Original subtitles

A businessman's death mystifies friends and loved ones.

His death generated a lot of surprise.

This is a very healthy, vibrant young man.

His blood glucose level was 21, which can cause your brain to swell.

But we knew Michael Cochran was not diabetic.

But to his investors, the timing is suspicious.

A lawyer approached me about an investment that he made.

Just under $3 million.

He seems to think that there's something fishy going on with the company.

People were giving up their entire retirement savings.

You're like, man, we just lost this money and we're never getting it back.

And when detectives uncover the truth, it exposes more than anyone could have

anticipated.

In relatively short order.

They were able to put together what was going on.

There was no business.

It was just smoke and mirrors.

They're like, okay, this movie truly is planned out. This is true crime.

A second autopsy was able to rule his death a homicide.

Open the fridge, and there's a bottle of insulin sitting there. How many of us

that don't have diabetics have insulin in our refrigerators?

February 6, 2019.

A woman named Natalie Cochran parks outside an emergency room in Beckley,

West Virginia.

With the help of a friend, she brings her unconscious husband, 38-year-old

Michael Cochran, inside.

Michael had an unexplained medical event at the home. He had collapsed, and

she had summoned some folks to come and help.

Initial... Testing showed that his blood glucose level was 21, which

by all accounts is dire.

In a healthy individual, that might be 60s, 70s.

When a person's blood glucose drops below a certain level, you can go into a

coma, and that can cause loss of oxygen to your brain.

A very likely outcome is death.

Brownlee General took the appropriate medical action to raise that blood sugar

level.

He is immediately intubated and put on the ventilator.

When doctors ask Natalie what might have caused this, she says she has no idea.

Michael is an active father of two and the picture of health.

But despite their efforts, Michael's condition continues to deteriorate.

Mike stayed on a ventilator from the time he was placed on one at Raleigh

General Hospital until roughly five days later.

He was not waking up, no matter what sort of treatment he received to reverse

the low blood sugar.

And ultimately, he was declared brain dead.

For Natalie, that means it's time to consider the unthinkable.

She told us that they've done the MRI. He has no brain activity.

She's got to make the decision to pull him off the vent.

Everyone comes in and says their goodbyes, and ultimately he is

transferred to hospice, where he is for only a few hours before he passes away.

It was a bad day for everybody that knew Mike and loved Mike, and it just

happened just so fast.

Michael's loved ones are devastated by the loss, but the way he died raises

questions for several of them.

Michael's death generated a lot of surprise, again, because he was a very

healthy, vibrant young man.

What happened here to, you know, correct this young man's life that was just so

full of life?

Michael Cochran was born in West Virginia on December 23, 1980.

Michael was raised by Donna, his mother, and Eddie, his stepfather.

They are just wonderful people.

Mike has always been into sports.

He was always an athlete in high school.

He played football. He played baseball.

Michael's interest in sports is what led him to meeting his future wife, Natalie.

Natalie worked at the sporting goods store and Michael was always in there

buying things.

Her mother and father were both in the school system there. He was an

accountant and she was a school teacher.

Had a pretty good life growing up. Never really wanted for anything.

Soon after they began dating, it became clear they were meant for each other.

Every time you saw Mike, you saw Natalie.

It's very seldom you ever saw them.

She would always say we were high school sweethearts. Then they went to WVU. She

was planning to go to pharmacy school, and he was doing computer science IT

work. And they got engaged while they were at college.

They married young.

After they finished school, they settled in Daniels, West Virginia, and they had

two kids.

Mike, as a father, he was very, very into his children.

He was always coaching his son in football there. His daughter was always

there with him as well.

Michael and Natalie both worked hard to support their family.

Michael owned an IT company. He installed computer programs for

different offices.

Natalie was a pharmacist, and she worked at various retail pharmacies in that

area. They built a comfortable life together, but had their sights set on

something bigger.

In 2017, Michael and Natalie formed a company, Tactical Solutions Group.

And the stated purpose of the company was to deal in government contracts.

People that got those government contracts would make money by... buying

and selling them.

They would make a purchase and they would get paid back from the government.

