Small Town, Big Con

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Speaker 3 Tonight, the trial so many have been talking about with details you haven't heard until now.

Speaker 6 It was just greed, more greed, more greed after that.

Speaker 3 What is this weird nightmare that's visited upon this couple? She's sick and now he's dying. For him to just go from being fine to suddenly comatose.

Speaker 9 What happened?

Speaker 10 What happened?

Speaker 11 They were a great couple.

Speaker 12 They loved each other. They always wanted to be together.

Speaker 14 Two people with no background in federal contracting. Suddenly they're going to be arms dealers for the federal government.

Speaker 15 They were trusted in the community. A lot of the investors were family and close friends.

Speaker 3 Had Michael expressed any doubts about the business?

Speaker 16 The Cochrane business model seemed to be built on defrauding their friends and family.

Speaker 12 Investigators look at you and say there were never any contracts, there were never any bids, it doesn't exist.

Speaker 18 When people found out, they want answers.

Speaker 13 I mean, it was all anyone could talk about.

Speaker 3 Your friend, 38 years old, is gone.

Speaker 3 Behind all the raw beauty in the untamed West Virginia mountainside are deep-rooted secrets, lies, and betrayal, and a small, close-knit community is upended.

Speaker 3 I was just calling to see if you knew when everything surrounding the investigation is going to be over.

Speaker 6 I don't understand what you mean by the investigation.

Speaker 20 They're asking people very personal questions about me and my husband's relationship.

Speaker 19 But I just can't keep

Speaker 19 working this way.

Speaker 3 And at the center of all that unraveling is this couple, the Cochranes.

Speaker 9 It was on a Tuesday night on December the 23rd, 1980, 10.36 p.m., like old Brandon Cochrane that was born into the world.

Speaker 3 Tell me about Michael as a boy.

Speaker 9 He was a good kid. He always minded me.
You know, Eddie came into his life when he was eight years old.

Speaker 24 When I met Michael, he had like a rat tail haircut and with the spiked hair, we just kind of developed a good warm relationship.

Speaker 3 What about sports though? And he was really into sports.

Speaker 25 Oh, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 23 He was playing like the pee-wee baseball. You could just tell right then, he just took to it and was just like a natural.

Speaker 9 Michael Brandon was always playing baseball, basketball, football. He lifted weights as a hobby.
He had a weight bench in his room. He got his first sand-filled barbell set around 10 or 11 years old.

Speaker 9 And he would just go in there and turn his music up loud and just start working out. He just loved being healthy.
Of course, he loved the muscles. He loved the way it made him feel.

Speaker 9 In high school, they started having like powerlifting competitions. And Michael, he got first place.

Speaker 9 We were really proud of him.

Speaker 3 At age 17, Michael meets a girl named Natalie Jessup, also 17, during a trip to the mall. It will change his life forever.

Speaker 9 We had to go out to the sporting goods place one day and there she was working behind the counter and she was flirting with him really bad, you could tell that.

Speaker 9 And then the next thing I know, they were dating.

Speaker 16 She seemed to be a relatively driven student in school. She was passionate about what she did.
She loved her family.

Speaker 3 After high school, both Michael and Natalie head off to West Virginia University, where he studies computers and she studies to be a pharmacist.

Speaker 3 The two freshmen had just started their first semester at WVU when Michael's mom, Donna, gets a call from Natalie.

Speaker 9 They got engaged in November of 1999.

Speaker 9 And when Michael got on the phone, I just said, Michael Brandon, what in the world are you doing?

Speaker 3 Were you happy for him to be marrying Natalie?

Speaker 9 I wanted him to wait. He had just graduated high school like maybe five months before.
And I wanted him to just, you know, focus on his schooling. And then six months later, they were married.

Speaker 3 The couple are the picture of happiness in their wedding photo. After graduation, they later have two children.

Speaker 3 And after six years of marriage, they settle in Daniels, West Virginia, here in this colonial home.

Speaker 9 It's a beautiful home on almost four acres of flatland. Michael renovated that house.
He just completely gutted it and remodeled it from top to bottom.

Speaker 3 As the years went on, did they have a happy marriage?

Speaker 9 As far as I know, they had happy marriages.

Speaker 23 Yeah, you know, they've just, they're starting their life now. They've been starting their family.

Speaker 11 You know, they've got good jobs.

Speaker 3 Natalie was working as a pharmacist, and Michael was in IT.

Speaker 9 Yes, information technology. Yeah, it was like running cable wire, coaxial cable, and things like that.

Speaker 16 Life in West Virginia can kind of be summed up as like, here people really focus on work, family, and their faith.

Speaker 23 How was Michael as a dad?

Speaker 19 He was a proud dad.

Speaker 23 He doted on his kids and was a good provider, was involved with them, the school activities and stuff.

Speaker 3 The couple gets involved in their community.

Speaker 9 He was a football coach and he was a baseball coach.

Speaker 3 And wherever Michael was, you'd find Natalie working the sidelines.

Speaker 13 She was a sports socialite. When Michael was the coach, she was the one you got all the information from.
She was the one that ordered the uniforms and got your sizes.

Speaker 12 He loved sports, and that was probably our biggest connection. Our family would see their family at games and that's really how it got started is just loving sports and hanging out.

Speaker 3 Are there stories that you remember that when you really do think back to you all as couples, it kind of warms your heart that you remember?

Speaker 7 Oh yes.

Speaker 12 Mike and I,

Speaker 12 we won a lot of championships together coaching our kids.

Speaker 3 Chris and Jennifer Davis bonded with the Cochranes over Little League, their young families, and church. They even went on vacations together.

Speaker 3 Chris, a lawyer, was hired by Michael for a legal matter and the two became friends. What was it that made Fimpster to fit into your world?

Speaker 12 It was really the family aspect.

Speaker 11 They were a great couple.

Speaker 12 They loved each other. They always wanted to be together.
We gravitate toward friends

Speaker 12 who are always together and love their spouses because we're always together.

Speaker 3 So you were really close.

Speaker 30 Yes, we were very close.

Speaker 3 So at some point, then you discover that one of your sons has diabetes.

Speaker 12 Initially it's very grim because it's, hey, this is what this is. It's never going to change and this is what it's going to require.

Speaker 3 Coincidentally, Natalie happened to specialize in diabetes management. How helpful was that for you in the beginning?

Speaker 31 Tremendous. Tremendous.

Speaker 32 She was amazing. Like she just gave us all the information we needed because you learn as you go.

Speaker 3 So she understood how insulin could affect the body.

Speaker 32 A thousand percent.

Speaker 3 Then seemingly out of the blue, the Cochranes make a career change and open a new business. So they seem to be doing well.

Speaker 33 Oh absolutely.

Speaker 27 They're doing very well.

Speaker 13 I invested and I spent $256,000.

Speaker 3 And this new venture will lead them straight to the CIA.

Speaker 13 Everybody is very involved with their kids around here,

Speaker 13 into sports, and that's where parents usually hang out at school sporting events.

Speaker 3 Just like his dad, Michael Cochran's son loves sports, especially baseball. And it's a family affair.

Speaker 3 With Michael coaching local youth sports leagues, Natalie becomes treasurer of the middle school baseball program.

Speaker 12 She was heavily involved in that because Mike was a coach.

Speaker 12 They were involved in tons of leagues and different things.

Speaker 3 So you were all involved as friends in the sports world with your children.

Speaker 34 Yes, that's correct.

Speaker 13 We met the Cochranes because I had put my son into the draft for the Little League Baseball.

Speaker 3 Toni McCall met Michael and Natalie after her husband died of leukemia, leaving her a single mom to three children.

Speaker 13 Michael very much took on a father figure role, especially for Cash. He was

Speaker 13 so good to him.

Speaker 13 He took him everywhere. They went fishing.

Speaker 13 They went to practices. It was a dream come true to have that father figure when you don't have have one for your kids and you want one.

Speaker 3 The Cochranes are a busy couple, both on and off the field. They open a business that is supposed to provide supplies to the federal government.
It's called Tactical Solutions Group, or TSG.

Speaker 3 And they soon begin looking for big investors to help them pay the upfront money that is sometimes needed for government contracts.

Speaker 3 And to everybody's surprise, Natalie up and quits her job as a pharmacist, jumping into the new business completely.

Speaker 12 Great. You know, I mean, if you can quit your job as a pharmacist, like, oh, wow.

Speaker 14 By all accounts, the new business appears to be flourishing.

