. What happened? [1:19:11] One day I texted him and I said, do you want to kiss me? [1:19:15] I was like, why did I send that? Because there was like dead air, just no response for a long time. [1:19:22] You know, the answer was yes right out of the gate as soon as I read it. [1:19:25] So you asked for the first kiss. Who asked for whose hand in marriage? [1:19:28] I did. [1:19:30] How'd that go, big guy? [1:19:31] It went well. She accepted right away. [1:19:36] What's the future for both of you? [1:19:38] We own a piece of land that Laura picked in the UP right on a lake. [1:19:45] And one day I'm going to build her a dream house there. [1:19:47] Of course we wish them the best as they now plan their next chapter together away from their work. [1:19:59] That is our program for tonight. Thanks so much for watching. [1:20:02] I'm David Muir. And from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News, good night. [1:20:06] Thanks for listening to the 2020 True Crime Vault. [1:20:12] We hope you'll join us Friday nights at 9 on ABC for all new broadcast episodes. [1:20:18] See you then.