Female Serial Killer, Woman Kills Both Her Hubby And Secret Lover
ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HOST, HLN CRIME AND JUSTICE: Good evening, everyone, I`m Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to "Crime and Justice". Boyfriends, lovers and a husband who is dead. Is Kelly Cochran the newest installment of a twisted black widow with a dash of Hannibal Lecter on the side? She is accusable being, her husband with heroine dismembering a lover before that. But that may not even be the sickest of her crimes. Bernice Man, is covering the story, what else is she thought to have done?</s>BERNICE MAN, CRIME AND JUSTICE PRODUCER: Well, her family reportedly believes that she has killed even more victims. But did she set one of her victims at a neighborhood barbecue? We`ll tell you what we know.</s>BANFIELD: Honestly. All right, we will get to those details shortly. Also, here`s another tale of a woman whose love affairs could land her in prison. An Arizona woman who went on one date, one date, and ended up stalking and breaking in, and threatening to bathe that date in his blood. Honest to god, these are the accusations, Michael Christian, careful who you meet online. What are you finding out about this woman?</s>MICHAEL CHRISTIAN, SENIOR FIELD PRODUCER, HLN: Ashleigh, this woman pulled out all the stops of her pursuit of this guy, she apparently sent him 65,000 texts, up to 500 a day. She was caught on home surveillance breaking into his house, and police found her there taking a bath in his bathtub. And we`ll tell you what cops found she had with her that day she broke into the house and also what she told his coworkers when she showed up in hi work place.</s>BANFIELD: I think I`ve seen this story on orange is the new black if I`m not mistaken. I can`t wait to get into details in this if you, Michael, standby. We also have the hunt for a killer, after a young single mother who went missing on her way to work is found dead in her car, five months later. And there was a very strange and curious clue that was left behind. I am going to tell you what it was, but who did this to her? Justin Freiman has been working on this story. What kind of clue was left behind and what is the story all about?</s>JUSTIN FREIMAN, SR. PRODUCER, HLN CNN: Well, Ashleigh, the actual car, her car, she is found in that car months after she disappeared, but of course it was a very cold winter. So what kind of evidence could be in that car, or even on her body? We`ll look into it.</s>BANFIELD: Five months, sitting there apparently seeing a guy parking beside her every day, imagine what he is going through. Also, tonight, red bull gives you wings, but not until you drink it. So we`re going to tell you about a guy, this guy, look at him, think he might need a red bull? Look at him yawning with all that red bull in his cart. He stole $250 worth of this energy drink, looking like he desperately needed it. We are going to fill you in on that story. Also later, new suspicions about the South Carolina surgeon whose wife was just found dead. The doctor is now accused of lying to the police about killing somebody else. Back in October. A surgeon. All those stories coming up. First though that Michigan black widow who killed her lover and her husband and who may just have more victims buried across the Midwest. Kelly Cochran is already spending the rest of her life behind bars after the co- worker, she was seeing on the side mysteriously disappeared back in 2014. She got that victim, Chris Reagan to come over just for one last hookup. That is where her husband was lying in wait, all part of the plan with her, then that husband shot him during the sexual encounter with his wife. And if that sounds weird, it is. Because the husband Jason and the wife Kelly had apparently made a little pact on their wedding night that they would have to kill any lover with whom they cheated. Pretty romantic. Right? Well, how about this next part? When Kelly told police that she watched her husband dismember her lover`s body with an electric hand saw, and then dump the pieces in the woods. And then Kelly would later admit that she hated her husband for doing what they did. Which is how that husband also now ended up dead, a year and a half later, a year and a half after the lover, the black widow takes another. She admitted it all to the police, that she gave her husband a massive dose of heroin, and then straddled his body and choked him out. Though her initial call to 911 sure didn`t sound like that.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My husband`s his face is like blue. He is breathing, barely. I don`t know what`s wrong. He is throwing up, he is sweating. I need an ambulance right away.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Are you in a hotel? Is that a hotel?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I`m at home.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. And how old is the person?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 37, just get an ambulance here, right now.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, stay on the line with me.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. You said he is breathing, difficulty breathing?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Barely. Jason.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, I can`t understand what you`re saying. Difficulty breathing, sweating.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is still breathing. I`m on the phone with them right now. OK, I need an ambulance here right away.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, they`ve been dispatched.