Disappearance in the Upper Peninsula

 Chris Regan – a 53-year-old Air Force veteran, devoted father, and outdoorsman – vanished in October 2014 from his small Upper Peninsula town. Regan had recently moved back to Michigan to be near his girlfriend and took a job at a factory in Iron River. His coworkers soon noticed Regan’s close friendship with Kelly Cochran, a married colleague, and rumors swirled of a secret affair. When Regan failed to show up for Thanksgiving and went silent on the phone, his girlfriend reported him missing. Police found Regan’s car abandoned at a park-and-ride, with a handwritten note inside pointing investigators toward Old Caspian – the derelict mining neighborhood where the Cochrans lived. Thus began a bewildering mystery: a loving father disappeared, leaving behind young children and a quiet community afraid of what the truth might reveal.

In interviews afterward, Cochrans’ neighbors recalled seeing Jason Cochran standing stoically by Kelly as police searched the couple’s home. Kelly was talkative and friendly; Jason was unusually emotionless. Agents learned that Kelly and Chris had indeed been carrying on a romance behind Jason’s back. As the probe widened, investigators wondered if a jealous husband – or something far more sinister – lay behind Regan’s disappearance.

Early Clues and a Strange Pact

Investigators quickly targeted Kelly and her husband Jason as persons of interest in Regan’s disappearance. Iron River’s police chief noted that Jason “really had motive” to act, since his wife was clearly being unfaithful. Officers obtained a warrant and searched the couple’s remote Iron River home. Inside they found disturbing clues: spattered blood on the kitchen ceiling, a cracked basement doorframe, and a ledger of notes hinting that Jason was obsessed with killing. That same night, neighbors reported the Cochrans had quietly packed their pickup and left town – fleeing north Michigan. Private detectives eventually tracked the couple back to Hobart, Indiana, where Kelly and Jason had grown up as next-door neighbors.

Investigators and neighbors later pointed to several chilling details:

• Wedding-night murder pact: Kelly and Jason reportedly agreed when they married years earlier that if either committed adultery, the cheating spouse must either kill the lover or be killed by the other. In hindsight, this macabre vow foreshadowed what was to come.
• Forensic red flags: The Iron River search uncovered dried blood on the ceiling and a heavily cracked door frame in the couple’s basement – grim evidence that a violent struggle had taken place.
• Sinister neighborhood rumors: Friends recalled late-night power-tool noises at the Cochran home. The following day, the Cochrans invited neighbors to a backyard barbecue serving an unusually large amount of grilled meat. At least one guest later joked (and police took note) about whether that barbecue meal could have been human flesh, though no evidence of cannibalism was ever found.
• Underwater clue: Frustratingly, a dive team scoured a nearby lakebed (Caspian Pit) and discovered a weighted burn-barrel submerged in the water – the kind of device used to hide a body – but it contained only murky water, no remains.
• Tree-carving trick: In Indiana, Detective Jeremy Ogden resorted to a bizarre tactic. He secretly carved “CHRIS IS HERE” into a stump at a park where Kelly often walked, hoping the eerie message would unnerve her. This psychological ploy would eventually provoke a breakthrough confession (see below).

The Husband’s Shocking Fate

Just months later, the case took an even stranger turn. In February 2016, Kelly Cochran called 911 from her home in Hobart, reporting that Jason “wasn’t breathing.” Paramedics found Jason’s body on the floor. At first his death was blamed on a drug overdose (he had chronic back pain and was on painkillers), but the Lake County medical examiner saw signs of foul play. Jason’s lungs and muscles bore the marks of asphyxiation – he had been strangled. Moreover, investigators later learned he had been injected with a large dose of heroin. In short, “his manner of death was homicide,” as a prosecutor noted.

This grim discovery swung all eyes onto Kelly. Now the wife of the first victim was themselves a suspect in TWO murders. Federal marshals and Hobart police opened a fugitive case. Kelly abruptly vanished – she secretly fled Indiana, texting detectives that she was “on the West Coast” and evading capture. For months, she stalked the spotlight, even firing off texts to detectives to taunt them, until an FBI tip finally tracked her down at a relative’s house in Kentucky. On April 28, 2016, Kelly Cochran was arrested.