Speaker 12 They were building onto their house and they put up a new fence. Mike got a car.

Speaker 3 So they seem to be doing well.

Speaker 33 Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 27 Yeah.

Speaker 27 They're doing very well.

Speaker 3 Natalie tells friends they were inspired by that movie War Dogs, the one about two men with no experience in the defense industry who become arms dealers to the U.S.

Speaker 3 military and get in way over their heads.

Speaker 28 They call guys like us war dogs, bottom feeders who make money off of war without ever stepping foot on the battlefield.

Speaker 13 When she told me that we're going to make all of our employees watch War Dogs as like an onboarding video, I said, well, you do realize that the guys went to jail, right?

Speaker 35 It might surprise people to know that any civilian can seek a government contract.

Speaker 35 All you have to do is register and then you can start bidding.

Speaker 35 It can be a small business, an individual, a non-profit agreeing to provide goods or services to the government at a specific rate at an agreed upon time.

Speaker 36 The process is you discover the contract, you bid on the contract, and if you're chosen, suddenly you're in business with the U.S.

Speaker 35 government.

Speaker 3 The Conqueror's website for their business, TSG, boasts impressive clientele from within the government, including the Department of Defense, FEMA, Homeland Security, and the CIA.

Speaker 36 Tactical Solutions Group was supposed to be a whole goods seller, so they could sell health care equipment, masks, firearms, and various things like that.

Speaker 35 Michael Cochran would spend hours sifting through all of these government contracts, and he would tell Natalie what he'd found.

Speaker 35 She'd go to the investors and say, Michael found the most incredible investment.

Speaker 13 What did you know about what this business was all about?

Speaker 12 They got this niche, a woman-owned small business. The idea of the federal government will pay $50 for a $10 hammer.

Speaker 12 You just got to be able to get in there and get the contracts and fight with the big guys.

Speaker 3 And all the couple needs now is a little startup cash.

Speaker 16 Most of their investors were friends, family people that they knew.

Speaker 9 We invested $245,360.69.

Speaker 9 That was our retirement savings.

Speaker 3 Michael's mom, Donna, remembers the first time Natalie approached her about investing in the family business. Do you remember what she said?

Speaker 9 Yeah, she asked us if we wanted to do the government contract. She said that she wanted to help us out, you know, when we got ready to retire.

Speaker 3 At what point did you decide that maybe this was something you might be interested in getting involved in?

Speaker 9 About a month later, she told me that she was doing it for her parents, that they'd made $60,000 in five months. And so we thought, well, you know, maybe we'll give it a try.

Speaker 3 That's a pretty good return.

Speaker 9 Yes, ma'am, it sure is.

Speaker 3 Donna Bolt says her daughter-in-law claims she could get her initial investment back with profit, sometimes in as little as 10 days.

Speaker 3 So when they come to you for a potential investment, what's your initial thought?

Speaker 12 Well, my initial thought was,

Speaker 24 sure.

Speaker 3 The Concord's close friends, Chris and Jennifer Davis, say the couple approached them after church saying they needed some major cash to fulfill a contract for dental labs saying if they didn't get the money right away they'd lose the entire contract.

Speaker 12 But it was more than just hey do you want to invest? There were supposed to be dental facilities on military bases that's why we couldn't see any of the documents.

Speaker 12 Because she knew I was going to ask that, I was like, well, what's the contract? Well you can't see it. You don't have authorization.
We can't do that because it's the Department of Defense.

Speaker 12 And so we were like, sure, yeah, man,

Speaker 19 we'll help out.

Speaker 3 How much were you investing?

Speaker 12 $511,000.

Speaker 3 When Chris Davis hears who's investing, he says it seems like a safe opportunity.

Speaker 12 I trusted all those names and people in the community.

Speaker 3 So if they were involved, it must be sound and good.

Speaker 27 Absolutely.

Speaker 12 The names that were lining up, it fit like, okay,

Speaker 23 these people aren't going to do anything crazy.

Speaker 3 Tony McCall says the circle of trust was how she too decides to invest.

Speaker 13 She had pulled someone in that I was close to and had been getting them to do contracts.

Speaker 3 She says that person calls one day with an opportunity for the two of them to go in on a contract, but they've got to do it immediately.

Speaker 13 It pays out in 45 days, but you have to do it right now. Like eBay, she bids at the very last minute so that nobody can go in and bid over top of her.
But you have to tell me right now.

Speaker 13 And so I did it. I spent $256,000.

Speaker 3 By all accounts, it seemed to be a safe bet. The Cochranes appear to be doing well.

Speaker 13 I had seen the money that they were spending.

Speaker 36 They had multiple vehicles, they had motorcycles, they were buying trips overseas.

Speaker 3 The Cochranes are living the high life, but then suddenly the youth sports league is broke.

Speaker 33 This ain't good.

Speaker 12 I really felt in my heart that something was going on.

Speaker 34 You don't have anything. It's all spent.

Speaker 3 Could something be a foul at the Little League?

Speaker 3 In the small community of Beckley, West Virginia, after just a year, Natalie and Michael Cochran's business is doing very well.

Speaker 3 And family and friends noticed the couple seemed to be too.

Speaker 16 It appeared that Natalie and Michael were quite wealthy and they were living like they were.

Speaker 36 They had multiple vehicles, they had motorcycles, they were buying trips overseas to Paris, they went to Hawaii.

Speaker 9 You know, we just thought it was wonderful. We just thought they were doing so good, but we were so proud of them.

Speaker 14 I mean, they had three homes, a pickup truck, motorcycles, a nice antique car.

Speaker 9 Him and Natalie drove up in a 1965 Shelby Cobra. It was a kit car.
It was just something that they bought and we were just very happy. We even took a ride in it.

Speaker 15 They were living much higher than the majority of people in Beckley, West Virginia.

Speaker 3 Did you see a difference in how their lives seemed to be changing? Oh, yeah.

Speaker 3 You were on vacation together. What kind of vacations did you take?

Speaker 32 We did beach vacations, and then we went to New York City a couple of times with them.

Speaker 32 And so the typical sightseeing shopping.

Speaker 3 Everybody got along?

Speaker 39 Oh yes.

Speaker 30 It was fun. It was great.

Speaker 12 It was a lot of fun.

Speaker 36 It was a lot of fun. From the outside it appeared that a lot of the spending was on Michael's side.

Speaker 40 This was wealth that he had not experienced before so he wanted to take advantage of it.

Speaker 40 Some of the things that Michael Cochran purchased in this period were recreational vehicles, an airplane hangar. He had ambitions and endeavors to open up an aviation branch to this business.

Speaker 12 He really, really wanted to fly and he loved that type of stuff. He was working on his pilot selection now.

Speaker 11 He wanted to fly helicopters.

Speaker 13 They were a great couple to get that kind of money. They were doing things for people and I mean good things.

Speaker 18 Michael especially was doing a lot of charity work. He donated a weight room to a local middle school.

Speaker 18 When he found out his youth pastor was going to be homeless for a while, he actually purchased a property for him to live in.

Speaker 3 Natalie even gets involved with local organizations and charities.

Speaker 12 She volunteered and wanted to do this and wanted to do that.

Speaker 32 She was helping us with juvenile diabetes research, all the fundraisers for that. And then we did a 5K run.

Speaker 32 She was good at that. She would organize it, get sponsors, get the word out.

Speaker 13 One time she and Mike were at the house and she told me that they were going to buy a town in Africa because that was going to be their mission, you know, pay for everyone's home and build homes.

Speaker 3 Natalie also helps raise money for the Middle School Baseball League. Their friend Chris is board president.

Speaker 12 We had a fundraiser and from the fundraiser we believe we raised a little over $15,000. It was a big deal.

Speaker 3 As treasurer of the Little League, Natalie manages the bank account. But members get suspicious when the money all but disappears.
But you knew there was a big chunk of money in there.

Speaker 12 Yes, there should have been over $20,000 in there. Absolutely.

Speaker 3 Any idea of how it was drained like that?

Speaker 12 Nobody knew it was missing until we were told it's missing.

Speaker 3 The league brings in a private investigator to look into where the money's gone.

Speaker 34 And I talked to the board and I explained to them, you don't have anything but $31 in a frozen bank account. There's no records of anything as to where this money went.
It's all spent.

Speaker 36 There was an audit that was done. There were purchases made that weren't approved by the league.

