Where Monsters Hide

by M. William Phelps

  On February 28, 2017, Melissa Powell stood at the lectern. She wore black-framed glasses and a black sweater dress. The case Powell had presented was ironclad: all she needed to do now was put a shine on it and get jurors to understand that despite what Kelly Cochran said or did not say, the facts of the case were never in dispute. Additionally, there was no one else with a motive. The last place Chris Regan visited—the Cochran house—was where he had been murdered. He was never seen again after that day in October when he drove to Lawrence Street. Forensic blood evidence, trace evidence, and computer forensic evidence backed up what Kelly had said during over one hundred hours of interviews.

  “The Cochrans are bonded in blood. The defendant’s testimony, as you heard, is that they had marital problems prior to moving to Iron River, yet she moved with him, anyway, and they bought a house.” Powell said, “Those problems escalated when she started seeing numerous men, and culminated with the death of Christopher Regan on October 14, 2014.” To that end: “Jason Cochran and Kelly Cochran are bonded in blood—and that bond only got stronger after Chris’s death.”

  Powell paused. Then emphasizing one important factor: “According to the defendant.”

  This led the PA into giving Chris Regan his due as the victim, describing him as a father, Gulf War vet, and good person.

  Throughout the hour and a half Powell spent summarizing the most important facts of the case, she utilized Kelly’s own words to show how, if one was to pay close attention, Kelly Cochran herself was the driving force behind the murder, not Jason.

  * * *

  MIKE SCHOLKE WALKED TOWARD that mountain he’d set out to summit back on day one. By no fault of his own, Scholke had little to work with: a client who had told so many lies, it was difficult to sift through it all and find the truth.

  Scholke used Kelly’s own admission that she was a liar to her advantage, but it came out flat, sort of like trying to extinguish an apartment fire with a garden hose.

  “Anything she tells you should be looked at with great scrutiny,” Scholke admitted. “And the only evidence they (the prosecution) have is the word of Miss Cochran.”

  That was beyond the stretch of imagination.

  “Numerous versions of [the murder] have been told . . . none have been proven,” Scholke stated. He noted that although Kelly had lied “time after time, the amount of scientific evidence was not enough to prove her guilt.” He then encouraged jurors to rely on the testimony of the only eyewitness.

  “We only have Kelly’s word as to what happened to Chris,” Scholke said before contradicting himself. “Kelly is a liar. There is no proof that Kelly’s stories, any of them, are anything but fiction.”

  * * *

  THE JURY DELIBERATED FOR two and a half hours before announcing they’d reached a unanimous verdict. On Tuesday, February 28, 2017, the courtroom buzzed with word that Kelly Cochran was going to learn her fate.

  The judge asked Kelly and her attorney to stand.

  Kelly was shackled at the hip, her hands strapped to metal bracelets fastened to a leather belt. Besides rocking slightly from side to side, she did not move.

  Laura Frizzo and Melissa Powell sat in their chairs, arms folded in front of themselves on the oak table.

  Jeremy Ogden sat two bench rows behind Frizzo and Powell.

  Kelly was found guilty of First-degree Murder, Aiding and Abetting. On count number two, Larceny, guilty. Count number three, Conspiracy to commit dead bodies to disinterment and Mutilation, guilty. Count number four, Concealing and Abducting an individual, guilty. Count number five, Lying to a peace officer during a police investigation, guilty.

  Kelly never flinched. She displayed no reaction or emotion. She said nothing.

  77

  “OH, MY GOD”

  ALL JEREMY OGDEN AND LAURA FRIZZO WANTED WAS FOR KELLY Cochran to be honest, admit what she’d done, and face justice. There was a certain amount of ambiguity regarding Jason Cochran and empathy for him as a murder victim. If one was to believe Kelly, Jason had murdered several people, among many other heinous acts—and she was doling out punishment to him for taking away the one person she actually loved. Besides the clinical fact that Kelly, being a psychopath, was unable to love, justice wasn’t about Jason or Kelly. At least for Jeremy and Laura, it was about Chris Regan and his family. It did not matter what anyone else thought.

