Where Monsters Hide

by M. William Phelps

  Henry mentioned tattoos. He spoke of how sexy he thought they were on a woman: I love it, a huge turn on. He told Kelly that butterflies are “cute,” before asking “where” her butterfly tattoos were on her body and how many she had.

  Kelly had mentioned in a previous letter she’d married a psychopath. Henry said he’d known a few, and they “suck.”

  By page nine, Henry began asking specific questions. How, for example, he preferred long letters, so Kelly could feel free to write as much as she wanted. He then wondered if Kelly was “currently seeing” someone? “[I love an] intelligent, sexy woman, not to mention [one who rides] the wild side. He talked about Kelly mentioning in a previous letter how much she liked all of the sexual positions he had previously asked her about. It became the main topic of Henry’s letter as he presented Kelly with a sexual questionnaire he’d written specifically for her.

  He loved naughty girls, and because of that, he was attempting to see “how naughty” Kelly “could get.”

  He asked Kelly, “[Do you like] giving head?

  4 play?

  What about being licked up n down?

  Eaten?

  Hair pulled?

  Called dirty names?

  Choked?

  Spanked?

  “Slow n gentle? Hard n fast?”

  * * *

  ENDING HIS LIST of twenty-one sexual questions, Henry asked if Kelly took pleasure in being picked up and “slammed against a wall” while having passionate, wild sex?

  Henry’s favorite sexual position was to pull his partner’s hair while doing her doggy-style and spanking her ass.

  Henry warned Kelly not to allow “jail to control” her. Instead, she needed to control it.

  Saving perhaps his most humble and humane moment for last, Henry concluded that he was going to “pray” for Kelly. He didn’t want Kelly to get wrapped up in jail life for fear of what it could do to her soul. He encouraged her to focus on getting out and them being together.

  As a postscript, besides letting his new girl know he was going to send her money if the jail allowed, he wrote: Keep a smile on that beautiful face. As time moved on, he emphasized: It will get better.

  73

  ATONEMENT

  KELLY SAT, WEARING A PINK SWEATER, ONE LEG CROSSED OVER THE other. She stared at Circuit Court for the County of Iron judge Richard Celello. She seemed rather content within this formal legal setting. Attempting to present herself as the battered, innocent wife, Kelly had her hair pulled back and tied in a ponytail. After several days of jury selection and hearings regarding evidence, on Tuesday, February 14, 2017, Judge Celello welcomed and thanked jurors, banged his gavel, and asked the lawyers to begin with opening statements.

  Ironically, it was Valentine’s Day. The victim, Christopher Regan, represented by the state, had been Kelly’s lover. Kelly was given her “day in court,” where she was determined to paint Jason Cochran as a domineering and abusive husband. According to Kelly, by using fear, intimidation, physical violence, and emotional bullying, Jason had forced her to help him murder Chris Regan, dismember his body, and dump it in the woods.

  In early October 2016, after discussing it with Chris’s family, prosecutor Melissa Powell presented two plea offers to Kelly and her team.

  It has been my policy on murder cases to not extend any plea offer unless and until I have the family’s blessing, Powell wrote in a formal plea letter. This matter was more heinous than other murder cases committed in our area, when one considers how long Christopher Regan’s remains were missing and the mutilation of the body following the killing. The family, however, is aware that without Miss Cochran’s recent cooperation Christopher Regan’s remains may not have been discovered and agrees some leniency may be appropriate. Furthermore, the family wants to honor Christopher Regan and put his remains to rest.

  The deal Powell had been “authorized” to make was generous. In exchange for an acceptable plea of guilty, [and] an amended count one of Second Degree Murder and count five Lying to a Police Officer. . . the People agree to a sentencing . . . of twenty-five to fifty years and dismissal of the remaining charges, Powell wrote.

  The plea offer was set to expire at four p.m. on October 31, 2016.

  Kelly rejected it.

  The second offer was twenty to forty years. Again, very generous—considering that Kelly would later claim Chris was alive when Jason dismembered him in front of her.

  This second offer was set to expire on January 20, 2017.