Speaker 34 There were purchases. The TJ Maxx purchases the Olive Garden.
And then when I started adding it up, I'm like, $32,000 in one night you raise for two sports teams, and it all just disappears.

Speaker 34 I mean, there's no way to rectify that.

Speaker 3 Questions are now swirling over the missing money and if Natalie could be involved.

Speaker 3 And when some investors with the Cochrane's business get wind of it, they're getting concerned about the money they've been promised.

Speaker 3 As time is going on and you're not hearing anything, are you starting to panic at all?

Speaker 9 We'd ask. We'd say, Natalie, we need our money.
I said, you know,

Speaker 9 our car is going to break down. We need the money back.
She would say, it's coming, I promise.

Speaker 9 And then she would send me text messages and say, Your money is going to be deposited in your bank account within the next 24 hours.

Speaker 9 And we'd wait.

Speaker 9 And it was never there.

Speaker 3 You didn't get anything? No.

Speaker 3 Donna says that any communication she had about the couple's business was typically with Natalie, not her son.

Speaker 9 Every time that I received any kind of message, it was a text message from Natalie.

Speaker 9 It was she and I that was constantly going back and forth with contracts.

Speaker 3 Meantime, Natalie continues to portray the business as extremely successful.

Speaker 43 From the outside looking in, I would have probably been like pretty impressed.

Speaker 41 I thought, man, right here in Raleigh County, West Virginia, these people are knocking it out of the park.

Speaker 3 One investor says, it's astonishing how much money Natalie says she's pulling in.

Speaker 44 She

Speaker 13 did give me a number at the time. You know, this was like $343 million we're going to have to put in this bank.

Speaker 13 That was a little hard to believe.

Speaker 14 Natalie and and Michael tell a local bank their business is worth more than $500 million when they apply for a $100,000 loan.

Speaker 40 Was her business worth $500 million?

Speaker 40 No, absolutely not.

Speaker 3 It turns out that Cochrane's business is not what it appears to be. I said,

Speaker 12 in pure West Virginian, this ain't good.

Speaker 12 I really felt in my heart something was going on.

Speaker 36 The fundamental problem is that it was all a lie.

Speaker 3 And when secrets come to light, it's far worse than anyone could have imagined.

Speaker 45 It started with a phone call in the early hours of the morning.

Speaker 21 911, what is the address of your emergency?

Speaker 45 A terrified woman tells the operator she's been kidnapped, assaulted, and that she's trapped in a room with her attacker.

Speaker 45 He's fallen asleep, so she quietly and ever so carefully finds his phone and calls for help.

Speaker 46 Is there any way you can get out of the building? I don't know without leaving him. I'm scared.

Speaker 45 This 911 call began an investigation that would turn the town of Ashland into a crime scene.

Speaker 47 We've got something big going on here.

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This is going to be catastrophic.

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Speaker 4 They make everything about themselves.

Speaker 2 I can't.

Speaker 4 Hopefully this doesn't end in a bloodbath.

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Speaker 14 There is nothing wrong with doing well and having a successful business.

Speaker 40 The Cochranes and their business tactical solutions group put themselves out to be legitimate government contractors who were bidding on legitimate government contracts.

Speaker 9 She always made all of them look like they were good investments.

Speaker 40 The problem is there never was any legitimate income flowing from government contracts. All the money and cash flow is coming from investors.

Speaker 12 There were no contracts. There were never any contracts.

Speaker 12 There were never any bids. It doesn't exist.

Speaker 3 The businesses didn't exist at all, really, Legitimately.

Speaker 12 They existed on paper.

Speaker 40 It was clear that it was a Ponzi scheme.

Speaker 35 When it comes to a Ponzi scheme, there's no real business. There's no money being generated.

Speaker 35 Early investors get paid by new investor money, like shifting poker chips from one pile to another.

Speaker 35 And as long as the money's coming in from new investors, the Ponzi scheme can continue.

Speaker 14 If you're just taking one investor's money and giving it to another investor as if it's a legitimate return on their investment, that's a fraud.

Speaker 13 I said, no, these are friends of mine. I've seen what they've done in the community.

Speaker 35 Successful Ponzi schemes almost always rely on trust, and you often find that people start very close to home.

Speaker 16 The Cochrane business model seemed to be built on defrauding their friends and family. Many of them knew them their entire lives, and they had no reason to not trust them.

Speaker 13 It would hurt a lot less for this to have

Speaker 13 been someone that I didn't know that had scammed me out of money. It would hurt a lot less.
I was

Speaker 13 already

Speaker 13 wounded from my husband passing away and my kids the same.

Speaker 14 These were friends, neighbors and family members who were defrauded and the question is whether Michael knew about it.

Speaker 13 Michael was

Speaker 13 not the brains of the couple. He was a great guy, but Natalie was the brains of the operation.

Speaker 13 And Michael would look for contracts on the government website and then he would give them to Natalie and she would make the bid.

Speaker 3 Had Michael expressed any concerns, any doubts about the business to you?

Speaker 12 Not about the business. He was stressed about the government.
He did not understand

Speaker 12 why the government will not give them their money and he just couldn't figure it out. How can they do this?

Speaker 3 But of course the federal government didn't owe the Cochranes any money because they'd never conducted any business with them.

Speaker 40 Michael Cochran was asking her questions very similar to the questions being asked by the investors who were trying to get their money back.

Speaker 18 She was giving the same excuses to Michael that she was giving to the investors.

Speaker 9 Natalie would tell me, and we're being audited, there's a government shutdown. There was always some excuse with her.

Speaker 34 The lives and paychecks of some 800,000 federal workers hanging in the balance.

Speaker 35 Around Christmas time in 2018, there was a government shutdown and it lasted until January 25th of the following year.

Speaker 29 Day 32 of the government shutdown, now beginning its second month. We have never seen this.

Speaker 35 Natalie used this whole government shutdown to her advantage. Her investors were coming and saying, we want our money.

Speaker 32 We'd like to pull it out.

Speaker 35 And she would say, well, I can't. The government is shut down.
There's no way to get access to your money. They're not paying anybody.

Speaker 18 She had a never-ending list of reasons that they were not seeing their returns.

Speaker 36 When she could no longer blame the federal government for the delays, she turned to, I guess, more of the emotional side of, you know, saying that she had cancer.

Speaker 9 We're feeling bad for her. You know, she even told us that she had cancer, that she wasn't going to do anything about it, that she was going to let God take care of it.

Speaker 9 And if he took her on, then that would be fine. And I just got so distraught and emotional, and I kept telling her she needed to fight, not to give up.

Speaker 42 She said she was in stage three.

Speaker 32 Her and Mike were talking about not going through chemo and radiation and just living what life she has left.

Speaker 3 Was that devastating?

Speaker 30 Oh, completely.

Speaker 12 We were all pretty devastated. To the point, we all get the paperwork to go get our bone marrow tested to see if there was any way we could help her.

Speaker 3 Remember, Toni McCall had lost her husband to leukemia. She was skeptical about Natalie's claim of having cancer.

Speaker 13 I believe that Natalie used the leukemia to stall on having any payments. I knew she didn't have stage three leukemia because it's not in stages, it's in types.

Speaker 13 Everything pointed to the fact that she did not have it.

Speaker 13 She had told us that she was losing her hair from the chemo she was taking and she flips her hair over and she has the perfect dime-sized circle where she has shaved a spot in her hair.

Speaker 13 And if you lose your hair from chemo, you don't see

Speaker 13 five o'clock shadow. What woman would shave a spot on their head to say, look, I'm losing my hair? And so I absolutely knew at that point that

Speaker 13 she would do anything

Speaker 13 to cover up and to lie.

Speaker 3 Then early one morning, Michael and Natalie are set to take a private plane to Virginia for a scheduled bank meeting, but they never make that flight.

Speaker 13 I just kept asking her, What happened?

Speaker 10 What happened?

Speaker 41 On the morning of February 6th, the plan was that the Cochranes, Michael and Natalie, were going to fly to Virginia to visit the Bank of America there.

Speaker 12 She had text messages going with me and Jennifer.

Speaker 3 So the morning of February 6th, they were going to go take a flight.

Speaker 15 She said she was too sick to fly.

Speaker 32 She had the flu and the noir virus and it hit her so hard because of her cancer.

Speaker 32 She had gone to the doctor and they put her on such a high dose of steroids that her blood sugar was elevated.

Speaker 42 She had asked to borrow a vial of insulin.

Speaker 3 So she needed a bottle of your son's insulin. Yes.