Michael would research available government contracts, but Natalie was

the point person for the company. She was the one that got the money.

When people would come to Michael, he would refer them to Natalie.

Michael said that Natalie was the one that had gotten that business going and

she knew everything.

The Cochrans found most of their investors right there in Beckley.

We did small amounts over a period of time. We didn't do a lump sum because I

was unsure about how this was working and how it was going on.

In time, it was around $17,000 total.

And by all appearances, business was booming.

They were purchasing houses. They were purchasing cars.

They were purchasing land.

They were going on vacation.

The Cochrans were coming into quite a lot of money, and they were coming into

it pretty quickly.

They seemed to be doing great, and they had everything.

Now, Michael has unexpectedly passed away.

and his loved ones want to know why.

Despite the unusual nature of his death, doctors attribute it to a natural

medical episode.

Michael was, by all accounts, very healthy.

It was very strange that Michael passed away so suddenly, but

when a person passes away in hospice care, there's not typically

seemed to be an emergent need for an autopsy.

His cause of death was explained as respiratory failure having to do

with an anoxic brain injury.

A month later, reports are trickling in that the Cochran's business may not be

all that it seems.

A lawyer in Beckley had approached me about an investment that he had made

with Natalie Cochran.

He was concerned that he wasn't going to receive his money back.

There was a local business owner who came forward to another trooper

kind of in confidence.

He had entered into a business agreement with Natalie Cochran, and he was...

I guess to say at the end of his rope.

He had previously contacted Natalie.

He seems to think that there's something fishy going on with the company.

He was more or less looking to either get her to complete the deal that he had

entered into with the business, with her, or return his money that he had

invested, which was approximately $40,000.

This transaction was supposed to be completed.

Michael Cochran also suddenly died.

When police begin researching Tactical Solutions Group, they find several other

investors in Beckley who are wondering what happened to their money.

People were giving up their entire retirement.

thinking they're going to be making hundreds of thousands of dollars in

return. There were all sorts of excuses as to why those promises couldn't be

fulfilled. Natalie would blame the bank for not transferring the money as

promised.

To seasoned detectives, Natalie's excuses sound like something else.

We could not find any record of any government contract that...

the TSG business I'd ever engaged in.

She's been orchestrating this multi-million dollar Ponzi scheme right

here at home.

Ponzi scheme is, in basic terms, is when they take the second person's money,

give it back to the first person part of it, and then they continue on down the

line collecting money from all these people. But eventually, the money's

going to run out.

And the timing is suspicious.

The death of Michael in the midst of what was clearly a fraud being

perpetrated by Natalie had to raise some major suspicions.

Michael Cochran was a very healthy, fit, 38-year-old young man.

For a person like Michael Cochran to just suddenly die, yeah, that

warranted a second look.

And so the investigation also pursued the potential unlawful death of Michael.

She was running this Ponzi scheme, and then her husband died.

And it all just seemed a little too convenient.

They realized they had to talk to Natalie about it.

Coming up, friends paint a puzzling picture.

He said he will not go to the hospital.

And he would be so mad if he woke up and he was there.

But Natalie tells investigators she thinks his death was caused by a

bodybuilding obsession.

West Virginia State Police are dealing with two possible crimes.

The mysterious death of 38-year-old Michael Cochran and the alleged Ponzi

scheme his wife Natalie Cochran has been accused of running.

Right now, it's unclear if there's a connection.

There's unaccounted money out there. The investors are upset. I think ultimately

there was the loss.

The FBI is tasked with handling the financial crime while detectives focus

on the possible homicide.

They begin by speaking with the Cochran's long-term friends and

investors, John and Stephanie Hamilton, who say this is the second tragedy to

befall the family.

Right around the time frame that I gave her the first check for the investment

in January of 2019, that same week, actually, she told

me that she had leukemia.

I was devastated for her.

She's young, we're the same age, and she's got young kids.

Everybody was just...

trying to just do everything they could for her because no one wants to battle

cancer alone.

I immediately was, how can I help them? What can we do?

The Hamiltons were so focused on Natalie's health that it came as a

surprise when a month later she called to say that Michael had fallen sick as

well.