  Kelly said no.

  * * *

  JUST BEFORE OPENING STATEMENTS began, Kelly came forward and decided she wanted the second offer.

  “The jury had been selected,” Melissa Powell later said, “and she, all of a sudden, wanted to plead to second-degree murder. We were pretty far into our trial preparation by that time and expended considerable resources to prepare for trial. However, we took a break. Chief Frizzo, Chris Regan’s family, and myself discussed whether to proceed with trial or allow her to plead.”

  That discussion took several hours, “with tension running high.” As a prosecutor, Melissa Powell was in favor of a guaranteed plea, if it was the right deal for everyone involved. A plea ends a murder case; there can be no appeals. “The family and Chief Frizzo felt strongly that Kelly Cochran was playing games, being manipulative, and once again calling the shots. They agreed to go forward with trial.”

  The one problem moving forward was that Melissa Powell intended to introduce Chris’s skull as evidence, which meant that if Kelly was convicted, any evidence would be secured and would remain with the case file for a minimum of seventy-five years.

  “They would never be able to lay his remains to rest—unless other remains were discovered.”

  * * *

  LAURA FRIZZO WAS NO longer chief of the IRPD. In October 2016, Frizzo had been “officially relieved of her duties” by the city manager, David Thayer. According to various public reports, Thayer would not allow Frizzo to return to work after a short medical leave that September.

  Frizzo’s attorney, Roy Polich, explained publicly that Frizzo had been “put on furlough by the city on October 4, 2016.” He subsequently requested (“several times”) the matter to be placed on the city council’s monthly agenda meetings so Frizzo could tell her side of the story in an open forum.

  Members of the council declined each request.

  In a press release issued by Polich, he explained that his client had asked for “personal days” off from work, following what was a long preparation period for preliminary examination testimony leading up to Kelly’s trial. According to Polich, the city manager ordered Frizzo to be back at work unless she provided a doctor’s excuse, meaning a note.

  Frizzo provided the city manager with the requested paperwork indicating she needed time off to mentally prepare for the road ahead.

  On September 23, 2016, Frizzo told Thayer she would be able to return to work on September 28. He responded by setting a meeting for October 4, requiring a “return to work doctor’s report.” According to Polich’s release, at that meeting: Thayer did not allow Frizzo to return to work, even though she provided the requested doctor’s report, which allowed her to resume her full duties as police chief.

  In other words, Frizzo had to fight for permission to take time off from work—and then, in turn, fight to return to work.

  It became a bureaucratic and public debacle. Frizzo should have been given the key to the city for sticking with her instincts and pursuing the Cochrans; instead, she was essentially fired.

  The city manager told Frizzo he wanted “a second doctor’s opinion,” according to Polich’s release. But this time, the city bureaucrats would select the doctor.

  A month later, the city elders selected a physician, and on November 2, according to Frizzo and her attorney: “She saw the appointed doctor and was cleared to return to work, but was still denied to resume her duties as police chief by Thayer.”

  Polich claimed the entire proce
ss was nothing more “than a ruse, contrived by Thayer to deceive the public and city council of his personal desire to terminate her,” suggesting further that the city manager “has a history of animosity toward women.”

  Thayer “vehemently denied the allegations,” and said they were untrue. His decision to fire Frizzo was rooted in a “conflict with her management style.”

  That December, at a town council meeting, droves of community members came out in support of Frizzo, demanding she be reinstated.

  Didn’t happen.

  Frizzo vowed to sue the city.

  * * *

  WITH A BIT OF court business settled, first thing in the morning, February 14, 2017, Melissa Powell turned and whispered something in Frizzo’s ear, who sat at the prosecution’s table with Powell. Being the lead investigator throughout the case, she was allowed, as a law enforcement officer, to be present at the prosecution’s table—regardless of the ongoing battle with the city.

  Then the PA stood and walked to the lectern.

  Powell took a moment to get herself comfortable. She looked directly at jurors, her back to Kelly and Kelly’s attorney, Michael Scholke.

