Most marriage vows contain rather archaic verbiage that most couples discard during that portion of their wedding. However, there are other couples who take it to the other extreme. This is the case of a couple who made a pact to commit murder.
Kelly Gaboyan was born and raised in Merrillville, Indiana, where she lived next door to Jason Cochran. The two mainly hung out in a large group of friends growing up, but as they got older, they began hanging out alone together more and more. They grew even closer when they discovered they wanted to attend the same university, and began dating.
While at Purdue, Kelly studied psychology, sociology, and forensics.
In 2002, Kelly and Jason married. By all accounts, the pairing seemed an odd one to many of their friends and family. Kelly and Jason were complete opposites, and no one really understood what drew the couple together.
The wedding was a fun affair, and the union included all of the standard vows. However, once the party wrapped up, the couple made another vow to each other – they would kill anyone who they might cheat with.
Jason and Kelly built a very successful business servicing swimming pools in the area of their hometown. However, ten years of hard labour took its toll on Jason, and soon his back gave out completely, rendering him unable to work, and dealing with excruciating and chronic pain.
Though Kelly worked hard, the bills kept piling up, and soon the Cochrans found themselves barely able to keep their heads above water. As such, in 2013, they decided to move to Caspian, Michigan, near the community of Iron River, where Kelly was able to find a good job. Medical marijuana was legal in Michigan at this time, and the Cochrans hoped that this would help Jason manage his pain better.
Kelly took a job at a manufacturing company, which specialized in making parts for naval ships. There, she met a man 20 years her senior, 53-year-old Chris Regan. The two hit it off, and became fast friends.
Chris was a very athletic, and outdoorsy man. He was a kind person, and an extremely skilled cyclist. He was well-respected at work, and his colleagues loved working with him. He was dating Terri O’Donnell, a teacher, and things seemed to be going very well.
However, his relationship had fallen on hard times, and Chris was feeling rather restless. He decided it was time for a change of scenery, and began pursuing other ventures.
In 2014, he had applied for a job opportunity in North Carolina. The job was more or less his for the taking, but he had one more step to take. All he had to do was take a drug test, and pass.
As he’d just had surgery on his knee, and he’d been prescribed Percocet for the pain, he also had a note from his doctor explaining why these may be found in the results of the test.
On October 14th, 2014, Chris had planned to spend the night with his friend Kelly Cochran. But they weren’t just friends. Jason had discovered that the two were having an affair, and he and Kelly argued over how to handle the situation. Jason brought up their marriage pact, believing this was the answer to his problems.
Kelly lured Chris to the Cochran home, where he was caught off guard, and fatally shot by Jason at point-blank range with a .22 rifle. The couple then spent the rest of the evening dismembering his body, and hiding him in the woods.
The following day, Chris was scheduled to take his drug test. But he never showed up to the appointment.
His son, who was supposed to move to North Carolina with Chris, also had a hard time reaching his father. As Chris Jr. did not live near his father, and was ready to move, he didn’t have the means to go to Iron River and find his father himself.
Chris Jr. called Terri and expressed his concerns. Though they had broken up, Terri and Chris had remained close, and planned on spending the Thanksgiving holidays together in North Carolina. The more time went without word from Chris, the more she knew something was horribly wrong.
Terri reported Chris missing to the Iron River City Police, communicating predominantly with Chief Laura Frizzo.
As Terri’s parents were the landlords of Chris’ apartment building, they allowed investigators to go and take a look. Terri handed them the keys, and they entered. What they found alarmed Terri greatly.
The apartment was in complete disarray, which went against Chris’ organized nature. While some disorder was expected due to the move, finding Chris’ laptop open, with notes scattered around the table, and dirty dishes and takeout containers strewn across the kitchen was not normal. Terri also noticed that some medication that Chris needed to take daily was still in his apartment. However, his prescription Percocet was gone.
Shortly after searching Chris’ apartment and coming up with very few leads, investigators were alerted to Chris’ car being found on the outskirts of town, at a park and ride.
Terri informed investigators that Chris would not have gone anywhere without his car. He had just purchased the vehicle, and he treated it like a precious baby. She also noticed that his knee brace was inside, which is something he needed to wear at all times following his knee surgery.
It appeared as though the vehicle had been left with the intention of being forgotten. However, it had not been cleaned, and investigators found something that had been left behind – a post-it note. The note had directions written on it, that led from a house to the park and ride. Backtracking the direction, they found themselves at a private home – the residence of Kelly and Jason Cochran.
Investigators knocked on their door, and asked if they could come to the station in order to answer some questions. They noticed that Kelly seemed perfectly at ease, while Jason looked a nervous wreck. The two were taken in, and then questioned separately.
Kelly readily admitted to having an affair with Chris. She also claimed that Jason was more than okay with the arrangement. In fact, she said, they had an open marriage. She also mentioned that she’d been having an affair with another man from work – Erik Erickson. When she was asked about Chris’ car being at the park and ride, she told them that she’d never been there before, and didn’t even know where it was.