  “I think more people dislike me now because of this case than ever before,” Ogden said later. “You have no idea how bad this has been for me. A patrolman changes a tire on a patrol car and gets an ‘attaboy’—but they won’t acknowledge this case in any way.”

  How bad had it gotten? Ogden was sent back to patrol for six months after solving Chris Regan’s disappearance / murder. A decision that defies logic, in so many ways.

  At some point later, he left the job.

  Despite the politics Frizzo and Ogden faced, Lady Justice still had work to do. In May 2017, Kelly was sentenced to mandatory life in prison; she would never get out. Eleven months later, on Wednesday, April 18, 2018, after nearly a year, law enforcement was able to drag Kelly back into court, where she sat, looking tired, far older than her thirty-five years, beaten down by prison life. After a year behind bars, much of that time in quarantine and solitary, Kelly was heavier, had wrinkles where they previously did not exist, and an overall look of a twenty-year prison veteran.

  After months of negotiation, Kelly stood and pleaded guilty to injecting Jason with a fatal dose of heroin before placing her hands around his neck, nose, and mouth, smothering him until he died. Her motive, Kelly said, was that “Jason had taken [away] the only good thing” (Chris Regan) she had going on in life. Kelly had given up, despite all she had said since her murder conviction regarding promises of fighting the case against her for Jason’s murder and taking it to trial.

  For her admission, Indiana agreed not to seek the death penalty or life in prison. The state also agreed not to file additional charges.

  Murder is punishable by forty-five to sixty-five years in prison in Indiana. Kelly’s sixty-five-year sentence, which the judge handed down, would be served consecutive with her life sentence in Michigan.

  After Kelly’s plea, Melissa Powell issued a statement, which summed up the feelings of law enforcement in general: I’m pleased to see a conviction in the Indiana murder of Jason Cochran. Some may believe he is not worthy of empathy due to his role in the death of Chris Regan, but keep in mind he has a mother, father, brother and other family members who suffered greatly after his death and the ensuing, horrific revelations that came with the investigation and prosecution of Kelly Cochran. Further, Powell added: [I am] grateful for the cooperation and assistance Iron County received from Lake County, Indiana law enforcement and, in particular, the Hobart Police Department, detective Jeremy Ogden and assistant district attorney Nadia Wardrip . . .

  Beyond that, Powell verbalized the most obvious, yet unspoken, truth present throughout the investigation: I also want to specifically state that former Iron River Police Chief Laura Frizzo and Detective Ogden did an outstanding piece of investigative work to secure the conviction of Kelly Cochran in both Michigan and Indiana. No law enforcement officer is an island in any investigation and our thanks go out to the many, many law enforcement agencies . . . involved in the investigation into Chris Regan and Jason Cochran’s murders. It should be noted that Ogden and Frizzo logged countless hours on this case above and beyond what is expected in a typical investigation and, but for their dogged determination and dedication to seeing justice achieved for the families involved, Kelly Cochran might still be walking the streets.

  No doubt, still killing.

  Nothing was more accurate than that final part of the statement. Frizzo and Ogden were driven by justice for the victim; both of them had made Chris Regan’s disappearance the focus of their lives. They were not going to stop until they brought Chris home.

  Melissa Powell also thanked a long list of agencies involved in the case.
/>   * * *

  AFTER THE PLEA HEARING, Jeremy Ogden, Laura Frizzo, and the lawyers went back to a conference room for a chat. Family members of Jason Cochran’s stepped in.

  “I hate you,” someone close to Jason said to Jeremy Ogden, according to multiple sources attending the meeting. “I wish you would die and rot in hell.”

  Ogden was livid.

  “Why?” he asked.

  “You allowed Kelly to cremate [Jason’s body] when we wanted to bury him.”

  Are you serious right now? Ogden thought.

  “Look, I had no way to stop Kelly at that time,” Ogden tried to explain. Then: “I don’t get it? We bring justice to the family and they still find a reason to hate.”