On February 6th that morning, Natalie sent me a text saying that Mike had

collapsed.

and just wanted to know if I could come by.

Whenever I got there, Mike was laying on their downstairs couch and appeared to

be asleep.

I asked Natalie what had happened, and she said that he had a seizure and that

she was going to let him sleep at all.

I said, do you want me to call him an ambulance?

Do you want us to drive him to the hospital?

And she said, well, no, I'm just going to let him sleep at all. This is what he

does whenever he has seizures.

You know, you're thinking, well, I really don't think this is the best

idea, but it's her husband.

So what I did was I went and I called my wife because my wife is a physician

assistant.

I said, you know, what's wrong?

And he said, Michael's sick.

And I said, okay. And he said, you need to stop by here and see if you can talk

her into taking him to the hospital.

When I get to the house, I walk in.

And Mike was laying on the couch, and there's a blood pressure cuff on his

arm. And I remember seeing the numbers and the heart rate, and that was all

good. And I said, what happened?

And she said, well, he was thrown up in the sink.

He had a seizure.

Anybody that has a history of seizures should go to the hospital immediately.

She said he will not go to the hospital.

And she said he would be so mad if he woke up and he was there. I said, well,

blame me.

Tell him I was here.

I said he had to go.

And she said, well, I'm just going to let him sleep it off.

I had to leave.

So I left, and she had promised when I was leaving if he didn't wake up from

his sleep.

that she would take him to the hospital.

I know that Steph, throughout the day, she was getting updates on how Mike was.

At one point, Natalie actually showed my wife a photo of the way that he had been

playing in the kitchen, and my wife once again reiterated that, you know,

Natalie, you probably need to take him to the hospital just to get him checked,

just to be sure.

The Hamiltons say eight hours after she initially called them, Natalie texted

that she was taking Michael to the ER.

Her friend and neighbor come by and actually got Mike to the hospital that

night there. He was the only one that could talk her into it finally.

She did let me know they got there.

They were working on him. The next thing I get is a picture of him on the vent

and everything, and I thought, what in the world is going on?

The homicide investigators, the fact that Natalie waited so long to get her

husband medical attention is a potential red flag.

Clearly he was in distress and she didn't get him help when everybody could

see that he needed help.

As we talked to all these witnesses, I was like, man, it seems like that she

was delaying care for him.

Well, why would you do that?

Then your gut sinks because you're thinking, man, that's pretty cold

-blooded.

With questions regarding the sudden death of Michael Cochran continuing to

arise, detectives are left wondering why an autopsy was not performed.

It's very unusual for someone to die in hospice care and have an autopsy.

That's where people go to die with as much comfort for them and their

survivors as they can.

So that was certainly not unusual that there was no autopsy at the time.

But the investigation into the fraud aspect messed with the suspicious death

of a very healthy young man.

The death certificate listed Michael's death as natural causes.

That is obviously a hurdle, but it's not insurmountable. It doesn't mean that

we're going to stop doing what we're doing.

But... It did take a really long time from the time that Michael died in

February of 2019 to gather evidence.

There was so much talk in the community about his death.

So our office kept the information that did not need to be public behind closed

doors.

At this point, Lieutenant Bledsoe needs to know what Natalie knows about

Michael's death.

And she offered to come into the state police detachment.

On April 8th, two months after her husband died, Natalie speaks to

investigators in West Virginia.

Like I told you, we're investigating, you know, what caused or contributed to

Michael's death.

Natalie, just tell me how things progressed, you know, with Michael.

Okay.

Natalie says she doesn't think Michael's death had anything to do with the

seizures.

She's convinced it was caused by something else.

She stated that after Michael had passed away, she found this

bottle in a medicine cabinet, which was labeled as enclomiphene citrate.

She didn't know what it was. She said he got it on a trip to Mexico.

During that time, he paid 34 supplements a day. He was all good.

Okay. I'd always been learning that this stuff's not safe, it's not tested. It

even came in a bottle that said for animals only, not for human ingestion.

And he was taking it. It was like a steroid. Right. He was taking it to gain

mass. And he would suck that up.