Speaker 32 And I told her that Chris was getting ready to leave the house that he could drop it off for her.

Speaker 48 Chris drops the insulin Around 10.30 that morning.

Speaker 18 Jennifer and Chris receive a photo about two hours later, around 12.30, of Michael laying unconscious in the Cochrane's kitchen floor.

Speaker 9 Michael was laying in the fetal position in the floor in his kitchen.

Speaker 3 So she sends a photo out of him on the floor.

Speaker 19 Yeah.

Speaker 49 And my reaction in the text was, is he okay?

Speaker 27 What's going on?

Speaker 12 He's fine. The contractors are here putting him on the couch.

Speaker 19 Okay.

Speaker 36 Michael is moved from the floor to the couch. People start coming into the home saying, hey, you should probably take him to the hospital.

Speaker 3 Throughout the day, some of the couple's friends come to the house while others text Natalie, worried about Michael.

Speaker 12 Every time we would check on him, we would get, he's fine.

Speaker 36 He's going to sleep it off.

Speaker 12 He's sleeping it off.

Speaker 13 She said that he was sleeping it off on the couch.

Speaker 12 The wording of the messages were as if she was communicating with him.

Speaker 27 He won't go to the hospital.

Speaker 3 He won't go to the hospital.

Speaker 8 When she says, he won't go to the hospital, in my mind, I'm thinking that he's told her, I'm not going to go to the hospital.

Speaker 16 Almost unilaterally, all of Natalie's friends were urging her to take Michael to the hospital and Michael needed medical attention.

Speaker 41 And so you're looking at close to eight hours that this man, that he was incapacitated. He was unconscious.
He was on the couch and pretty much unresponsive.

Speaker 12 I get a message at around 6.30. I'm at Gavin's basketball game.

Speaker 12 And the message says, can you come by after the game?

Speaker 16 Chris Davis shows up and insists that they take Michael to the hospital and

Speaker 16 they load Michael in the cart.

Speaker 12 I knew something was wrong. He's just totally unresponsive.
I was like, well,

Speaker 8 he's got to go.

Speaker 33 He's got to go to the hospital.

Speaker 36 He's been unconscious for seven, eight hours. Like we're getting him to the hospital.

Speaker 41 Michael got to the ER at Raleigh General Hospital. His blood glucose was at 21.
He was critical.

Speaker 41 And he was anubated.

Speaker 51 A blood glucose level of 21 would be extremely low, dangerously low, and basically result likely in some sort of massive cognitive dysfunction, coma, seizure, or even death.

Speaker 3 Michael's parents are at home that night with no idea of their son's condition.

Speaker 9 We came home from church, watched a little TV. I was in the bed.

Speaker 9 Eddie brought me my phone. He said, you got a text message from Natalie.
It's 10.30 at night.

Speaker 3 Concerned by such a late-night text, Michael's mom, Donna, checks Natalie's message.

Speaker 9 She sent me a picture. There's Michael Brandon in the bed and he's on the ventilator, unconscious, unresponsive.

Speaker 14 The Davises also received texts from Natalie showing Michael in the hospital.

Speaker 9 I just kept asking her on text message, what happened?

Speaker 10 What happened?

Speaker 3 Doctors determine that Michael is suffering from cerebral edema.

Speaker 51 Cerebral edema is the medical term for swelling in the brain. We usually think about cerebral edema in the setting of a big bleed or a traumatic event.

Speaker 9 Michael Brandon, he was fighting, fighting to breathe.

Speaker 9 He was trying his best to live.

Speaker 36 Michael spends at least four and a half days in a hospital in Charleston.

Speaker 27 She makes this decision, you know, she's going to take him off the ventilator and everything.

Speaker 3 What are you thinking at that point, Jennifer?

Speaker 13 I think just total shock.

Speaker 39 I just remember thinking, This isn't happening. This is, this can't be real.

Speaker 32 Yeah, this was so tragic.

Speaker 7 What is this

Speaker 3 weird nightmare that just, my goodness, that's visited upon this couple? Yeah, she's sick, and now he's dying.

Speaker 19 Like, those poor kids,

Speaker 19 my goodness, those poor, like,

Speaker 19 this is awful.

Speaker 25 It was awful.

Speaker 5 For five days, he received medical treatment.

Speaker 41 He was in a coma, never regained consciousness, and passed away on February the 11th at the hospice house in Beckley.

Speaker 3 Your friend, 38 years old, within days

Speaker 3 is gone.

Speaker 25 It was awful.

Speaker 12 It was tragic.

Speaker 23 It was just sad. You know, we

Speaker 23 went to the funeral, it just all seems surreal. Everything's just kind of like you're like in this fog, you know.

Speaker 19 It's just

Speaker 23 unimaginable.

Speaker 13 After Mike had passed, Natalie called me one day and

Speaker 13 said that I've created this scholarship in his memory.

Speaker 36 Natalie starts a scholarship called the Coach Michael Cochran Legacy Scholarship. It appeared that Natalie was selecting people who were family members.
There were also people that Michael coached.

Speaker 3 Tony McCall's son is one of those high school students that Natalie had offered a four-year college scholarship to.

Speaker 36 These scholarships, they're the kind that kids dream of.

Speaker 3 Natalie, newly widowed, continues running her businesses. But then four months after her husband's death, she suddenly decides to sell nearly half of Tactical Solutions Group for $4 million.

Speaker 40 She had negotiated to sell that business with a buyer, offering to buy a 49% interest of her business. So this buyer had wired her $50,000 as an earnest deposit on his buy-in to this business.

Speaker 3 But before the deal can go through, police show up at the Cochrane home with a search warrant.

Speaker 9 She said, oh, they came here and they took everything.

Speaker 13 When they raided her house that day in June, that was huge. I mean, it was all anyone could talk about.

Speaker 3 When police search the Cochrane home, they find something unexpected that could explain Michael's sudden death.

Speaker 41 A man, you know, 38 years old, what a fitness guru he was to suddenly die in the midst of financial crimes occurring. I mean,

Speaker 41 that's pretty suspicious.

Speaker 3 So they decide to exhume Michael Cochrane's body. Does the big con turn into an even bigger crime?

Speaker 15 At first, this was just a Ponzi scheme investigation.

Speaker 3 Tonight, all eyes on the headline-making court case that just wrapped.

Speaker 15 The interest in this case was huge.

Speaker 54 Police are investigating the death of Michael Cochran.

Speaker 41 To suddenly die in the midst of allegations of financial crimes was pretty suspicious.

Speaker 3 So, you'd think he was duped as well?

Speaker 12 100%. I believe that.

Speaker 15 The defense counsel made it clear, and they were living this lavish lifestyle. So, how couldn't he have known that this was a Ponzi scheme?

Speaker 13 Natalie weaved such a web of lies, keeping us all drinking the Kool-Aid.

Speaker 36 They open the fridge, they find the vial of insulin.

Speaker 3 That was huge. Did anybody take insulin in the house?

Speaker 9 No. I said, the insulin, what are you doing with the insulin in the refrigerator?

Speaker 3 Prosecutors called that the murder weapon.

Speaker 12 What keeps Gavin alive, she used to take life.

Speaker 39 Just in shock. I was still in shock.

Speaker 14 The defense can say, maybe he died of something else.

Speaker 55 I know that he took steroids and he took many other supplements.

Speaker 44 He was a kicking bomb.

Speaker 3 Your daughter-in-law is being accused of killing your son.

Speaker 9 I mean, how do you kill somebody that you're supposed to love?

Speaker 3 It's been seven months since 38-year-old Michael Cochrane's death, and private eye James Quesnberry sends an employee on an undercover mission to Michael's wife Natalie's garage.

Speaker 16 I just seen a sign and figured I'd come out this way.

Speaker 27 Oh.

Speaker 34 She was selling a bunch of things and items at her house.

Speaker 57 This is

Speaker 57 security camera cable and then this is Ethernet cable.

Speaker 3 He's there to secretly get a closer look.

Speaker 34 The question was still out there of whether she was sitting on a pile of money.

Speaker 34 All these different questions.

Speaker 16 You don't want to sell the rest of anything else?

Speaker 57 Not really. I need to keep those from my son.

Speaker 21 My husband passed away, so my dad helped me go through it, and

Speaker 57 we kept things that my son might use when he grows up.

Speaker 8 Okay.

Speaker 34 Had there been something there that shouldn't have been there, we'd have turned it over to law enforcement. She's all smiles and looking at him and trying to be polite.

