Where Monsters Hide
Page 31
Everything else—the political heaps of bureaucracy and personal grudges and mistakes made by investigators—dishonors and devalues the victim, giving power to the murderer. I’m appalled, truthfully, by some of what I heard, most I did not include in this book. Laura and Jeremy are honest, good people, who believe in justice for victims of crime. Anything beyond that—their personal lives or the way they do things—is nothing but a distraction, devaluing, diminishing, and hindering their capabilities and work ethic as investigators. I find it disgusting, especially within a world today where the violence and brutality has risen and the value of human life in general has declined immensely.
* * *
LAURA FRIZZO HAD an inherent intuition of being able to feel the chemistry of those she interviewed. With Kelly, Frizzo felt there was something about her, the energy she emitted, which spoke to the darkness she harbored in her soul. Frizzo could sense it. She listened to her instincts and the public benefitted from it.
“You know, from the beginning, there was just this feeling I got from her, like nothing I have ever encountered. I have interviewed a lot of horrible, disgusting people. But with Kelly, I just couldn’t let it go,” Frizzo said.
Frizzo told Detective Jeremy Ogden about her feelings one day.
“Pure evil,” he said. “You’re sensing the evil inside that woman.”
Frizzo paused. “I believe that.... Kelly once told me that she could walk into a room and pick out the person like her.”
Frizzo understood.
Both Jeremy and Laura are psychopath whisperers, cut from different sides of the cloth—which makes them unstoppable as a team.
“This was my life,” Frizzo said. “Not once did I ever think anyone else would ever be interested in this case as a story.”
In 2015, Frizzo began to believe there was a good chance Chris Regan’s remains—“at least some of them”—were in an area landfill. But she had no resources whatsoever in order to conduct that search.
“When you’re in it, when you’re deeply involved, you’re not thinking this is an amazing case. You’re thinking, I need to get these people arrested and find this victim and bring him home to his family.”
* * *
ANY INVESTIGATION INVOLVING a missing person requires a cop to lean on his or her ability to sift through mountains of leads that go nowhere. The bottom line in most missing-person cases is only a handful of them turn out to involve nefarious activity or foul play, where the missing person is murdered or never heard from again. Out of an average 750,000 reported missing-person cases the FBI tracks each year, approximately seven hundred thousand do not involve anything evil, deadly, or dangerous. In addition, a majority of adults who go missing leave on their own, choosing to wipe out their previous life and start a new one. It is not a crime for an adult to make him- or herself disappear. Most of the time, when a “missing person” is located by law enforcement and that person asks not to disclose his or her whereabouts, it is a request met with respect.
Missing-person cases and identifying Jane and John Does has become a passion of mine. I am involved in several cases currently. I will find and identify some of these people—or die trying.
Air force veteran Christopher Regan Sr. was an avid hiker and cyclist.
When the 53-year-old went missing in October 2014, friends and family grew increasingly concerned that foul play was involved.
(Photos Courtesy of Christopher Regan Jr.)
When the Iron River Police Department went into Chris Regan’s apartment, his belongings appeared to be in the middle of being packed for a planned move to Asheville, North Carolina.
(Photo Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
Suspicion arose when law enforcement learned that Chris Regan had left behind his prescribed heart medication.
(Photo Courtesy of the Iron County
Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
Chris Regan’s ex-girlfriend, Terri O’Donnell, reported him missing. Terri checked Chris’s phone for contact information as his apartment was being searched for clues as to his whereabouts.
(Photo Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
All of the household items in these photos convinced Chief Laura Frizzo, as she dug in and questioned those closest to Chris Regan, that the last person to have seen him had been lying to her.
(Photos Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
A reddish stain in the bathtub of Chris Regan’s apartment caught the eye of law enforcement.
(Photo Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
Laura Frizzo was the first woman to be named police chief in Upper Michigan.
(Photo Courtesy of Wendy Otto Shimun)
Laura Frizzo faced continued opposition from some colleagues pressuring her to stifle her instincts. Laura promised herself, however, she would not stop until she found answers.
(Photo Courtesy of Mollie Holebecke)
The Iron River Police Department became the epicenter of the investigation into Chris Regan’s disappearance.
(Photo Courtesy of the Author)
Jason Cochran, a 36-year-old Indiana native who had recently found out his wife, Kelly Cochran, was having an affair with Chris Regan, became an early suspect.
(Photo Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
Jason Cochran smiles for his wife. Kelly later said Cochran was violent and suffered severe mental health issues during their 13-year marriage.
(Photo Courtesy of Kelly Cochran)
Kelly loved to take selfies. The 34-year-old said she lived under the anxiety of being killed if she walked out on her “rocky” marriage.
(Photo Courtesy of Kelly Cochran)
The back of Jason and Kelly Cochran’s Caspian, Michigan, home—where a fire was reported by neighbors one night, and a foul odor filled the neighborhood.
(Photo Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
These computer-generated images, designed by the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, depict Kelly Cochran’s version of what happened on the night her husband, Jason, shot Chris Regan in the head.
(Photos Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
This burn barrel was recovered from the Caspian Pit (a body of water located about 600 feet from the Cochran house) in April 2015. (Photos Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
After divers pulled the burn barrel out of the water, it was clear to Chief Laura Frizzo someone went to great lengths to hide it, submerging the barrel with a clothesline (matching the one formerly attached to the Cochran garage) tied to cinder blocks.
(Photos Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
After the Iron River Police Department and Michigan State Police searched the Cochrans’ home, the couple fled to Indiana, where they were located, photographed, and swabbed for future DNA comparison.
(Photos Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
Kelly Cochran walked Chief Laura Frizzo around a wooded area along the Pentoga Trail, 12 miles east of Iron River, where she claimed she and Jason buried Chris Regan’s body.
(Photos Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
As investigators uncovered parts of Chris Regan’s remains, they realized that his body had been dismembered, buried, and spread over an area of the forest.
(Photos Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
Investigators thought the reciprocating SAWZALL, found in the Cochrans’ truck toolbox, might have been used by Jason Cochran to dismember Chris Regan’s body.
(Photos Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
Questioned further by investigators, Kelly Cochran stated that her husband “enjoyed” decapitating Chris Regan post-mortem. (Photos Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
> Kelly Cochran smiles for her mug shot after going on a “meth-fueled” run following her husband’s death.
(Photo Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
The many faces of Kelly Cochran: Here, she smiles for her mug shot not long after her husband’s death was ruled a homicide. (Photo Courtesy of the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office)
Laura Frizzo took a moment after Chris Regan’s skull was recovered to kneel, reflect, and pray.
(Photo Courtesy of Roy D’Antonio)
The reason why Kelly Cochran will spend the rest of her life in prison: the tenacious and unparalleled law enforcement work of Jeremy Ogden, Melissa Powell, and Laura Frizzo.
(Photo Courtesy of Mollie Holebecke)
Notes
1 Most of the real-time dialogue in this book is verbatim, taken directly from a host of Axon body-cam videos the Iron River Police Department recorded during the course of this investigation.
2 This section is from letters and telephone interview between Kelly Cochran and author.
3 I made multiple inquiries to several of the MSP detectives involved in this case, told coworkers to have them contact me for their version of what transpired, but never heard back. Not even to decline.
4 I have chosen to italicize Kelly’s version of events, and to include quotation marks at pertinent sections, because she is the only source for it.
5 Within all of this recounting, Kelly plays the role of subordinate wife, scared of her husband. She presents herself as a timid, cowering woman, willing to do anything he wants, fearing for her life. My professional opinion, and that of two law enforcement sources, after studying this case, is that Kelly reversed these roles.