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`ve got to tend to him.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. They have been dispatched, but I need you to stay on the line.</s>BANFIELD: Well, calls like that make you wonder how easy it is to lie, because if you believe what Kelly`s family tells us, she is been doing a lot of lying. They say that lover Chris and that husband Jason just might not be her only victims, and they do use the word serial killer. Joining me now, Crime and Justice Producer, Bernice Man, also Dr. Daniel Bober is with us, a forensic psychiatrist. Tim Gallagher is also with me, a medical examiner and forensic pathologist and Parag Shah, defense attorney and author of "The Code." All right. First things first, Bernice Man, honestly, she just coughed up all of this information. She just told the police I did it, once, I did it twice, and she suggested she may have done it again. How did that happen?</s>MAN: That is right, Ashleigh. Well, she had a little bit of a thing for one of those detectives. I think that is kind of how she was able to tell everything to that detective. But one of the police chiefs that was investigating this missing lover did say that Kelly admitted herself that there might be other victims.</s>BANFIELD: She just said -- first of all, let me get this straight. She is getting cozy, because she thinks the detective is cute or things maybe they might have something together, she is been hauled in for despicable murdered, for dismemberment, and she is getting cozy with the detective.</s>MAN: Yes. She, you know the former police chief thinks that she had a little bit of an attraction, a connection. And that is how this detective was able to pull everything out of Kelly. Bana Well, you know what, use what you got. Hats off to the detective. Is this him in the picture here with the grey hair? We know -- I know she was interviewed by a lot of different people, but is this him?</s>MAN: We do believe so.</s>BANFIELD: And he held her hand a bunch of times, too, didn`t he? He really reached out to her and made her feel comfortable, didn`t he?</s>MAN: Yes, he held her hand, and would -- he said that he talked to her almost 40 interviews, 70 hours of -- and 70 hours of conversations building that connection with her.</s>BANFIELD: OK. So before they actually get to the death of the husband, the police kind of suspected this woman all along of the murder of the boyfriend. At least they sure had her in their sights as well. Listen, this is from "Crime Watch Daily," I want you to hear the former Iron River Police Chief, Laura Frizzo, on her theory of all this.</s>LAURA FRIZZO, FORMER IRON RIVER POLICE CHIEF: My theory was that these two people were responsible for Chris Reagan`s disappearance, definitely believed that they murdered him and that they were going to try to get away with it.</s>BANFIELD: They murdered him, they thought they would get away with it. And you remember that weird thing I told you right off the top, about the pact they made, I don`t know what vows you gave when you got married or what vows you plan to give, if you`re going to get married, but I`ll bet it`s not a vow like the one the Iron County Prosecuting Attorney, Melissa Powell is talking about. Again, "Crime Watch Daily" gave us this amazing clip. Have a look.</s>MELISSA POWELL, IRON COUNTY PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: When they got married they made this pact that if one of them were to have an affair that they had to kill the person that they had the affair with.</s>BANFIELD: And again, it is so difficult to get this information out of killers. They usually don`t just cough it all up, unless, of course, you`re sitting next to Detective Ogden? And apparently he has got some special spell over Kelly. Have a look at again what the police interrogation yielded. And you can hear Detective Ogden at work. Well, he is getting her to admit all this to the police. Have a look.</s>JEREMY OGDEN, HOBART POLICE DEPARTMENT: I know that. So he completely dismembered Chris in the basement?</s>BANFIELD: So that is a really weird -- that is a really weird thing, you just dismembered Chris in the basement? Bernice, she actually just -- she told them everything, she took them to the basement, she pointed out line by line and hack by hack and bone by bone, didn`t she?</s>MAN: She did. You know, she said that her husband was lying in wait when they were in the bedroom together and that he shot her in the head and that he brought her -- he brought Chris`s body to the basement with an electric hand saw, dismembered her -- dismembered him and then dumped the body in the woods.</s>BANFIELD: OK. So I want to make sure we get the right moment here, this whole notion where she talks about two men dying in her arms. I mean, she is literally admitting, I`m a black widow to this police detective. Again, hats off to Detective Ogden for being able to get all this out of her. But I want to ask the control man if we can roll that soundbite three. I think this is where she truly just admits both of these murders, just coughs it right up. Have a look.</s>KELLY COCHRAN, THE BLACK WIDOW: I had two men die in my arms.</s>OGDEN: I know that. So he completely dismembered Chris in the basement?</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- to hear, somewhat you were telling me, right around in this area, and that is where he cut him up. What was the biggest piece of bone be that you --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The torso.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The torso, that was here.