Gotcha. And it also had an insulin component in it, which bodybuilders can

manipulate insulin to cut muscles.

And so Mike was all about, you know, all that stuff.

Michael was very athletic.

He lifted weights. He ran. He took some supplements, but mainly just what seemed

to be your normal supplements that healthy people take.

She says that Michael definitely overdosed on this alleged Mexican

supplement that he was using as part of his workout regimen.

Hospital records seem to confirm Natalie's theory.

When Michael got to the Raleigh General Emergency Room, they took a sample of

his blood, and his blood glucose level was 21, which is essentially fatal.

I want to see exactly what the effects are of an insulin overdose on a non

-diabetic patient, because we knew Michael Cochran was not diabetic.

They discover that unnecessary insulin intake can cause loss of brain function

and comas.

The first attending physician that we interviewed, I asked him, can you even

overdose from insulin?

He said, oh yeah, absolutely. He said, if you let it go unattended, he said,

after a certain time it becomes irreversible.

There was a substance that she said he used, which was in clomiphene citrate.

However, experts were able to determine that there's no evidence that that could

have caused Michael's condition, even if he was using it.

It was a substance that would certainly not be fatal and certainly would not

cause Michael Cochran to have a hypoglycemic injury.

Investigators find it unlikely that, as a medical professional herself,

Natalie would make such a mistake.

At this point in the investigation, Mike's death hasn't even been ruled a

homicide. We have no idea what killed him and we have no murder weapon at this

point. And then Natalie brings up the idea of insulin for bodybuilding

purposes.

Natalie Cochran is a diabetic educator.

A pharmacist whose specialty is treating people who have diabetes.

Who would know it better? And more importantly, not just know it, but who

would know how long it takes?

Police wonder if they've just been told how Michael was killed by the person who

did it.

We knew we had turned over the right stone. It's just now, follow the

evidence.

Coming up, the government's fraud case reaches a conclusion.

They found a contract where Natalie had arranged to sell half of the business.

But investigators find the homicide trickier to prove.

There is no per se smoking gun.

So you're looking at why did this happen?

Three months into the investigation of Michael Cochran's death, West Virginia

police decide to prioritize getting an arrest for the Ponzi scheme.

So they ask federal agents pursuing the fraud allegations for assistance.

The officers that executed the search warrant were state police, ATF, and the

FBI, all engaged as a collaborative search.

Any number of things that could support the theory that there was a Ponzi

scheme. They're seizing papers, they're seizing electronics.

There were deposits being made, but the payments coming out were all from

those deposits of investors and none from any true generation of business.

They found a contract.

in that search warrant where Natalie had arranged to sell half of the business to

a local business person for a significant amount of money.

They were going to pay $4.9 million for a business that was absolutely

worthless. There was no business.

It was just smoke and mirrors.

The contract proved to federal investigators that Natalie knew the

scheme couldn't last forever.

She was going to sell it to someone else and have them take the fall for her.

And then she would have been out of it. She would have been free and clear.

But homicide detectives are looking for something else, a murder weapon.

I opened the fridge.

In the door, there were shelves, and there was a sack of candy bars. I moved

those out of the way, and when I did, there was a bottle of insulin sitting

there.

There was a single puncture. Someone had stuck a needle in that bottle and

extracted some quantity of insulin out of it.

At this point in the case, it's really significant that investigators are able

to find a bottle of insulin in the Cochran residence.

One, because no one in the residence is diabetic, so there's really no reason

for insulin to be there.

Two, in her interview with Lieutenant Bledsoe, Natalie has...

brought up the idea of insulin use.

You just can't believe that someone who is not a diabetic does not use insulin

because it could put you in a diabetic shock.

How many of us that don't have diabetics have insulin in our refrigerators? Not

many, I dare say.

Whenever the officers execute a search warrant, they're required by law.

to give the owner a receipt.

She gets to the insulin, and she's packing the paper. She says, this right

here, this is for a neighbor's child who has diabetes, and I keep that insulin

here for him.

I pick out that one thing.

That's going to get any competent investigator, that's going to get his

attention.

