♪ this is "nightline." >> byron: tonight, where monsters hide. inside a love triangle gone horribly wrong. >> what happened to chris? >> who killed the lover? was it the wife or the jealous husband? >> then he goes on to talking about being a hunter and how the hunter hunts the prey and feels this tingle through their body. >> byron: an alleged murder night wedding pact. >> your agreement from the time you were married was that you have the affair, it's your responsibility to kill off that person. >> byron: your exclusive interview with the convicted

killer from inside prison. >> i've spoken to investigators who said that when they talked to you and heard your story, that it made them believe in pure evil. >> byron: this special edition of "nightline" will be right back. you know that feeling of having to rewash dishes that didn't get clean? i don't. new cascade platinum plus... with double the dawn grease fighting power and double the scrubbing power. for a no rewash clean... and a cabinet ready shine. upgrade to new cascade platinum plus. dare to dish differently.

we care for all those who make your family, well, your family. that's why all of us work together to give them the care, and caring, that any family would. kaiser permanente. for all that is you. ♪ >> byron: good evening and thanks for joining us. i'm phil lipof.

tonight, a true crime murder mystery with an unbelievable trail of twists and turns. from a sudden disappearance in the upper peninsula of michigan to a mysterious death in a small town in indiana. here's "nightline" coanchor juju cha chang. >> as soon as you walk into the house, the hair stands up on the back of your neck. >> kelly wore the pants in the family. whatever she wanted, jason did. >> i'm listening to jason cochran's interview. >> institutionalized over a month ago -- >> what happened to chris? >> with her it was like, lie, lie, lie, truth. >> jimmy: i've spoken to investigators, it made them believe in pure evil. >> i'm not a bad person. >> she's going to continue this game as long as she can. >> juju: the upper peninsula. it's kind of its own little world. >> the upper peninsula, separated by the mackinaw bridge

from lower michigan. >> one town is iron river. >> my name is laura prizzo and i'm the former police chief of iron river. the people of iron river are really good-hearted people. accepting. but i think when someone new comes to the area, they're a little skeptical at first. >> juju: one of those outsiders who came to live in iron river was 51-year-old chris reagan. terry o'donnell was an old flame and the two had rekindled their romance. >> i was so in love with him. >> so when chris moved to iron river, he got a job at a manufacturing company called the oblanberg group. >> chris was former military and had a reputation as a reliable worker. so it came as a bit of a surprise when he didn't show up for his job. two whole weeks had gone by and no one had heard from chris. that's when terry decides to go to the police. by this time the two had broken up, but they remained close friends and talked regularly.

>> i saw this vehicle pull up and park in front of the police department. and i saw this woman get out of the vehicle, and she was crying. and she said that her friend was missing. >> i was shaking, i had tears. >> juju: chief rizzo sends sergeant cindy barrett to investigate. first up, chris' apartment. >> this doesn't look like chris' apartment at all. it's all disheveled. >> something happened. i knew that my heart, i knew that in my gut. >> juju: when chief rizzo digs deeper into chris' life, she discovered another woman he'd been dating, a 33-year-old co-worker by the name of kelly cochran. >> i would go over to chris' and usually cook. then we were intimate. usually i would leave. >> chief rizzo had told me to go and interview kelly cochran to

see if she had any information as to the whereabouts of chris reagan. and matt came out. so i said, are you kelly cochran's husband? and he said yes. and shortly thereafter, this woman comes out. so i says, is your husband aware of your relationship with chris reagan? she says, oh, yes, he's fine with it. jason cochran is standing there just stoically not saying a word. >> juju: chief rizzo asks for help from the michigan state police. they sent two detectives who question the cochrans the very next day. >> i'll tell you guys in advance, i see a therapist for high anxiety. i actually was institutionalized about a month ago. i lost a close friend, depressed ever since. i know this marriage is falling apart. >> you are very much aware of what kelly was doing?

>> i either had to accept it or to let her go. >> kelly, right? >> yes. >> when kelly came in for her interview, the one thing i noticed about her right out of the gate was her ability to control her body language. >> tell us everything you know about chris. >> i guess i got pretty close the last four months. >> did you have an intimate relationship? >> yes, we did. >> obviously your husband knows? >> he knows. >> okay. was jason upset about that? >> no. >> kelly, should we be looking at jason? >> i don't see why you would. >> because husbands get jealous. >> juju: since this is a complicated case and the iron river police department employs just four people, two private investigators, jim mcneil and molly barron, offered to help. >> it was at that point where the prosecutor was ready to sign the search warrant of the cochran residence. so molly and jim show up at my

office, and i'm like, oh, well, as a matter of fact, i'm going to be doing a search warrant there tomorrow. >> hi, jason, how you doing? >> i'm hanging in there, how are you? >> one of the first things you want to be very careful of is weapons. do you have any weapon in the home? >> not on us, but we have weapons in house. i've got a .22 under there. >> should be able to reach right in and get it. >> laura calls the we're standing there for quite a while waiting for that crime lab. >> and i looked up. >> look at the tiles on the ceiling. >> is that what she said? >> yeah, they painted it. >> the ceiling was white but there was certain spots up there. >> to the private investigators, those spots on the ceiling look suspiciously like painted-over blood. >> we got a positive

