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Trial: Made-up letter spurs Cochran to talk

KELLY COCHRAN WITH defense attorney Michael Scholke. (Nikki Younk/Daily News photo)

CRYSTAL FALLS — Authorities probing the 2014 disappearance of Christopher Regan of Iron River hit a turning point in their investigation in March 2016, when they devised a plan to get suspect Kelly Cochran talking.

The plan, which involved a fictitious letter Cochran’s husband wanted a friend to send to police, was described to jurors Tuesday in Cochran’s Iron County trial for Regan’s death.

The jury also heard an Indiana detective testify Tuesday that he was unable to verify any of Cochran’s claims about committing multiple other homicides.

Cochran, 34, formerly of Caspian, reportedly helped her now-deceased husband, Jason Cochran, kill 53-year-old Regan and then dismember his body and hide the remains in October 2014. The defense maintains Jason Cochran acted alone in the murder and coerced his wife to participate in concealing the death.

Cochran had been carrying on an extramarital affair with Regan at the time of his disappearance, so she and Jason Cochran emerged as suspects early on the investigation. After a police search of the Cochran’s Caspian residence in March 2015, the couple left town and returned to their former home in Indiana.

SGT. JAMES BUCK, a firearms examiner with the Michigan State Police, shows jurors Tuesday the portion of a .22 rifle investigators found in the Caspian pit in May 2016. He was unable to get much information from the gun, as the serial number had been scratched off and the firearm was inoperable. Authorities said Kelly Cochran admitted throwing the gun in the pit after the October 2014 killing of Christopher Regan. (Nikki Younk/Daily News photo)

Walter Ammerman, a friend of Jason Cochran, testified he became suspicious when Jason Cochran died Feb. 20, 2016, and decided to contact the FBI. Detective Jeremy Ogden of the local Indiana police department subsequently asked Ammerman in March 2016 to assist in the case.

The plan, Ammerman said, was for him to convince Kelly Cochran that her late husband had given him a letter in December 2015, telling him to mail it to the Iron River police should anything happen.

Cochran was surprised by the news, Ammerman said, and asked him to not send the letter in a recorded phone conversation. However, she later told him to “do what you’ve got to do.”

In an earlier court hearing, Iron County Prosecutor Melissa Powell said it was after this that Cochran began talking to police about Regan’s disappearance and murder.

Cochran also reportedly admitted to Indiana police she killed Jason Cochran as revenge for Regan’s death, according to court documents.

Ogden’s associate, Detective Steven Houck, testified Cochran told him in spring 2016 to look for a body Jason Cochran placed in an Indiana park before his death. Houck never found a body in that location or any others Cochran specified.

Cochran fled Indiana in late April 2016 and was arrested in Kentucky soon after.

When Houck and Ogden questioned Cochran in Kentucky, she claimed she had just killed a semi-truck driver in Illinois by stabbing him in the eyes and then left the body on the side of the road, Houck testified. Illinois authorities verified no trucker was murdered, Houck said.

Cochran then wrote a list of 21 people she claimed she and Jason Cochran killed. The list was “not productive,” Houck said, as it had no last names, locations or details, and contained six blank slots.

Houck and Ogden searched Cochran’s vehicle and found letters to her family and a copy of the DSM-IV, a manual of mental disorders. Previous testimony indicated Cochran graduated from Purdue University with a psychology degree.

In a recorded jail cell phone call, Cochran’s mother asked if Cochran had a conscience and why she never sought help. Cochran replied there was no helping her and, as Powell pointed out, made no mention of Jason Cochran being responsible for her behavior.

The prosecution will continue to call witnesses today.

Cochran faces charges of homicide-open murder, a life felony; conspiracy to commit dead bodies-disinterment and mutilation, a 10-year felony; concealing the death of an individual, a five-year felony; accessory after the fact to a felony, a five-year felony; larceny in a building, a four-year felony; and lying to a peace officer-violent crime investigation, a four-year felony.

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