Kelly Cochran was sentenced to life in prison in 2017
Credit: Michigan Department of Corrections
NEED TO KNOW
- Kelly Cochran murdered her lover in 2014, and killed her husband, Jason Cochran, two years later
- She was sentenced to life in prison in 2017
- ABC’s 20/20 episode “Where Monsters Hide,” which first aired in 2023, explores the case
When Christopher Regan disappeared from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in October 2014 after missing several days of work, friends knew something was wrong.
The military veteran’s disappearance eventually led investigators to his lover, Kelly Cochran, and her husband, Jason. Prosecutors said the couple lured Regan to their home, where Jason fatally shot him before they dismembered his body and scattered his remains in the woods. During the investigation, Kelly claimed she and Jason had made a sinister wedding-night pact to kill anyone they had an affair with, per Upper Michigan’s Source.
But the shocking case didn’t end there. Nearly two years after Regan’s death, Jason died under suspicious circumstances, and investigators accused Kelly of killing him as well. In 2017, Kelly was convicted of first-degree murder in Regan’s death, according to MLive.com, and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The following year, she pleaded guilty to Jason’s death as part of a plea deal, per ABC7 Chicago.
The Cochran case was later revisited in ABC’s 20/20 episode “Where Monsters Hide,” which featured a prison interview with Kelly and body-camera footage from the Cochrans’ so-called “house of horrors.”
So, where is Kelly Cochran today? Here’s everything to know about her life after killing two men.
Who is Kelly Cochran?
Credit: Law&Crime Network/Youtube
Kelly was in her early 30s when she moved to Iron River, Mich., with her husband, Jason. The couple, who grew up as neighbors in Hobart, Ind., relocated to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where Kelly took a job at Oldenburg Group, a manufacturing company that supplied products to the U.S. Navy.
There, she began an affair with her supervisor, Regan, while also dating another coworker, Eric Erickson. During police interviews, Kelly claimed Jason knew about both relationships and wasn’t bothered by them.
What happened to Christopher Regan?
Regan disappeared in October 2014 after going to the home of his coworker and lover, Kelly. After Regan missed several days of work, a friend reported him missing, launching an investigation that would eventually uncover his murder.
According to prosecutors, Kelly lured Regan to the home she shared with her husband, Jason, on Oct. 14, 2014. There, Jason fatally shot Regan with a .22-caliber rifle while Kelly assisted in carrying out the plan. The couple then dismembered Regan’s body in their basement and scattered his remains in a wooded area along Pentoga Trail in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, according to The Daily News.
One of the most disturbing aspects of the Cochran case is the alleged “wedding pact” between Kelly and her husband.
According to prosecutors and Kelly’s own statements to investigators, the couple agreed on their wedding night in September 2002 that if either of them ever had an affair, the unfaithful spouse would have to kill their lover — or be killed by their spouse instead. Investigators believe that agreement ultimately became the motive behind the murder of Regan after Kelly began an affair with him.
Kelly acknowledged discussing the pact at her 2017 trial, but insisted she never believed Jason was serious.
“This was stated by my husband on our wedding night. Did I take it serious? No … I thought it was a joke. I didn’t take it seriously,” she testified.
How did Kelly Cochran get caught?
Credit: Law&Crime Network/Youtube; Hulu
Kelly wasn’t caught because of a single piece of evidence. Instead, investigators slowly built their case over nearly two years, and it wasn’t until her husband’s death that everything unraveled.
After Regan disappeared in October 2014, police quickly focused on Kelly and her husband, Jason, because Regan had been having an affair with Kelly. But with no body, murder weapon or eyewitnesses, investigators didn’t have enough evidence to charge either of them. The Cochrans eventually moved back to Indiana while the investigation stalled.
The breakthrough came in February 2016, when Kelly called 911 to report that Jason wasn’t breathing. An autopsy determined he had died from asphyxiation, and an anonymous tip alerted the FBI that his death might be connected to Regan’s disappearance. That prompted Hobart, Ind., detective Jeremy Ogden to work with Iron River police to investigate both cases together.
Rather than immediately arrest Kelly, Ogden spent weeks building a rapport with her through a series of voluntary interviews. He also used several psychological tactics to encourage her to talk, including staging a fake letter that supposedly implicated Jason and carving the words “CHRIS IS HERE” into a tree stump near a wooded area Kelly frequently visited, per 20/20. Soon afterward, Kelly contacted Ogden and said she needed to talk.
During those interviews, Kelly admitted that Regan had been killed and initially blamed Jason for pulling the trigger. She eventually acknowledged that she had lured Regan to their home and led investigators to the wooded area in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where his skull, eyeglasses and other remains were recovered.
Kelly later recanted much of her confession during her trial in February 2017, claiming Jason acted alone and that she helped dispose of Regan’s body because she feared her husband. Prosecutors argued she was an active participant in the murder, and a Michigan jury agreed. She was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
In April 2018, Kelly pleaded guilty in Indiana to voluntary manslaughter in Jason’s death and received a 65-year prison sentence, per ABC7 Chicago.
Where is Kelly Cochran now?
Kelly is serving a life sentence at the Women’s Huron Valley Correctional Facility, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections.
She unsuccessfully appealed her murder conviction twice, first in 2019 and again in 2020.
Over the years, the case has spawned several sensational rumors. During police interviews, Kelly claimed she and Jason had killed multiple people across several states, but investigators never found evidence to substantiate those claims, and Kelly later retracted those statements during trial.
Another persistent rumor alleged the Cochrans served Regan’s remains to neighbors at a barbecue after his murder, per ABC News. Authorities have repeatedly said they found no evidence to support the claim, and it was never part of the prosecution’s case.
In a 2023 prison interview with ABC News’ Juju Chang for 20/20’s “Where Monsters Hide,” Kelly denied the rumors and maintained that she never killed anyone, including Regan or Jason.
“I’m not a bad person. I was raised by good people. I’ve never harmed anybody,” she said. “My husband disabled [Regan] and cut him up in front of me. I was tied up.”
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