While Kelly was discussing these details with ease, Jason was showing signs of agitation and jealousy. He seemed irritated by Kelly’s affairs, and stated that he had a history of suicidal ideation.
The pain he was in made it difficult for him to perform in the bedroom, and he knew this was why Kelly sought comfort in other men. Jason told investigators that he was in therapy for his mental health, and on medication for his anxieties.
When he was asked about Chris, Jason became more distraught, and told investigators that a few days following his disappearance, he had checked himself into a mental health facility.
When they were asked to volunteer for polygraph tests, they both declined.
With this knowledge in hand, it didn’t take long for investigators to find Erik and ask him a few questions. He was extremely cooperative, and submitted to a polygraph test, which he passed.
He also told them something interesting about his relationship with Kelly – they were often at the park and ride where Chris’ car had been found. They would often park there for their dates, which included picnics and hiking.
The more investigators heard about Kelly and Jason, the more they felt that they were responsible not only for Chris Regan’s disappearance, but possibly his death. However, they needed to find solid evidence before they could arrest and charge them.
In March 2015, investigators presented the Cochrans with a search warrant for their home, and escorted them from the property. While Kelly was forthcoming about the loaded .22 she kept near the entertainment unit, she neglected to mention the knives, swords, and hammer laying around the house out on the open.
Sitting with neighbours, Kelly appeared to be slightly nervous, while Jason appeared to be absolutely terrified. The couple kept mumbling and whispering to each other, which struck the neighbours as incredibly odd.
In the home, after finding a plethora of knives, a sword, and a hammer, investigators also performed luminol tests in various areas. They found what looked to them to be castoff blood patterns on the living room ceiling, as well as other blood evidence on one of the walls.
These samples were taken for testing, but they were found to be inconclusive. While they were, indeed, blood spots, there was no way to determine who’s blood it was. There had been attempts made to clean up the blood, and it appeared to have been hastily painted over.
The search of their home truly terrified the Cochrans. While they felt certain they had cleaned up all evidence of the murder, they couldn’t be 100% sure.
The day following the search of their home, they fled Michigan, and returned to Indiana.
With the Cochrans gone, more neighbours came forward to investigators, and told them about how strange things had been around the neighbourhood since the disappearance of Chris Regan.
Neighbours began telling investigators about the strange noises they’d heard from the Cochran home in the days following Chris’ disappearance. That very night, one neighbour heard gunshots. This was followed by a woman yelling: “No, no!” and then a man scream: “Let’s get out of here” as two cars sped away from the house.
Many neighbours also stated that they heard the sounds of power tools – especially drills and saws – as well as hammering in the middle of the night in the days following the sound of the gunshot.
Neighbours also noticed a horrible smell that permeated the entire neighbourhood. The smell came from a burn barrel in the yard of the Cochran home. When confronted, the Cochrans tried to play it off, but soon realized it was drawing suspicion their way. And they refused to be considered suspicious.
Almost as a macabre apology to the neighbours, Kelly and Jason invited everyone over for a cookout. They were making up burgers with a translucent-looking meat that none of them had ever seen before. When asked, Jason said that he had been a butcher in Indiana, and he specialized in “exotic meats”. The neighbours also noticed that the burgers tasted very odd. Many of them were left wondering exactly what they ate that night.
With the Cochrans now gone, police continued to search the home. They found more knives, and journals where Jason would write macabre, horrifying short stories, one of which was titled “Where Monsters Hide”, which detailed events very similar to the infamous The Most Dangerous Game.
Realizing that they may need reinforcements, Chief Laura Frizzo reached out to the FBI for further assistance investigating the Cochrans.
From there, they mobilized a search of a body of water near the residence. During this search, a burn barrel was found. While the contents of the barrel could not be accounted for, neighbours identified the barrel as having belonged to the Cochrans. They were also able to identify a clothesline which had been wrapped around it has having come from the Cochran home.
With the FBI on board, they were able to use federal resources to track the GPS on Chris’ car. They found that prior to being found at the park and ride, the last location Chris’ car had been was the Cochran home on October 14th, 2014. This was also the day all communications with Chris ceased, and all of his banking activity stopped.
All signs pointed to Kelly and Jason Cochran being involved in Chris’ disappearance, and most likely his murder. Chief Frizzo made a request for a DNA warrant, and then made a call to Indiana law enforcement for assistance in speaking to Kelly and Jason.
Law enforcement in Indiana was more than willing to cooperate, and brought Kelly and Jason into the station for questioning. When they saw Laura Frizzo walk into the station, they both immediately made requests for lawyers. As they could not be held any longer, they were released, and Laura returned to Michigan.
By this time, the Cochrans were easily spooked. And when spooked, they took action. This time, though, Kelly was the one who took control.