  Clearing her throat, Powell began by introducing what was a ghastly theme: “Bonded in Blood.” She used carefully selected photos and PowerPoint slides projected onto a large screen behind her on the wall, underscoring the most powerful evidence against Kelly.

  Powell then went through the investigation, step-by-step, beginning with who the Cochrans were, the breakdown of their marriage, all those extramarital affairs, and how and when Kelly introduced Chris Regan into their lives. To her credit, Powell memorialized Chris not as a victim of murder, but as a father, veteran, and hardworking single man, who’d happened to cross paths with Satan. She also made it clear—without specifics—that Kelly chose Chris as her victim. Once she met him, she knew he would eventually be one more murder victim in what was alluded to being a long list of people the Cochrans had possibly murdered, dismembered and fed to the pigs they’d raised.

  About six minutes into her statement, Powell said: “The officers began pulling people in for interviews. On October 28, 2014, Jason Cochran and Kelly Cochran were interviewed at the Iron River Police Department, separately. This is when ‘Fifty Shades of Kelly’ started.”

  “During this interview,” Powell continued, Kelly explained how she’d visited Chris Regan’s house five or six nights per week for dinner. “That he had come over to her house two or three times. . . .” Jason knew about the affair, Powell reiterated, “and that Chris wasn’t the only man she was seeing. Her husband accepted these relationships.”

  Using those points to pivot, Powell spoke of a brutal, orchestrated, premeditated murder plan initiated by a husband and his wife. For thirty-five minutes, she gave jurors a taste of each aspect of the investigation and how law enforcement ultimately charged Kelly Cochran with Chris’s murder.

  Soft-spoken, Powell had a charming, sincere affect, concluding: “Kelly and Jason Cochran were bonded in blood. As you can see from [their] text messages [to each other], what was a failing marriage in August and September 2014 became a lovefest after Chris Regan was killed on October 14, 2014.”

  She paused. Gave the moment its due.

  “At the end of this case, the people will be requesting you find the defendant guilty of all charges, but, in particular, we will be asking you to find the defendant guilty for aiding and abetting Jason Cochran in the murder of Christopher Karl Regan by plotting and planning his death and luring him to his funeral.”

  Powerful. Effective. Direct.

  * * *

  MIKE SCHOLKE HAD A mountain to climb, in a blinding wind, perhaps with snow falling. Heavyset, well-dressed, and young-looking, Scholke represented a client who’d admitted the most heinous acts of murder on record—scenes straight out of a horror film. Kelly’s own admissions had been captured on video and audio; the jury would be able to deliberate and discern her recorded words. The claim of spousal abuse was Kelly’s only hope at a mitigating conviction of second-degree murder or acquittal.

  “In some way,” Scholke said a few minutes in, “we don’t concede the facts . . . some of the facts. We will concede, and we believe the evidence will show, that Mr. Regan was shot—shot in the head, that his body was dismembered, and it was left in the woods off Pentoga Trail.”

  Scholke made a point to say the defense believed “that Jason, Mr. Cochran, acted alone . . . and that Kelly had no knowledge . . . that that was going to happen.”

  A big, bold proclamation—especially when all of the evidence pointed to the opposite.

  Kelly’s polished lawyer further stated that they would stand behind one unimpeachable assertion: “In regard to the dismemberment and disposal of the body, that Jason, again, was the driving force in these acts and that any role Kelly had was the result of her fearing for her life and safety.”

  Kelly Cochran’s own recorded admissions would patently contradict several of these points.

  Scholke brought Jason’s “mental health issues” into his opening, specifically his “hospitalization” near the time of the murder.

  It all fit, Kelly’s attorney suggested.

  Although the prosecution would present some “fifty witnesses,” Scholke said, “none of these people can tell you with any certainty what happened in that house. . . .”

  True. Yet, Scholke left out that Kelly had murdered the only other witness, Jason—before providing law enforcement with that “certainty.”

  Scholke then broached the elephant in the room: Kelly’s own words. He warned jurors: “I’ll tell you right now, you’re going to hear . . . numerous versions of the story. Facts were added. Facts were deleted. Things were changed.”