  * * *

  IN EARLY 2018, LAURA FRIZZO was with a film crew at the location where Chris’s skull had been found. They were filming a two-part documentary for Investigation Discovery about the case. Frizzo brought Hela, the K9, and her handler, Alyssa Palmer, out to the same field for aesthetics, hoping to re-create the drama of that day when they recovered Chris’s skull.

  As filming began, Hela picked up a scent. Everyone looked on. Frizzo and Hela’s handler followed.

  The dog ran over to an area and sat.

  “Oh, my God,” someone yelled.

  There was the lower half of Chris Regan’s jawbone staring up at them from the ground.

  “That was from Chris to me,” Frizzo said. “No doubt about it.”

  78

  FINALLY

  WITH THAT FAKE LETTER JEREMY OGDEN HAD THOUGHT UP, AND Walt Ammerman put into play by calling Kelly and telling her about it, Ogden had made his checkmate move. Along with that carving in the fallen tree, Kelly had been thrown off her game and admitted details about Chris Regan’s murder that only someone with knowledge of the crime could have known.

  Regardless whether she later downplayed the move and claimed it did not bother her, it was a brilliant investigatory ploy.

  “She will . . . never admit that I got her,” Ogden concluded. “She tries to show how she is superior to everyone all the time. Just like at her sentencing, Kelly made sure her attorney told the judge she had found five grammatical errors and spelling mistakes in the agreement she signed. She wants to put people in their place.... Kelly is counting on the Michigan conviction to be overturned on appeal. Well, I have one for her—I got her! She is in that box for the rest of her life because of a letter that only existed in my mind and a carving in a tree that made her believe she was being haunted by her victims, even if she now refuses to admit she even saw the carvings.”

  EPILOGUE AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I FOLLOWED THIS CASE FROM THE DAY I SAW IT COME OVER THE WIRES as it broke. It interested me on many levels, especially Kelly Cochran, an enigma among the dozens of female murderers I have researched, written about, and provided commentary about on television. Not that Kelly is all that different than your typical female psychopath—but there was something about her extreme narcissism I found utterly compelling, and unlike what I have generally come across.

  During a jailhouse interview in June 2018, which I conducted with Kelly via Skype as I finished this manuscript, I asked her about Jason and potential murders he committed in Indiana.

  She paused, brushed a lock of hair covering her right eye: “Here’s the thing, I am being held in Indiana, because they need information from me.”

  Kelly had just been sentenced for Jason’s murder. She wanted out of isolation of twenty-three hours a day in Indiana, which, she claimed, was punishment for not talking about those murders in Indiana. Until that was on the table and she could go back to a Michigan prison, Kelly wasn’t talking.

  “So all that information about the pig farm in Indiana, what about it? You don’t think he killed anyone in Indiana?”

  She smiled, shrugged, nodded her head up and down.

  We talked about the portrait of Jason in Michigan as a guy who smoked weed, played video games, ate, took walks, fished, slept.

  As I said this, Kelly shook her head.

  “No, no, no. You know what bothers me is that so many people tried to paint a picture of somebody who was not capable of so many things. So many people wanted to make me the mastermind. And you know what? I am very intelligent. I am very capable of anything. But Jason was capable of anything, and it bothers me because . . .”

  She trailed off and smiled, implying he had more alone time on his hands.

  “I made the money. That was [the] only thing he didn’t do.”

  I told Kelly that Jason didn’t appear disabled on those videos law enforcement found on her phone.

  “No, he wasn’t fucking disabled!”

  “If he was able to cut up a body,” I said. “He wasn’t disabled.”

  “And carry it! I mean, cutting up a body with a tool is easy,” Kelly said.

  “I meant mentally.”

  “Oh, yeah.”

  During this same Skype interview, I asked Kelly if Jason lured Chris over to the house that day they killed him.

  “He didn’t,” she responded. “I invited him over.”

  “Why did Jason wait until you were having sex with Chris to kill him? It does not make sense to me that he would wait—why not just ambush him when he came through the door?”

  “Because he didn’t kill him right away.”

