Life Before Murder: Who is Kelly Cochran?
Kelly Cochran grew up in Merrillville, Indiana where she met her later husband Jason Cochran. The two grew up together as neighbors, both went to Purdue University, and would later get married in 2002. The Cochran’s lived in Indiana until they decided to up and move to Caspian, a city in Michigan in 2013. Not even 2 years later, the couple moved back to their home state of Indiana.
Kelly and Jason Cochran were not an ideal couple as Kelly Cochran’s relatives described them as polar opposites. Kelly was more out-spoken while Jason kept more to himself. Colton Gaboyan, Kelly’s brother, claimed that he warned they shouldn’t get married after they were engaged because he didn’t think it would work out due to the couple’s differences.
Crumbling Marriage Filled with Affair
While in Michigan, the Cochrans’ marriage began to go south. Kelly Cochran worked at a local factory in Iron River, Michigan. Kelly met Christopher Regan, a new employee that started working at the factory alongside Kelly. The two were rumored to be having an affair according to the company’s human resources department and Regan’s ex-partner, who he was good friends with.
Regan’s ex-partner claimed that Kelly and Christopher would regularly meet every week at Chris’ apartment to hook up. One day, Christopher had told his ex-partner that he was going to be meeting Kelly at her house, which seemed unusual since the lovers always went to Chris’ apartment because Kelly was married and living with her husband, Jason. Christopher Regan was never to be seen or heard from again since that day in October of 2014.
Who was Christopher Regan?
Christopher Regan was an Air Force veteran who was raised in Detroit, Michigan. He worked at a local factory in Iron River, Michigan with Kelly Cochran until he decided to take an opportunity for a job located in Asheville, North Carolina in 2014. Regan had plans to go to Asheville shortly before his disappearance for a job interview. Regan’s ex-partner and co-workers had originally thought that Regan had up and left for Asheville until his ex-partner became concerned that something was wrong.
Christopher Regan and his ex-partner had been together for some time, but ultimately decided to end things because Regan cheated on his partner while she was out of town. The two remained good friends and still communicated on a daily basis. Regan’s ex-partner was worried that something was wrong after not hearing from him for over a week. Chris’ ex-partner filed a missing police report which began the search for Regan and led police to stumble upon a soon-to-be murder investigation.
Compiling Evidence Against Kelly Cochran
Former Police Chief of Iron River, Michigan, Laura Frizzo, took on the missing persons case of Christopher Regan. In a Crime Watch Daily interview, Frizzo described her experience of putting the pieces of Regan’s mysterious disappearance together that led her to believe she was about to be investigating a murder. Once Frizzo found out that Regan and Kelly Cochran were having an affair, it became very apparent that this was a love triangle that took a deadly turn.
Investigators visited Regan’s apartment to gather information, but ultimately ended up with nothing. After speaking with Regan’s ex-partner about where Christopher Regan could have gone before he disappeared, investigators found that the last place he could have been was Kelly and Jason Cochran’s house. Regan and Kelly were supposed to have dinner there. Upon arrival at the Cochran’s residence, investigators were met with an unwelcomed greeting by Jason Cochran who claimed Kelly was not home despite seeing her in an upstairs window when they had first arrived. Once police realized Jason was lying, it became evident that something suspicious was going on, but they did not have enough evidence yet to search the home.
Shortly after the investigation to find Christopher Regan began, his car was found in a parking lot with his phone and a sticky note that had an address to a Caspian home on it, one that belonged to Kelly and Jason Cochran. In March of 2015, after Kelly and Jason moved back to Indiana, investigators got a search warrant to look through the Cochran’s home but could not find any solid evidence to build a case against Kelly or Jason Cochran for the disappearance of Christopher Regan.