  There was no evidence to support this. Here was the man climbing the mountain, pushing back on the unchallengeable, pervasive elements.

  Kelly’s competent, smart, likeable defense attorney then used the “tip of the iceberg” analogy to explain the case from his client’s point of view, encouraging jurors to wait on judgment until the “entire story” was presented.

  Regarding fairness, Scholke concluded, jurors should think about the scales Lady Justice holds in her hands—the balance between evidence and witness testimony.

  “Use your best judgment.”

  74

  CRUISE CONTROL

  BY TWO TWENTY-ONE P.M. ON THAT FIRST DAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2017, Terri O’Donnell had told her story of opening up the mystery back on October 27, 2014. Sergeant Cindy Barrette followed, along with several additional police officers. Then Laura Sartori, Kelly’s ex-boss at Oldenburg, filled in the blanks surrounding that early narrative and how Kelly became a name law enforcement had focused on.

  Their stories never changed.

  The facts never wavered.

  Truth spoke for itself.

  It is, as they say, what it is.

  * * *

  DAY TWO, FEBRUARY 15, opened with Tim Huntley, the coworker Kelly was seeing at Oldenburg at the time of Chris Regan’s murder. Tim laid down a good base of logistical facts. He pointed out how Kelly knew where the park-and-ride in Bates Township was located because she had met him there on several occasions. He said she would disappear from time to time without explanation. Seemed strange.

  It was clear Tim Huntley felt fortunate to be alive. He could have easily wound up dead.

  “I believe he was Jason and Kelly’s next intended victim,” Jeremy Ogden said later.

  MSP detective Chris Bracket, sergeant Tom Rajala, and a third MSP detective talked jurors through the early aspects of the MSP’s role in the investigation: The MSP questioned Jason and Kelly and found inconsistencies—and yet no major piece of evidence made investigators believe, at least not then, that Jason and Kelly murdered Chris Regan.

  The evidence Powell was able to get in through these witnesses built another layer on top of a mounting case: transcripts of the early Cochran interviews, cell phone records (including texts), and various s
creenshots of texts. Each spoke to the Cochrans’ subtle lies.

  Truth is universal. It never evolves.

  Shifting gears, setting her case into cruise control, Powell did a great job with her witnesses walking jurors through the A to Z narrative of the investigation, including how frustrating it had become for Laura Frizzo, who felt like she was being run in circles by Kelly and Jason.

  One of the Cochrans’ neighbors, David Saylor, made an appearance on day three, along with several additional law enforcements officers. All of this, including the evidence Powell introduced, set the stage for Laura Frizzo’s testimony. (State evidence included phone records, the Cochran computer hard drive, and the telematics from Chris’s car, proving where he went and when. There were fingerprints, photos, and additional transcripts from interviews with Kelly and Jason.)

  Frizzo detailed her entire investigation, from beginning to end. She came across as honest, detail-oriented, believable, but also a little naive with regard to what she had become entangled in. Frizzo kept up pressure on Kelly and Jason even when, she told jurors, she felt push back from certain investigators. They had questioned her instincts and balked about spending money, but never demeaned her abilities. Was she chasing the wrong kite in the wind? Was she overlooking some sort of glaring truth everyone else but her could see?

  Through Frizzo’s testimony, Powell introduced one piece of crushing evidence after the next, burying Kelly bit by bit. Videos. Kelly’s revolver. The forceps (which Kelly had pointed out on the counter inside the house). Basement floor swabs. The Cochran back door. Ceiling tiles. Calls Frizzo had with Kelly. Hats with hairs. Lab reports. A video of a “field trip” Frizzo had taken Kelly on into the woods to search for Chris’s remains. The charred SAWZALL blade used to cut a human being into pieces. The pit. Interviews with neighbors and siblings and friends.

  On, and on, and on, the evidence piled up, supported by testimony explaining how Frizzo followed this case relentlessly. Clearly, without the chief’s dogged tenacity, Chris Regan’s murder would have never been solved—with additional victims likely murdered.