Speaker 34 And as soon as he turns his back, she changes her look, like her whole demeanor changes.

Speaker 3 In the months since Michael Cochran's death, authorities have started to take a hard look at the Cochrane's so-called businesses.

Speaker 40 I received a phone call from a trooper who had spoke with a local business person who had purchased some firearms from the Cochranes, and he had a problem with getting his firearms delivered or the money returned.

Speaker 40 And he was looking for help in resolving that matter. He had been solicited to be an investor in contracts.

Speaker 40 He never did did it because the information he was receiving from Natalie Cochran on these investment solicitations didn't make sense to him.

Speaker 25 I was like, yes,

Speaker 41 we definitely need to take a look at this.

Speaker 14 So that disgruntled customer then connected investigators with someone who said he had invested with Natalie Cochran.

Speaker 40 The problem that he was encountering was he kept getting excuse after excuse after excuse with getting his money returned.

Speaker 41 Bob was going through the records as they were coming in. And so, you know, there's a ton of information there to go through and Bob's looking at it.

Speaker 41 We're sitting there one day and he goes, I'll be damned. He said, it's a damn Ponzi scheme.

Speaker 3 As they dig in, they take notice of the investigation into that Little League account. Remember, board members had been suspicious of Natalie after money had gone missing.

Speaker 40 The Shady Spring Little League bank account is one of the many accounts she used to facilitate her Ponzi scheme.

Speaker 34 Natalie would deposit from their company and then sift it back out in various different ways.

Speaker 14 Natalie called the alleged financial crimes bogus and ultimately authorities decided not to charge her with anything related to the Little League.

Speaker 34 The league never recouped any money. It was all just lost.

Speaker 3 It's late into the summer and those generous Michael Cochran legacy scholarships which Natalie had promised students are now supposed to be paid out.

Speaker 36 There were eight people in total. They are full-ride scholarships for up to eight years.

Speaker 3 Tony McCall's son was given one of those college scholarships.

Speaker 13 There was no money. It was a fake scholarship.
Natalie weaved such a web of lies. They were bizarre like that.
It was still keeping us all in the flock.

Speaker 14 Natalie Cochran has insisted the scholarships would have been paid if her assets hadn't eventually been frozen by the government. But investigators had a different view.

Speaker 40 When she created these, we saw that as an attempt to dispel rumors. Rumors were circulating that her business was being looked at, that she didn't have this wealth and this money.

Speaker 41 We had pretty clearly identified at least,

Speaker 41 and I may be under, at least 10 known victims of the Ponzi scheme.

Speaker 40 The most obvious red flag at the time was that nobody was getting any money back.

Speaker 41 We had more than enough evidence and documentation to proceed with indictment.

Speaker 3 So she's arrested.

Speaker 19 Yes.

Speaker 3 What did you think of that?

Speaker 9 We were glad.

Speaker 13 When she was arrested, she was wearing the Tailgate Socialite t-shirt.

Speaker 13 That was the true Natalie right there.

Speaker 3 Natalie Cochran faces 26 charges related to the fraud. She pleads not guilty, but her investors are deeply distraught over the hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost money.

Speaker 13 I spent $256,000.

Speaker 12 $511,000.

Speaker 9 Almost a quarter of a million dollars. Over the course of two and a half years, we loved her and we believed her.
Everything she told us, we believed everything she said to us.

Speaker 3 Chris Davis says he too was taken in by his trust in Natalie and by the impressive paperwork she supplied.

Speaker 27 It looks legitimate.

Speaker 3 I mean, there are a lot of companies and there are a lot of entities here. Why would she do this?

Speaker 23 I don't know if it was the greed or the position or status.

Speaker 14 Reaching a deal with prosecutors, Natalie pled guilty to two counts, an unlawful monetary transaction and wire fraud.

Speaker 3 And then she went off to prison for 11 years for fraud.

Speaker 9 She did. May 1st of 2021 is when she finally went into the prison at Hazelton.

Speaker 14 The court also ordered her to pay back $2.5 million to the investors she fleeced. But with little income coming in, it will likely be a very long process.

Speaker 3 Did you feel that was fair, that was right?

Speaker 12 The judge said, if I can give you more, I would.

Speaker 12 He acknowledged the fact that the lawyers had reached this plea agreement. and had capped what he could have done to her.

Speaker 33 So no, at that moment, I didn't believe it was fair.

Speaker 12 And just as I told the judge, there's 2.5 million reasons why it wasn't fair.

Speaker 3 But this isn't over yet. A search warrant in the fraud case had led investigators into the Cochran home and brought an unexpected surprise.

Speaker 36 They open the fridge, they find the vial of insulin. It's suspicious that it shouldn't be there.
Nobody in the family is diabetic.

Speaker 3 Does that insulin have anything to do with Michael Cochran's death? We'll hear from his wife Natalie for the first time as investigators hit her with some tough questions.

Speaker 19 We

Speaker 41 have a conversation with Natalie Cochran.

Speaker 3 This investigation is just getting started.

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Speaker 15 At first, this was just a Ponzi scheme investigation.

Speaker 3 But as authorities investigate the fraud case, they also begin questioning Michael Cochran's unexpected death.

Speaker 41 Michael Cochran, who was 38 years old, seemingly a fit, healthy man.

Speaker 12 He took care of himself. He did work out.
He worked out all the time.

Speaker 41 To suddenly die in the midst of allegations of financial crimes, that's pretty suspicious.

Speaker 14 No autopsy had been done on Michael Cochran. The death certificate issued by the hospice where he died listed natural causes.

Speaker 40 There was no medical examiner involvement.

Speaker 41 Natalie Cochran gave different versions of what happened with Michael on February the 6th to multiple people.

Speaker 14 So authorities arrange a meeting with Natalie.

Speaker 56 Today's date is April 8th, 2019.

Speaker 41 I can explain to her we were looking into Michael's death.

Speaker 41 Natalie, just tell me how things progressed with Michael.

Speaker 60 February the 6th, whatever day we provided for the hospital, because kicked him on his sun he started throwing up in this thing.

Speaker 60 And I heard him hit his head, and then I went in there and be a clock. And so I didn't know what to do because Michael was very adamant.
I figured out the hospital last time.

Speaker 60 He said if you ever kicked in the hospital, he didn't even have any death.

Speaker 3 It turns out Michael had been hospitalized for several days back in November for potential exposure to black mold.

Speaker 3 Natalie says she thought one of his training supplements could have been making him sick.

Speaker 41 It was her belief that Michael had taken an overdose of this supplement that she alleged was coming from Mexico.

Speaker 60 I'd always been owning like this that's not safe. It even came in a bottle that said for animal use only,

Speaker 60 not for human ingestion.

Speaker 30 It's like soup.

Speaker 60 Right. You've taken it to gay mat and the puzzle's got a cut up.

Speaker 32 Gotcha.

Speaker 19 And I also had an insulin container in it, but bodybuilders can

Speaker 60 manipulate insulin to cut cut muscles.

Speaker 40 She introduces insulin in the discussion as part of Michael Cochran's weightlifting regimen.

Speaker 51 Mike was all about, he was just very into body food.

Speaker 41 Is there any chance that he would have purposely taken too much of that?

Speaker 60 He did purposely take too much.

Speaker 32 He was trying to super load.

Speaker 41 There was always this effort. to make sure that there was an explanation for insulin being somehow involved in Michael's death.

Speaker 41 In the third conversation, she brought up that Michael was injecting with insulin. She had done a complete pivot from where it was all this supplement.
Now Michael's injecting insulin.

Speaker 41 The insulin he was doing through injection.

Speaker 43 Correct.

Speaker 51 He would inject it before meals so that it would cover any carbs that he ate. Insulin is used primarily by diabetics to essentially help us regulate the blood sugar in our body.

Speaker 41 He wasn't diabetic, obviously.

Speaker 43 No.

Speaker 14 And remember, the fraud investigation is still ongoing. In June of 2019, federal and state authorities conduct a search of the Cochrane house.

Speaker 36 Natalie is there.

Speaker 41 She was in the garage.

Speaker 41 The search warrant was done based off the financial crime information investigation only.

Speaker 40 We anticipated finding additional evidence regarding this Ponte scheme.

Speaker 14 But they found something else they didn't expect.

Speaker 41 Sometimes things happen in investigations that

Speaker 41 you call it fake.

Speaker 41 I started rummaging through the refrigerator and there's this bottle of insulin setting right there.