The Murder That Helped Investigators Crack the Case
Investigators began to dig deeper into the case and found that the GPS in Regan’s car proved that he was at Kelly Cochran’s house prior to his disappearance. Soon after, police were able to recover information on Kelly’s digital devices in which search results from her devices led them to an abandoned mine pit in Caspian. Police found a burn barrel that was claimed to have been seen in Cochran’s backyard. Much of the evidence that police and investigators were finding was still not enough to charge Kelly or Jason with murder until they received a 911 call from Kelly.
In the midst of the investigation on Kelly Cochran for the disappearance of Christopher Regan, Kelly dialed 911 to report that she had found her husband, Jason, unresponsive from a likely heroin overdose on February 20, 2016. Kelly had made allegations that Jason was suicidal previously and tried to make it seem as if he had committed suicide. Kelly then fled to the state of Kentucky where she was arrested on April 28, 2016.
Becoming desperate, Police Chief Frizzo asked Hobart, Indiana Detective Jeremy Ogden to help her make Kelly confess. Frizzo and Ogden came up with a plan to trick Kelly by having a friend of Jason’s contact Kelly saying he had a letter from Jason that stated to send the letter to the police if anything ever happened to him and the setup worked. Kelly Cochran cracked and spilled the truth of how she murdered her husband. After months of searching for Kelly, Jason’s death was ruled as a homicide but there was still one other case that needed to be solved; the death of Christopher Regan.
Kelly Cochran’s Deadly Love Triangle
After waiting nearly two years to hear the truth, Detective Ogden finally gets Kelly Cochran to open up about what happened to Christopher Regan. Kelly claimed that she deeply loved Regan, but she had made a pact with her husband, Jason, on the night of their wedding that if either of them had an affair then they would have to kill the person who the affair was with. Thus, the truth for Regan’s disappearance comes out and was ruled as a homicide case.
Kelly Cochran told police that she lured Regan to her home in 2014 and Jason shot him in the back of the head with a .22 caliber gun. The couple then laid a type of plastic covering down in the basement and dismembered the body. Kelly and Jason took the remains of Regan out into the woods of the Pentoga Trail in Michigan. Kelly Cochran led the police to the area where they spread the remains of Regan in May 2016, where they proceeded to find a human skull and eyeglasses presumably worn by Regan. Police were able to identify the skull as Regan’s by using dental records.
Kelly Cochran Trial and Murder Charges
In 2017, Kelly Cochran was charged with five counts in relation to the homicide of Christopher Regan. A year later in 2018, Kelly pled guilty to murdering her husband Jason Cochran. Kelly Cochran is now serving a life sentence without parole on top of 6-10 years for disinterment and conspiracy to mutilate a dead body, 2-5 years for lying to a peace officer during a violent crime investigation, and 3-5 years for concealing the death of an individual.
Family Suspicions
Although the suspicions were not enough to hold up in court, it is rumored by Kelly Cochran’s family that she may have murdered at least nine other people in her lifetime. It is also rumored that Kelly and Jason Cochran did not dump all of Christopher Regan’s remains in the woods. Family members have suspicions that Kelly and Jason used some of Regan’s remains to make and serve food for a barbeque.
Kelly Cochran: Life Behind Bars
Kelly Cochran is currently incarcerated in Pittsfield Charter Township, Michigan where she is serving her life sentence at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility. She was 34 years old when she committed the murder of Regan and is now 39 years old. There is no other information on whether Cochran will speak of the allegations against her regarding using Regan’s remains for a barbeque or other possible murders she may have committed.
Overview of Kelly Cochran: A Serial Killer
Kelly Cochran is a serial killer who has admitted to killing two men, one being her husband and the other being her lover. It may never be known whether Kelly committed any other murders or not, unless she decides to tell of any other incidences that she may have been involved in. Her family has kept their suspicions about her possible involvement with other unidentified murders. It is clear that Kelly’s motivation for her crimes was a mix of love and revenge. She kept her promise to her husband about paying the price for having an affair by murdering Regan and then became filled with resentment and had her revenge by killing her husband.