In February of 2016, Kelly made a frantic call to 911, claiming that her husband, Jason, was having difficulties breathing. When first responders arrived on the scene, Kelly got in the way, asked them questions repeatedly, and more or less used her body to block their access to the room where Jason was lying dead. Kelly had to be forcibly removed so that they could get to work.
When they found Jason, they noticed that he was surrounded by drug paraphernalia – predominately, what looked like implements for the intake of heroin.
When Jason was declared dead, investigators asked the medical examiner to be thorough during the autopsy, and to make note of anything that seemed out of place. While they suspected that heroin was a factor, they didn’t think it was the only one.
The results of the autopsy showed that Jason had signs of petechial hemorrhaging, and his nasal cavity had collapsed. While the official cause of death was a heroin overdose, the signs of suffocation and/or asphyxiation determined that this may not have been done voluntarily by Jason himself.
The investigation fell to Detective Jeremy Ogden. Jeremy had been aware of who Kelly Cochran was, and the work that Laura Frizzo had done in Michigan. Jeremy knew that this would be a tricky investigation, and he developed a strategy. He decided to be Kelly’s friend, and treat her as a victim, not a suspect. And it worked.
Kelly Cochran warmed up to Jeremy, and slowly, she began opening up to Jeremy. As he was leaning into the “friendship”, Jeremy received help from an unlikely source.
A man named Walt called Jeremy, and informed him that he had been a friend of Jason’s. He’d read the news about the notoriety surrounding the Cochrans, and he wanted to help. He felt something fishy had been going on, and he wanted to clear the air.
Jeremy and Walt developed a plan to see how Kelly would react. Walt, while wearing a wire, called Kelly and told her that Jason had sent him a note. The note said that if anything were to happen to him, Walt was to forward the enclosed letter to Iron River law enforcement. Walt told Kelly that he intended to send the letter. Hearing this, Kelly responded by saying: “Please don’t”. Walt ended the call, and Jeremy knew that he had to play “good cop” with Kelly more than ever.
When she’s brought into the station, Kelly confided in Jeremy and explained to him that she had made a murder pact with her husband, Jason, on their wedding night. She told him that she thought it was a joke, but he took it seriously. She said that Jason forced her to lure Chris to the house, where Jason then shot him. He then forced Kelly to help with dismembering his body, and together they disposed of him in the woods.
Kelly agreed to be held in custody, though she wasn’t yet arrested. She went back to Michigan with Jeremy, and led investigators to Chris’ body, as well as re-enacted his murder in her former home. Once investigators in Michigan picked up the investigation again, Kelly went back to Indiana with Jeremy, which had been part of their deal, as they waited for the arrest warrants to come through.
On April 26th, 2016, Kelly did as she had done before when law enforcement began closing in on her – she fled Indiana.
A warrant for the arrest of Kelly Cochran was finally issued, and she was to be charged with murder, home invasion (as they believed she had rifled through Chris’ apartment), conspiracy to commit bodies disinterment and mutilation, concealing the death of an individual, lying to a police officer, and accessory to murder after the fact upon being taken into custody.
Kelly thought she could outsmart law enforcement, and responded to text messages from Jeremy with taunting selfies. She pretended to be on the west coast, where she wouldn’t be caught. Meanwhile, her phone was easily tracked to Wingo, Kentucky.
Kelly Cochran was arrested by U.S. Marshals on April 29th, 2016.
Finally caught, Kelly Cochran showed her true colours.
She told investigators that she was incapable of feeling, and that she felt a rush from seeing the blood as she and Jason murdered Chris. She also stated that she killed her husband, Jason, as an act of revenge. He had forced her to kill the man she “loved”, so, in her words, she “evened the score”.
During the course of her trial, prosecutors theorized that the murder plot against Chris really came to fruition when he declined her advances for a more serious relationship. Knowing how Jason would react, she told him about the affair, and the plan was put into place.
Kelly Cochran was found guilty of all charges laid against her, and was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of Chris Regan. In April of 2018, she was sentenced to an additional 65 years for killing her husband.
As Kelly began serving her sentence, others began to speculate about whether or not these were her only crimes.
By her own admission to Jeremy Ogden, she has killed 9 people across the midwestern United States. She refuses to divulge the names or whereabouts of these alleged victims.
Kelly Cochran attempted to appeal her conviction for the murder of Chris Regan, but she was denied at both the District and Supreme Court levels.
Kelly Cochran truly believed that she could talk her way out of anything, and run from the law. But being talked into a murder pact put her exactly where she belongs – firmly behind bars.
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Sources:
Inside The Murderous Love Life Of Kelly Cochran, The ‘Devil Woman’ Of Michigan – Marco Margaritoff, Edited By Erik Hawkins – All That’s Interesting
Kelly Cochran: Where is Jason Cochran’s Wife Now? – Kriti Mehrotra – The Cinemaholic
Morbid podcast – Episode 355 – Kelly Cochrane AKA “The Devil Woman of Michigan”
Dead North documentary – Discovery+