Speaker 13 It shouldn't be there.

Speaker 36 Nobody in the family is diabetic.

Speaker 41 That was huge.

Speaker 41 Where did it come from?

Speaker 19 Whose is it?

Speaker 3 Natalie's got the same answer for authorities and for Michael's mother.

Speaker 9 She said, oh, they came here and they took everything. And she said they even took the insulin out of the refrigerator.

Speaker 3 Now, what did you make of that? Did anybody take insulin in the house?

Speaker 9 No. I said, insulin, what are you doing with the insulin in the refrigerator? I keep that here.
She said, for Gavin when he came over, if he needed a shock, because he's a diabetic.

Speaker 3 You believed it?

Speaker 9 We did.

Speaker 3 Remember, Gavin is christened Jennifer Davis's son.

Speaker 3 They tell authorities they never stored his insulin at the Cochrane house, but then they recalled the bag they left for Natalie the morning Michael collapsed.

Speaker 12 The investigator said, did she ever borrow insulin from you?

Speaker 24 And that's when Jennifer was like, yeah, she needed it.

Speaker 12 She had cancer and she got sick. And that's when they were like, you know when?

Speaker 19 And

Speaker 12 I felt like at that moment,

Speaker 12 we both were like, oh my goodness.

Speaker 19 Because now we know that she's a thief and a fraud.

Speaker 41 When we started seeing the text messages with Jennifer Davis about insulin, it was very revealing.

Speaker 41 If you believe the previous things that Natalie has said, she should have already had insulin readily available in the home. So it made no sense to go through all this effort.

Speaker 41 I think it's clear that she poisoned him with insulin.

Speaker 14 Authorities develop a theory of how Natalie may have used insulin to kill Michael.

Speaker 40 When he's finally taken to the emergency room, he presented with a blood sugar level of 21. He's not diabetic.

Speaker 36 You get low blood sugar by receiving too much insulin. Natalie had access to insulin.
She had the means to inject it. She knew exactly what insulin would do.

Speaker 14 Investigators believe there's enough circumstantial evidence to tie Natalie to Michael's death.

Speaker 61 39-year-old Natalie Cochran is now accused of the February 2019 murder of her husband, Michael.

Speaker 3 Natalie Cochran pleads not guilty. Was that hard for you to accept that your daughter-in-law is being accused of killing your son?

Speaker 9 Yeah, it was really hard to believe because, I mean, how do you kill somebody that you're supposed to love and they're your children's father?

Speaker 3 But why would Natalie want to kill her husband?

Speaker 15 The investigators thought the text messages looked suspicious.

Speaker 36 Michael didn't know about the Ponzi scheme, but he was learning.

Speaker 40 Michael was about to discover he didn't have millions, perhaps a billion dollars of legitimately earned income inbound from the federal government. And that was a problem for Natalie.

Speaker 41 Here is exactly the motive of why she felt like she had to kill Michael.

Speaker 36 Opening arguments began today in the Natalie Cochran trial.

Speaker 3 In January, more than three years after she was indicted for the first-degree murder of her husband, Michael, Natalie Cochran's trial is finally underway.

Speaker 15 There were media outlets from all over the country here.

Speaker 15 The interest in this case was huge.

Speaker 3 For Michael's family and friends, the three-year wait for justice has been agonizing. How tough was that for you all to just have this thing drag on before it's going to be resolved?

Speaker 32 It was hard.

Speaker 22 Yes, very hard. Spent lots of time praying.

Speaker 3 What was it like for you to see Natalie in that courtroom?

Speaker 9 I can't say that I really even thought about her. We just had to get justice for Michael.

Speaker 14 Natalie Cochran is a young woman. An 11-year sentence with good time served for the Ponzi scheme is relatively short versus a life sentence for murder.
Those stakes are incredibly high.

Speaker 20 All right, now, Mr. Chairman, you may proceed.

Speaker 6 Thank you, Honor.

Speaker 19 On February the 5th, 2019, Michael Cochran was a 200-pound, healthy 38-year-old man.

Speaker 3 By midday of February 6th of 2019,

Speaker 5 he had lost consciousness and he would never regain consciousness.

Speaker 5 The state needs to get ahead of the fact that it's an entirely circumstantial case. You got to tell the jury, you're not going to get the stuff you get on TV.

Speaker 5 There's no DNA, there's no fingerprints, this is it. But that's enough to convict.

Speaker 62 This is a complex case, they general the jury.

Speaker 13 But it's built built by the state of West Virginia on conjectures and innuendos and glaringly lacking in votes

Speaker 19 and the evidence necessary to prove that Mike Lynn killed her husband.

Speaker 62 Natalie understood that we cannot present a defense that would somehow skirt the issue of the Ponzi scheme or that would hide it from the jury.

Speaker 62 We admitted to the jury what was well known to everybody.

Speaker 62 The fact

Speaker 62 that she

Speaker 19 is

Speaker 62 perhaps a fraud and perhaps a cheat

Speaker 11 and that you wouldn't perhaps want to invite her home for Sunday dinner, that you wouldn't like her, does not translate into being a murderer.

Speaker 18 We absolutely believe that the imminent failure of the Ponzi scheme was Natalie's motive to kill Michael. That was going to happen and it was going to happen very, very quickly if she didn't act.

Speaker 41 What Michael Cochrane didn't know is certainly one of the most important questions here.

Speaker 41 But to me, what's more important is what he was about to know. the consequences that would come when he found out that information.

Speaker 3 And at the heart of the case, a vial of insulin.

Speaker 3 Prosecutors called that the murder weapon.

Speaker 19 Yeah.

Speaker 13 Yeah.

Speaker 12 What keeps Gavin alive?

Speaker 7 She used to kill.

Speaker 12 She used to take life.

Speaker 3 On the morning of February 6th, Jennifer Davis remembers getting a text from Natalie asking to borrow that insulin. She testifies about that exchange.

Speaker 50 Can you just explain to me what's going on in this conversation?

Speaker 32 She said that her and Mike, they were both sick and she had to start taking small insulin shots.

Speaker 50 Did you provide that insulin to her?

Speaker 32 I put the insulin in a bag and gave it to my husband and he dropped it off on the porch on the way to work.

Speaker 16 Several hours later, Natalie sends Jennifer a picture of Michael unconscious on the kitchen floor.

Speaker 48 What did this picture mean to you when you received it?

Speaker 19 Just that

Speaker 30 it was just shocking that he was laying there.

Speaker 36 Natalie contacts two construction workers that had worked for the family, says, Michael's on the floor. I'm going to need help picking him up from the floor and taking him into the living room.

Speaker 18 So after Chris Davis drops off the bag of insulin, Natalie sends out a text.

Speaker 18 She invites several friends over throughout the day to check on his condition and essentially make sure he's okay, but not take him to the hospital.

Speaker 3 In a statement to ABC News, Natalie Cochran says that, quote, Mike hated the hospital. He threatened several people that we better not take him back.

Speaker 14 Stephanie Hamilton, a physician's assistant, came over to check Michael out and found him non-responsive.

Speaker 6 What did you specifically ask?

Speaker 38 That he needed to be checked.

Speaker 30 I said even people with the history of seizures, anytime they have one, they need to be checked.

Speaker 38 I kept offering, like, I would go with her.

Speaker 30 She said she was going to let him sleep it off.

Speaker 5 You also heard from her

Speaker 19 later today.

Speaker 20 Take a look at that. 21.

Speaker 13 What does that mean?

Speaker 38 No one should ever have a blood sugar of 21.

Speaker 19 What's going to happen if they do?

Speaker 20 They're in a coma.

Speaker 38 Probably near death.

Speaker 3 At some point, you go over.

Speaker 27 Yes, and I walk in the living room.

Speaker 12 He's laying on the couch like he's sleeping.

Speaker 5 What did you do?

Speaker 12 So I go over to him. I just remember saying, ma'am,

Speaker 12 hey, buddy, I'm going to take you to the hospital. And that's exactly what I did.

Speaker 14 But by this time, it's too late. Michael gets to the hospital, but the damage has been done.

Speaker 12 Take a moment, you're okay.

Speaker 3 Chris, it was very tough for you in court when they showed you the photo that you had already seen of Mike.

Speaker 19 Yeah.

Speaker 3 Why did it hit you so hard?

Speaker 12 I wished I could have

Speaker 12 got to him

Speaker 52 first.