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Then we should find ribs. And I think that generally --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The skull should be the biggest though.</s>BANFIELD: Dr. Daniel Bober, listen, usually I get you on the show to explain, well, how do you find the person who did these horrible things? I don`t typically have you on the show to say what kind of woman just sort of says it all, because she thinks the detective is cute and likes him holding her hands?</s>DANIEL BOBER, FORENSIC PSYCHIATRIST: Ashleigh, this woman is cold, cunning and calculated. This was quite a way to start off a marriage unless you`re having your wedding at San Quentin. This is a woman who participated in the crime with her husband, and it actually reminds me very much of a case in Canada, the Paul Bernardo case, where the husband and wife actually participated in the crime, and you know, did it to basically get rid of the victim, so that no one would know about it. So, I think that this is obviously, we know at least that she did it two times, and probably before, I don`t know if it meets the classic definition of a serial killer. For example, the FBI defines a serial killer as three or more murders with over a 30-day period, with an emotional cooling off period, but she certainly has some very deviant, psychological motives for these killings.</s>BANFIELD: I can`t believe you reached that far back into -- honestly when I was a reporter, Dr. Bober, that was one of the first time I ever covered, Paul Bernardo and his wife Karla Teale. Karla Homolka.</s>BOBER: Homolka, right.</s>BANFIELD: You don`t make that, oh god, if you don`t know this crime. I`m not going to cover it right now. I have too much to do on this segment. You got to google that one. Paul Bernardo, he is in prison for life in Canada for raping and murdering school girls with his wife, and guess who else? Her sister. It was the most hideous crime. And she is out. She got 12 years and a deal before they found the tapes. They didn`t need her testimony, because they found the tapes after they made the deal with Karla Homolka. So, she is out and the word is she is somewhere -- in South America.</s>BOBER: It is very disturbing.</s>BANFIELD: It is so disturbing -- you nailed it. It is very disturbing and very similar, when a husband and a wife participate. Do you ever expect that the wife is then going to off the husband later on?</s>BOBER: Well, that is something I`ve never seen before. But you know, we see crimes like this before where you have two personality types where maybe one of them as individuals would not commit a crime. But you take the two of them together and they manage to push themselves over the edge to commit murder.</s>BANFIELD: OK. So real quickly, let me just play the sentencing, the prosecutor and the judge in the courtroom at her sentencing. And this is for the -- I have to tell you, it`s for the first one, for the lover. Because, you know, there`s a couple of murders and deaths and sentences we`re dealing with here. But here`s the sentencing and what the prosecutor and the judge had to say to this black widow, ala monster in court. Take a look.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It recognizes the atrocities committed by Kelly Cochran and her husband when they butchered Chris Reagan and threw him in the woods like a common sack of garbage. They finally, finally laid to rest Chris Reagan`s soul and give solace and comfort to his family.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are sentenced to the Michigan Department of Corrections for a period of life without the possibility of parole.</s>BANFIELD: Life without the possibility of parole, thank you, Jesus, toe tag parole, she is not going out until she has a tag on her toe. Parag Shah, that is great. I`m glad to hear that. But this is weird, apparently to get her plea agreement in the second murder of her husband, the state of Indiana cannot charge Kelly for any other potential murders even though she is suggested there`s many more victims and her brother says, she is a serial killer. Is that shocking to you?</s>PARAG SHAH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: It`s not shocking, because the sentence would possibly all run concurrently. She`d still get life without parole. But if she is charged -- or if she is committed murders in other states, this does not preclude other states from bringing charges against her, for those googling the other crime, they should google this word, dual sovereignty doctrine, which is an acceptance exception to double jeopardy which says that --</s>BANFIELD: Wow.</s>SHAH: -- another state can charge you for the same murder if it was committed in two separate states.</s>BANFIELD: It is a nice insurance policy in case there`s some weird appeal. OK, I can`t go before I just get Bernice to do a 10 seconds on this whole barbecue business. The neighbors, they suspected Bernice, that she served body parts to the men as barbecue. Is this true? Is this ruler, is it lore?</s>MAN: You know, this has been reported that neighbors say that they do think that Kelly served the lover`s remains to them.</s>BANFIELD: And yet we think as well that the lover`s remains were in the woods. It`s all disgusting and she is exactly where she needs to be. Thank you to all my guests. I have a question. I`m sure that you do a lot on your phone, right? You probably do dating on your phone. But have you ever had a dating experience like this? A woman accused of stalking, and sending 65,000 text messages to the guy she had one date with who really wasn`t interested, and that is just the tip of the iceberg.