  “You mean,” I said, “going back to [a letter you wrote me of your version being confined to a chair and made to watch]?”

  “Yeah, yeah . . . it took two hours, fourteen minutes, and fifteen seconds.”

  “You saying he tortured him then?”

  “Yeah.”

  “He made you stay there? Watch. He was taking away something from you that you loved?”

  Kelly thought about this.

  “He knew . . . he believed that he was taking something away from me that I loved. He believed that he was hurting me. Of course, it was horrible to have that done in front of me . . . and I had real strong feelings for Chris. I don’t know if it was really love, though.”

  I asked Kelly if she was capable of loving another human being. She sat, staring at me, a large grin emerging. Then she laughed, before going silent for an uncomfortable amount of time.

  “I believe so,” she finally said, before laughing again.

  “It took you a long time to answer that, Kelly.”

  “Yeah, it did.”

  “Do you think you can connect with people that way?”

  She sighed. Laughed. “Um . . . oh . . . I haven’t had many relationships.”

  I didn’t really know what to say.

  “Every man that I have ever been with,” she said, “is either dead or is a killer. Every man.”

  * * *

  WITHOUT THE HELP of Laura Frizzo and Jeremy Ogden, this book would have lacked the detail I was able to impart. They were always professional, helpful, quick in their replies, gracious with their time, and honest, even when it did not suit their needs. I could never thank each enough. I have met two new, lifelong friends. The fact that they fell in love during this investigation proves to me that there is hope within all of the madness found in this case.

  Many entities and individuals involved in this investigation deserve mention. In no particular order: Iron River Police Department, Caspian-Gaastra Public Safety, Iron County Sheriff’s Office, Michigan State Police, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Iron County Medical Examiner, the Hobart, Indiana, Police Department, Lake County Coroner’s Office, various laboratories that processed evidence on a state and national level, the U.S. Marshal Service, Kentucky State Police, the Graves County Kentucky Jail, Michigan Backcountry Search and Rescue, Escanaba Public Safety, Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Lake County, Indiana, law enforcement agencies, and many other agencies and individuals.

  Iron County prosecuting attorney Melissa A. Powell was a pivotal source in my research and understanding of this case at the beginning. Court reporter Sue Valenti was generous with transcripts and timely with tur
naround. She did a superb job during the trial and afterward, transcribing the entire case quickly, while lawyers, producers, and writers breathed down the back of her neck. Likewise, Sue Mayo, from the prosecutor’s office, was a godsend; always willing to help, providing me with documents and videos and audio I either lost on my computer, could not find, or did not receive. These are the good people, who make my job easier and keep research fluid, allowing me to meet deadlines and figure cases out. I could not be more grateful. Thank you for everything.

  * * *

  WITH THE AMOUNT of research I amassed during the writing of this book, I could have written an eight-hundred-page manuscript that would have been just as compelling as what I wound up with. However, the mere heft of it would have scared many readers away. I chose the most important elements of the case, and what I thought needed to be brought into the public forum. It is a story unlike any I have ever come across in writing nearly forty books. Thank you to everyone involved in this case: from the person behind the scenes who goes unnamed, to law enforcement, to the lawyers, judge, the bailiffs, and courtroom personnel. I know I’ve forgotten someone important and for that I apologize.

  Vida Engstrand, Kensington Publishing Corp.’s communications director, has become a friend and relentless advocate for my career. Vida and I go back a long way and I wanted to publicly say that without Vida, I would be a raft in the world of publishing floating aimlessly.

  Lastly, Jeremy Ogden and Laura Frizzo deserved more than the crap they put up with throughout this case and afterward. Without them, Chris Regan’s murderers would have gone free and his remains would be sitting in a field somewhere. But more important, others would have been killed. Jeremy and Laura saved lives. There is no doubt in my mind about this. The lack of respect they received was surely based on ego and jealousy and personal feelings. In my opinion, there is no room for any of that nonsense in policing. Jeremy and Laura kept the focus on one thing: the victim. In any murder case, the victim is, really, all that should matter.