Speaker 3 Over two days, prosecutors have meticulously laid out the timeline of the day Michael Cochran died.

Speaker 3 The question now, will they be able to prove that it was his wife Natalie who killed him?

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Speaker 23 Mr.

Speaker 49 Truman, you may call your first witness.

Speaker 3 As prosecutors lay out their case against Natalie Cochran, they intend to show that she not only had the means, but the motive and the opportunity to kill her husband Michael back in February of 2019.

Speaker 49 Thank you, Honor.

Speaker 5 The state calls Robert Heinzman.

Speaker 21 Raise your right hand, thanks, sir.

Speaker 5 Bob Heinzman was the primary investigator of the defendant's Ponzi scheme, and he explained there was really no evidence that Michael knew what was going on.

Speaker 5 Now, the defense has floated the theory that Michael Cochran was up to his eyeballs in this Ponzi scheme.

Speaker 3 From your investigation,

Speaker 6 do you have any evidence that would support that?

Speaker 40 He believed that they had obtained contracts and that they would be receiving money for these contracts.

Speaker 6 Do you have any evidence that he knew that this was a fraud being carried on?

Speaker 19 No.

Speaker 62 It was important to hammer home that Michael Cochran was at least cognizant of the scheme because it would destroy the state's theory of why it happened.

Speaker 62 Have you, in your thorough investigation of this case, talked to the

Speaker 62 children of Mr. and Mrs.
Cochrane?

Speaker 19 No.

Speaker 13 Would it surprise you if I told you that they observed their parents work on the federal contracts?

Speaker 62 And you were telling this jury that he had not no knowledge of these contracts?

Speaker 40 I'm not telling the jury that. I've said that he knew about the contracts that he was led to believe were bid on by their business.

Speaker 16 The investigation had revealed that Michael was beginning to ask some really tough questions of Natalie about where the money was going.

Speaker 5 The day before, February 5th of 2019, it was arranged by the Cochranes to charter a flight from Beckley down to Lynchburg, Virginia to meet with the Bank of America banker.

Speaker 5 And of course, that was a meeting that Natalie could never allow to happen because if it did happen then Michael would know and that would have been the end of her Ponza scheme.

Speaker 18 Courtnexon was an employee of Bank of America. He testified via Zoom in this trial because he's not local.

Speaker 5 And that was to take place February 6th of 2019, correct?

Speaker 20 Correct. Looks like they said they were going to fly in

Speaker 20 and so we were basically responding to their schedule and setting things up as best we could. Did that meeting take place?

Speaker 20 Never took place.

Speaker 18 Natalie was becoming desperate at this point.

Speaker 3 Prosecutors argue that if Michael was in the dark, Natalie's deception was about to come to light.

Speaker 18 Putting Jennifer Davis on the stand explains how Natalie got the insulin that she needed to kill Michael.

Speaker 50 Jennifer, at this point,

Speaker 50 you were offering to help out a friend in need.

Speaker 21 Is that fair to say?

Speaker 50 Yes. Did she accept your offer of help?

Speaker 18 Yes, she did.

Speaker 42 She asked if she could borrow a bottle of insulin.

Speaker 42 According to Dr.

Speaker 18 Uribe, who was one of our forensic pathologists, the only way that Michael's blood sugar could have plummeted to 21 was if someone else had given him insulin.

Speaker 58 There was profound hypoglycemia.

Speaker 58 Hypoglycemia is low blood glucose.

Speaker 58 Once he was treated for the hypoglycemia, the blood sugar went up and then it went back down again. To me, that is a significant pattern.

Speaker 21 And why is that pattern significant to you?

Speaker 58 Because there are only a few things that can do that.

Speaker 58 One of the big things

Speaker 19 is

Speaker 58 insulin administration.

Speaker 3 But the defense poses an important question.

Speaker 3 Could Michael have injected himself as part of a bodybuilding regimen? Dr. Uribe pushes back against that suggestion.

Speaker 58 To my knowledge, bodybuilders don't use insulin.

Speaker 3 During the murder investigation, Michael's remains were exhumed, and Dr. Uribe conducted an autopsy.

Speaker 18 And what did you determine were Michael Cochrane's cause and manner of death?

Speaker 58 I came to the conclusion that the cause of death was exogenous insulin administration.

Speaker 21 Department of the State calls Timothy Bledsoe to the stand.

Speaker 18 Tim was able to draw all of the parallels and

Speaker 18 connect all of the pieces.

Speaker 18 He was able to explain for the jury how and why the Ponzi scheme and the failure of the Ponzi scheme led to the murder of Michael Cochran.

Speaker 41 It was about telling that story, you know, another piece to the puzzle.

Speaker 7 And I think overall, I think we were successful.

Speaker 21 And we previously heard Jennifer Davis testify that she had insulin sent to the defendant's home.

Speaker 18 Is that your understanding?

Speaker 44 Yes.

Speaker 21 Do you recall why the defendant needed the insulin that morning?

Speaker 44 I believe it was something related to cancer treatment.

Speaker 50 And throughout the entire course of your investigation,

Speaker 21 did you ever uncover any evidence that the defendant had cancer?

Speaker 19 No.

Speaker 3 Did you waver at all? Did you wonder maybe the prosecutors had this wrong, that it was just a horrible set of circumstances?

Speaker 39 Not once they talked to us. And then I started going back through, you know, my text and, you know, Chris and I started talking.
And then I was just in shock, disbelief. I'm still in shock.

Speaker 42 It just doesn't seem real

Speaker 19 at all.

Speaker 19 But

Speaker 19 it was hard.

Speaker 3 Prosecutors have rested their case. Now it's the defense's turn to persuade the jury that Natalie Cochrane is innocent.

Speaker 3 And to do that, they bring in their own star witnesses, Michael and Natalie's children.

Speaker 11 Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you, God?

Speaker 58 Yes, sure.

Speaker 3 The state has wrapped its case of circumstantial evidence. Now it's the defense's turn.

Speaker 49 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the jury.

Speaker 19 Good morning.

Speaker 3 They believe there's not enough evidence to prove that Natalie Cochran killed her husband, Michael.

Speaker 16 The atmosphere in the courtroom was, what's the defense going to bring? You could sense some anxiety there of what the defense was going to say about Michael to try and explain away Natalie's actions.

Speaker 3 The defense has already told the jury that Michael Cochran was, quote, a ticking bomb because of his alleged medical problems and health history.

Speaker 3 Their game plan is to discredit the prosecution's case and Michael Cochran himself.

Speaker 5 There was no forensic evidence to tie her to a murder.

Speaker 56 Zero forensic evidence.

Speaker 3 They called two surprising witnesses to the stand, Natalie and Michael's children.

Speaker 62 Would you state your name for the record?

Speaker 55 Nicole Cochran.

Speaker 62 What type of medication was he taking?

Speaker 55 I know that he took steroids and he took many other supplements.

Speaker 44 Did he do it daily?

Speaker 55 Yes, every morning.

Speaker 3 Was he into supplements and vitamins and all of that stuff?

Speaker 33 Oh, absolutely.

Speaker 12 He took his supplements, his pre-workouts, and those things. He tried to take care of his body.

Speaker 55 He would lay all of his pills out on the counter and there would be so many of them that they would just sit in a whole circle and it looked like the size of a dinner plate and then he would scoop them handfuls at a time into his mouth.

Speaker 15 The theory by the defense counsel is that Michael Cochran was not a healthy individual.

Speaker 62 Did you start noticing changes in your father's health?

Speaker 55 He was very agitated

Speaker 55 and angry, more so than not.

Speaker 55 And he was having a lot of headaches.

Speaker 14 The defense asked the same line of questioning to the Cochrane's son, whose face is concealed on the witness stand because he's a minor.

Speaker 62 Did he ever inject anything?

Speaker 54 Definitely steroids.

Speaker 3 He took supplements and things like that. Did he take steroids?

Speaker 9 He never took any steroids. If you would seem all everything that he has, all the muscles he has, is natural.

Speaker 19 Hard work.

Speaker 12 Mike wasn't a bodybuilder. He ate too much pizza to be a bodybuilder.
Was he fit? He was. Was he in shape? He was.
Did he work hard for that? He did.

Speaker 15 And he was taking things from Mexico, they were saying, things that were not approved by the FDA.

Speaker 62 What did he get from Mexico, do you know?

Speaker 54 I don't know the name of the steroid, but it was definitely an anabolic.

Speaker 3 What was that like to see them testifying on their mother's behalf?

