In the fall of 2014, Christopher Karl Regan, a 53-year-old Air Force veteran, vanished from Iron River, Michigan. His disappearance on October 14, 2014, set in motion a chain of events that would uncover a story of affairs, a deadly pact, and multiple murders. Regan had been involved in an affair with a coworker, Kelly Cochran, which ultimately led to his demise.
Ten days after he was last heard from, his ex-girlfriend reported him missing, prompting an investigation into his sudden disappearance.
The investigation soon focused on Kelly and her husband, Jason Cochran. It was revealed that the Cochrans had a sinister pact they made on their wedding night: to murder anyone with whom either of them had an extramarital affair. On that fateful October night, Kelly lured Regan to their home with the promise of sex. As she and Regan were intimate, Jason Cochran shot him in the back of the head with a. 22 rifle. Afterward, the couple dismembered Regan's body in their basement with a reciprocating saw and disposed of his remains in a wooded area off of Pentoga Trail in Crystal Falls Township. Investigators later discovered Regan's skull, with a clear gunshot wound, along with his eyeglasses, after Kelly Cochran led them to the location.
For a time, the case went cold. The Cochrans moved to Indiana, but the investigation into Regan's disappearance was reignited by another death. In February 2016, Jason Cochran died from what initially appeared to be a heroin overdose. However, Kelly later admitted to murdering her husband as revenge for his role in killing Regan, who she claimed was 'the only good thing' in her life. She had given him a fatal dose of heroin and then suffocated him. Following her husband's death, Kelly Cochran's story unraveled. She was arrested in Kentucky and confessed to her involvement in Regan's murder.
Kelly Cochran faced trial for the murder of Christopher Regan and in May 2017, she was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. She was also convicted on several other charges, including conspiracy to commit disinterment and mutilation of a dead body. Subsequently, she pleaded guilty to the murder of her husband in Indiana and received an additional 65-year prison sentence. During the investigation, shocking allegations emerged, including claims from her own family that she could be a serial killer responsible for as many as nine other deaths, and a neighbor's suspicion that he may have been served Regan's remains at a barbecue hosted by the Cochrans.