A Detective’s Unorthodox Trap

Once in custody, Cochran was interrogated nearly around the clock. Detective Ogden led most of the questioning and says he treated Kelly as a “worthy adversary” – never arresting her or reading rights, just engaging her in conversation. Ogden recalls deliberately “leaving something left unsaid” in every interview to keep Kelly talking. But even as she admitted various facts, the truth was elusive. Kelly repeatedly told authorities that her abusive husband Jason had killed Chris Regan and forced her to help dispose of the body – claiming she herself was a captive witness.

Ogden grew frustrated by the mixed messages of truth and lies. Then, after tracking Kelly’s movements in Indiana, he carried out the drastic plan he had teased out from her. Ogden took a fire axe and carved “CHRIS IS HERE” into the same stump where Kelly took her solitary walks. It was a calculated gamble: later that evening, Ogden witnessed Kelly approach the tree, pause in confusion, then bolt from the woods in terror. That very night she called him out of the blue, saying she needed to talk.

At long last, Kelly Cochran began to spill the truth – or at least her version of it. She told Ogden that on the night Chris Regan disappeared, she and Jason had lured him to their home under a false pretense. Then Jason shot Regan in the head. “I evened the score,” Kelly later admitted in court filings. She depicted herself as tied up while Jason dismembered the body in their basement. Guided by Kelly, officers searched the remote woods in northern Michigan and recovered Chris Regan’s skull, its teeth matching the missing man’s. The ruins of the rest of his body were never found.

Confessions and Convictions

Kelly Cochran’s tale kept changing. In a jailhouse interview she pleaded for sympathy, saying Jason was abusive and that he bore full responsibility. Ogden and Iron River’s police chief both said her stories were like “lie, truth, lie, truth… you’ve got to figure it out.” Neighbors chimed in that Kelly’s brother reported her saying there “might be more victims,” though no evidence emerged of additional crimes.

In court, prosecutors argued that Kelly was no pawn but an active killer. They emphasized how she later congratulated herself on the murders. “It was revenge,” she reportedly told detectives, “and I evened the score.” Her own words – that she’d grown so resentful that she’d set these deadly events into motion – convinced jurors. In early 2017, an Iron County jury found Kelly Cochran guilty of first-degree murder for her role in Regan’s death. She was sentenced to life without parole. A year later, rather than face another trial for Jason’s slaying, Cochran quietly pleaded guilty to causing her husband’s death. The judge added 65 more years on her sentence. Kelly Cochran, the suburban housewife, would never be free again.

National Spotlight on a Bizarre Case

 The shocking details of Kelly Cochran’s story have fascinated true-crime audiences nationwide. Major news programs and streaming docuseries have retold the case with lurid headlines. ABC News’s 20/20 aired exclusive interviews and police body-cam footage of the Cochran investigation. Investigation Discovery featured the saga in the series “Dead North,” and Fox Nation released a documentary titled “Love You to Death: The Kelly Cochran Story.” Even detective Ogden and Iron River’s former police chief have appeared on-camera to recount their investigations. Reporters label Cochran the “Devil Woman of Michigan,” a nickname that stuck after she chillingly claimed she was simply bored by married life.

Indeed, what sets this case apart is its utter weirdness. It wasn’t passion or jealousy that drove the violence, but an alleged combination of boredom and a dark marital vow. “You go to college, you get married… I got bored from getting married,” Cochran told 20/20 with an unsettling smile. The idea that an ordinary wife could declare boredom and then participate in two brutal murders stunned viewers. Details like the blood-spattered ceiling, the murder pact, the barbecue rumors and the tree carving make the episode read like a horror novel.

Today, in a women’s prison near Detroit, Kelly Cochran awaits the end of a life sentence. Her case lingers in public memory as a grim parable: even a quiet Midwestern life can hide unimaginable horrors. The Devil Woman of Michigan has become legend in crime circles, a soulless figure who allegedly killed out of pure ennui. The small town of Iron River will never forget how a missing co-worker led them down a rabbit hole of violence, lies and dark secrets – and how dogged detectives finally unearthed the truth.