When investigators ask the neighbor whether she gave Natalie the insulin,

she says she did, but not for the reason Natalie claimed.

The morning that Mike gets sick, Natalie texts her friend and neighbor and

tells her that she's going to have to start taking small shots of insulin to

regulate her blood sugar because it's been elevated due to her cancer

treatment.

And around 10.30 that morning, Keith actually drops the insulin off at the

Cochran residence.

We obtained Natalie's medical records from the places that she said she was

getting treatment for her leukemia.

And there was never any indication that she had received treatment for any kind

of cancer.

Who lies about that?

If you're capable of lying about that, is it hard to believe that you're

capable of killing your husband?

Natalie asked for a bottle of insulin the morning that Mike gets sick and

suddenly his blood sugar is 21.

So they're really starting to get a clearer image of who Natalie Cochran is

at this point.

But to prosecute Natalie for murder, they first need to prove Michael's death

was a homicide.

In September, seven months after Michael's death, police obtain a court

order to exhume his body.

He undergoes his first autopsy. At that point, Michael was already pretty

severely decayed.

His cause and manner of death were ruled undetermined and undeterminable.

That autopsy had no forensic value whatsoever. It didn't enlighten anybody

as to anything.

For now, the only thing Natalie can be charged with is financial crime.

A couple weeks after Michael's autopsy occurred, Natalie Cochran is arrested on

26 federal counts of wire fraud and money laundering.

I called Bledsoe, the detective, Detective Bledsoe. I said, someone tell

me this is a Ponzi scheme.

Is this true?

And he says, Yeah, I'm afraid it's true.

You're like, man, it's like we just lost this money. We're never getting it back.

It's devastating.

And not just about the money, but the betrayal

was so deep.

That level of betrayal, that was much deeper than the money.

When Natalie was finally arrested towards the end of September, what ran

through my mind is that she finally was going to get what she deserved.

Homicide investigators are finding it difficult to build a case against

Natalie Cochran, but the federal crimes she's been charged with eventually lead

to jail time.

About a year after her initial arrest for the money laundering and wire

fraud charges, Natalie Cochran actually pled guilty to some of those charges and

was sentenced to 11 years in the federal penitentiary.

The federal Ponzi scheme side of it?

That's pretty easy. There's tons of evidence as to what transpired here.

The murder was the hard part.

When you look at circumstantial cases, there is no per se smoke and gun.

So you're looking at why did this happen?

People don't just get up out of bed and decide to murder their spouse.

Believing Natalie's motive is the key to cracking the case.

Detectives search her phone, which was seized during the federal fraud

investigation.

Natalie's phone contains thousands of text message exchanges, e

-mails, all really showing she was not only telling investors

certain excuses and explanations for why they're not getting their money, but

that she's also telling Michael the same things.

That also applied between Michael and Natalie. I read about 1,600 pages

that covered about an 18-month time period, and he was telling Michael the

exact same lies he was telling the investors.

There was no evidence that Michael knew about the Ponzi scheme. He really

thought they had a successful business going, and they had banker problems.

But it seems Michael slowly began to realize something was wrong.

Speaking to bank officials, police learned that he asked for a full

accounting from them in February 2019.

The night before Michael collapsed, he was getting so outraged

that the money was not coming because Natalie had been telling him that they

have hundreds of millions of dollars.

So Michael's going to straighten us out, and he directs Natalie to arrange to fly

down to the local branch in Virginia that Michael thinks is stopping up the

money supply to their investors.

She and Michael were supposed to take a flight the morning of February 6th in

order to determine why money was not hitting their bank account.

Had that flight taken place and the Cochran's talked to the banker, Michael

would know this whole thing is a fraud.

And at that point, the Ponzi scheme ends. Natalie could never let that

happen. She had to do anything she could to prevent the meeting.

She was a cornered animal.

That's exactly what she was.

It's not crystal clear.

as to what plane they were going to take, but they did have one available.

At 6.30 in the morning on the day that Michael collapses, Natalie texts the

pilot and says, she's been up all night, she's sick, she can't go, they'll have

to reschedule.

So the flight is off.