Speaker 9 You know, they love their mother. Of course, they're going to defend their mother, but the things they said about their father was really heartbreaking.

Speaker 3 Defense lawyers argue that Michael Cochran was not exactly a healthy 38-year-old, and that his lifestyle led to four hospital visits between 2017 and the time of his death in 2019.

Speaker 54 He got sick, and I feel like around that time is when you could just notice that he started to change a little bit, just forgetting stuff all the time.

Speaker 8 And

Speaker 54 he was more aggressive.

Speaker 34 Towards whom?

Speaker 13 Aggressive.

Speaker 34 Towards everybody.

Speaker 3 Natalie had told friends and family that her husband also suffered from seizures, plus symptoms of black mold poisoning from renovations he did on their house.

Speaker 3 I mean, had you heard of him having seizures?

Speaker 12 We were told that he had seizures and he was exposed to black mold.

Speaker 14 The defense also tries to hammer away at the state's motive, the Ponzi scheme. They claim Natalie Cochran wasn't the only one involved.
They say Michael was too.

Speaker 55 I always saw him working on his computer and he would say that that's what he was doing.

Speaker 62 Say that he was doing what?

Speaker 55 That he was filling out contracts.

Speaker 62 Did your mother do that?

Speaker 55 No.

Speaker 62 Who was working on the contracts?

Speaker 54 My dad.

Speaker 35 We had heard that Natalie Cochran was going to take the stand.

Speaker 15 She had informed the judge that she was going to testify in her own behalf. And at the last minute, she decided that she wasn't going to testify.

Speaker 16 The jury was extremely attentive,

Speaker 16 but the jury was never more invested in what was being said than in the closing arguments.

Speaker 49 All right, are you folks ready to deliver your closing remarks?

Speaker 18 Natalie was a diabetic counselor and a pharmacist. She knew that injecting insulin into a non-diabetic would cause harm.

Speaker 8 Is that the action of a planning cold-blooded killer?

Speaker 62 She would get that insulin ahead of time,

Speaker 62 not on the day of the murder, and involve two witnesses against her right there and then.

Speaker 18 She chose over and over after repeated pleas from friends and loved ones to leave Michael on the couch.

Speaker 64 It's a horrible tragedy.

Speaker 3 But a tragedy, not a murder.

Speaker 62 The state failed to answer a couple of questions. And that is, when did it happen?

Speaker 62 Where did it happen? How did it happen?

Speaker 56 There was no deductive reasoning where you would say, well, it was Professor Plum with the candlestick in the study.

Speaker 14 Well, it was actually the pharmacist in the kitchen, according to the prosecution's theory.

Speaker 18 She had a clear motive. And you saw that leading up to this date, Michael was about to find out what she was doing to people.
Do we know what he was going to do with that information?

Speaker 18 We never will, because he won't have the chance to tell us.

Speaker 62 Ms. Cochrane is

Speaker 62 committed crimes of fraud, but that doesn't make her a murderer. We're asking you to find her not guilty.

Speaker 5 21 was such a crucial number because nobody's blood glucose should be at that level unless you've had an injection of insulin.

Speaker 51 A normal blood glucose level would be anywhere from 70 to around 130.

Speaker 5 21. That's the number we're going to rely on to convince you beyond a reasonable doubt that this defendant killed Michael Cochrane.

Speaker 5 Find this defendant guilty of first-degree murder because that's exactly what she did.

Speaker 3 The case is now in the hands of the jury. Were prosecutors able to convince them that Natalie Cochran killed her husband? Or did the defense poke enough holes to sow reasonable doubt?

Speaker 15 People yell out, there's a verdict, and then people start scurrying to get a seat inside the courtroom.

Speaker 49 Has the jury reached a verdict?

Speaker 15 When that verdict comes back, they were shocked.

Speaker 3 The verdict handed down just weeks ago came quickly. The jury deliberated for less than two hours.

Speaker 53 Would the defendant please rise?

Speaker 53 The jury verdict is as follows.

Speaker 49 The defendant is guilty of murder in the first degree.

Speaker 3 What was it like when you heard guilty?

Speaker 9 We were so happy because we're finally getting justice for Michael after all these years.

Speaker 23 You know, I could just feel my spirit and everything just going out.

Speaker 23 You know, this is what it's supposed to be.

Speaker 18 It was exhilarating to hear the word guilty.

Speaker 18 And all I can think is we did it. We got her.

Speaker 3 And the jury is not finished. They've got another decision to make, what's known as the mercy phase.

Speaker 49 Good morning, members of the jury.

Speaker 7 Good morning.

Speaker 7 You are back?

Speaker 5 Mercy, which means the defendant gets... parole eligibility after serving 15 years or no mercy which means there's no eligibility for parole You'll raise your right hand, please.

Speaker 3 A slew of Natalie Cochran's family, including her mom, tearfully take the stand.

Speaker 22 I beg,

Speaker 44 I don't know what else I can say except

Speaker 13 please give mercy to her.

Speaker 3 For a second time, Natalie's 19-year-old daughter faces the jury that's already convicted her mom in her father's murder.

Speaker 55 I missed her at my high school graduation.

Speaker 50 I missed her on the day I moved into college.

Speaker 19 I'm begging you to give her

Speaker 19 mercy so that I don't have to miss more.

Speaker 15 Natalie Cochran's family ended up leaving when the family of Michael Cochran, when they were up there.

Speaker 25 Raise your right hand please, ma'am.

Speaker 9 We, along with our family and friends, have sat quietly and graciously and painfully watched and listened as Michael's good name has been murdered time and time again.

Speaker 16 It was one of the most intense pieces of testimony in the entire trial.

Speaker 9 This spoiled, evil, narcissistic murderer had seldom, if ever, been denied this which she wanted.

Speaker 9 She will try to blame my precious son, Michael, for her evilness and deceit.

Speaker 3 Do you remember what you said that you felt the strongest about?

Speaker 9 When I said that, please, please, don't give her any mercy.

Speaker 13 We ask that you please, please,

Speaker 9 no mercy. She never gave Michael any mercy.

Speaker 16 I think it was extremely riveting for the jury to see.

Speaker 49 We, the jury, unanimously do not recommend mercy.

Speaker 18 Natalie Cochrane will spend the rest of her life in prison.

Speaker 3 But the pain lives on for Michael's friends, Jennifer and Chris, whose son's insulin may very well have been used to end their friend's life.

Speaker 21 I trusted her.

Speaker 44 And that's the exact same thing she used

Speaker 19 and borrowed from me. And that's hard.
And that's something I'll have to live with.

Speaker 9 As far as I'm concerned, justice has been done. She's where she needs to be.

Speaker 3 You've lost

Speaker 3 your son. You've lost financially.
You've lost a lot.

Speaker 22 Yes, we have.

Speaker 9 But we have each other and we're strong for each other. That's the only way we can get by.
And because of God.

Speaker 3 What about your grandchildren? Do you hope to have a relationship at some point with them?

Speaker 9 Right now, I think it's best the way that it is. I don't see them coming around.
And we have to accept it and just go on.

Speaker 3 Just days after the verdict, I visited with Michael's parents. His stepfather, Ed, took me to a special place they'd created to honor their son's memory.

Speaker 27 This is your memorial to Michael.

Speaker 23 Yeah, not able to get up there to his grave site enough.

Speaker 23 So I said, well, you know, keep it, you know, right here close. Anytime we want to go, we can just come right here.

Speaker 3 What do you think about when you come out here and sit on that bench?

Speaker 23 When Don and I, sometimes we kind of sit around down here.

Speaker 25 There'll be like a butterfly that'll come around.

Speaker 23 And I told Don, I said, well, I said, there's little Michael.

Speaker 25 So we've got a little cut-out flower over there that he's always down here.

Speaker 3 Such an emotional story to report on, David, those heartbroken parents placing a memorial bench where they can always remember their son, Michael.

Speaker 29 We should note tonight that Natalie Cochran does plan to appeal her murder conviction. In the meantime, that is our program for tonight.

Speaker 3 I'm David Muir. And I'm Deborah Roberts from all of us here at 2020 and ABC News.
Good night.

Speaker 3 Two rings surrounded by a steel cage.

Speaker 3 You wanna play games?

Speaker 3 We're gonna play games.

Speaker 3 Oh my god, are you kidding me? This is gonna be a war.

Speaker 47 Stream Survivor Series War Games, November 29th at 7 Eastern on the ESPN.