She snapped.

She called that day to get the insulin.

Police know that the insulin was dropped off by 10.30 a.m.

Natalie's weapon of choice was insulin.

She was a pharmacist by training in trade, so she knew exactly what she was

doing.

Circumstantially, there's only one explanation for why Michael Cochran

died.

Throughout the day, while Michael's unconscious on the couch, Natalie is

sending some of his vital signs via text message to friends, sending his

purported blood glucose levels.

The numbers that she was sending were always high.

And given what we know now and how low his blood sugar was when he actually got

treatment, those couldn't have been accurate.

Once you hit blood glucose levels that low, the effects become more and more

irreversible as time goes by.

He had laid there for about eight hours, and there was no indicator that she had

any intentions on letting him go anywhere other than that couch until her

friend showed up. She would have let him lay there until he died.

In May 2021, two years and three months after Michael's death, investigators

pay Natalie a visit in federal prison and give her a chance to come clean.

Obviously, you know, we've been conducting an investigation into

Michael's death for some time now.

And, you know, we're bringing that to a conclusion.

I did not do anything in. I feel like I've led enough for the two of us

already. Because I took the fall for something that he was responsible for

too. That's not true.

It's true.

In November 2021...

Six months into her prison term, Natalie Cochran is indicted again, this time for

murder.

But prosecutors are concerned they won't be able to convince a jury of her guilt

without more evidence.

The street wisdom was we were going to get our butts kicked, and this should

never go to trial. Why are we wasting our time?

And it's because of the lack of the usual indicators in a murder case.

The medical examiner never reached a conclusion that there was a homicide.

A second autopsy is ordered by the former prosecutor.

This pathologist also had the benefit of reviewing all of Michael's medical

records. And from both those records, his review of the initial autopsy report

and his own autopsy, he was able to rule Michael's death a homicide.

and that he had been killed by someone else giving him insulin.

Having that conclusive finding, I think that really sealed the deal and gave us

what we needed to prosecute her.

In January 2025, five years and 11 months after the death of Michael

Cochran, his wife Natalie Cochran goes on trial.

Prosecutors are now armed with the results of the second autopsy, but know

the process may be an uphill battle.

There were a number of events that transpired between the time that Michael

died and the time that we were actually able to try this case.

There was definitely a lot of moving parts, but I think ultimately this was

tried when it was meant to be tried.

During the trial, Natalie is very smug, honestly. I think she is

convinced that no jury is going to find her guilty.

I could hear her constantly talking to her lawyers at every time out where you

could see what she was doing. She was writing them notes and passing them to

them. This was the Natalie Cochran show.

The prosecution's case against Natalie remains largely circumstantial.

No jury pool anywhere are so used to seeing on television direct

evidence.

They're used to seeing DNA evidence. And in a case like this, there would be

no way for us to have any of that.

But instead of attacking the state's lack of physical evidence, Natalie's

attorneys take a different approach.

The defense in this case was somewhat schizophrenic.

One of the defenses was she couldn't have injected him because he would just

bite her off.

Simultaneously, they said Michael Cochran was a sickly guy.

He had so many medical problems.

Hell, he was going to die any minute anyhow.

So his death shouldn't be a surprise to anybody.

It was defense du jour, and the trial went on for three weeks.

Surprisingly, Natalie never takes the stand in her own defense.

When the jury is sent to deliberate, it only takes them two hours to reach a

decision.

The judge receives the verdict from the jury foreperson, and he says,

we the jury.

Find the defendant, Natalie Cochran, guilty of first-degree murder.

Natalie Cochran is sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of

parole.

Nothing will ever bring back Michael, but the jury spoke for him.

And I was just, you know, it was kind of like a thought of relief, like evil

lost.

And the truth won.

And that's how I felt.

You know, there's always going to be that certain scar there.

But everybody's just trying to get their head up and go on and move on about

their lives.

I used to trust everyone.

And I always thought, and I still think, everyone has a good side.

They're good in everyone.

But I'm not so trusted anymore.

To keep Michael's memory alive, we try to get his story out, just what we're

doing here.

He deserves to be remembered.