with the luminol on the ceiling here. >> juju: a chilling discovery chief rizzo later makes inside the cochrans' basement, a journal written by jason. >> he had titled it "where monsters hide." then he goes on to talking about being a hunter and how the hunter hunts the prey and feels this tingle through their body. and it's kind of eerie. i got a phone call from one of the neighbors in the morning and said, i just want to let you know that they totally loaded up their truck and skipped town. >> juju: it turns out that on the night before the cochrans left town, those private investigators had put a tracking device on the cochrans' truck, which is legal for pis in the state of michigan. >> we monitored the gps movement all through exiting upper peninsula of michigan, through the state of wisconsin, the top part of illinois there, indiana.

then they ended up nearby within the hobart area. >> they were back at kelly's parents' house in hobart. >> juju: chief rizzo needs dna samples from kelly and jason, so she contacts the lake county sheriff's department in indiana who brings jason in to the hobart police department. where he gets a surprise. >> jason, how are you doing? >> i'm doing good. >> looked up at me, his face started to turn red immediately. my whole plan was to try and give him the opportunity to be the victim and to tell me what happened to chris. >> do you remember telling her, if you ever loved me, you'd act like my wife? it says in your messages, don't go back to those apartments, you're a married woman. do you remember saying that? >> i don't really feel like answering any questions.

i feel like you've violated my constitutional rights, and i want a lawyer. >> in the meantime, kelly is just calling me. she knows something's up. >> the chief had told us. the problem with you, kelly, is that, you know, i've caught you in so many lies that i'm trying to give you an opportunity now to just say, hey, you know, i [ bleep ]ed up. >> i'm asking for a lawyer. i'm done with the questions. >> juju: with no confession and no physical evidence, jason and kelly walk out of the police station and resume their lives in hobart. >> lake county 911, operator 17? >> yes, my husband -- his face is blue -- he's brairly breathing, he's throwing up, he's sweating. i need an ambulance right away. >> juju: jason was rushed to a nearby emergency room and pronounced dead. shortly after, jason's friend

calls the fbi, suspecting something might be wrong. the fbi routes the call to the proper jurisdiction and it lands on the desk of hobart detective sergeant jeremy ogden. >> i've never received a call like that before. jason had petechial hemorrhaging around his eyes, within the whites of his pupils. >> juju: what does that point to? >> pressure and suffocation. >> juju: the autopsy results lead ogden to take a deep dive into kelly cochran's background and he connects from chief rizzo from iron river. >> laura sent me all the documents and the videos. >> immediately, i knew that this was going to work out well. because he was on the same page. >> juju: detective ogden begins to folliclely. he knows she comes to a park regularly. >> she would just come and sit on that log. there was a couple times where i thought she was even crying.

>> so he decides to make a carving on the tree that will really freak her out when she sees it. "chris is here." >> i thought maybe she would see it as a sign from the dead or maybe even something supernatural. >> all i saw were her running through the woods. then all of a sudden, the truck backed out and she took off. that's the night that she decides to tell me everything. >> you watched him die? right? where did you shoot him in his body? >> maybe his back, maybe his side. >> you don't know? >> not really. >> i'm the victim, my husband was abusive, i had no choice, i couldn't tell anybody or he'd kill me too. >> what happened to chris? >> downsized him. >> what did he do with chris? >> cut him up.

>> juju: when we come back, the alleged marriage pact that shocked investigators. >> and your agreement from the time you were married was that you have the affair, it's your responsibility to kill off that person? >> he'd kill me. >> juju: what really happened to chris rang began? >> what was the biggest piece of bone that you -- >> torso. ulcerative colitis evere keeps flaring, put it in check with rinvoq, a once-daily pill. when uc got unpredictable, i got rapid symptom relief with rinvoq. and left bathroom urgency behind. check. when uc got in my way, i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check. and when my gastro saw damage, rinvoq helped visibly repair the colon lining. check. rapid symptom relief. lasting, steroid-free remission. and a chance to visibly repair the colon lining. check. check. and check. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections,

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♪ >> juju: it's been over two years since chris regan

disappeared. investigators tracking their suspect, kelly cochran, to indiana. there, cochran's own husband had just died under suspicious circumstances. it's the mimts of the night. kelly cochran is driving with detective jeremy ogden back to the upper peninsula of michigan to show him where she and her husband, jason, buried chris' remains. >> detective ogden then asked kelly to show him around her house where the murder happened. >> chris starts to walk up the stairs into the kitchen, and jason, unbeknownst to her, shoots him from the basement. >> you're telling me that jason shot him from behind? >> and that chris falls back on her and that they both tumble down the stairs. it's always, "my husband forced me to do this." >> juju: soon after, detective ogden gets a misspelled text from kelly. ever been to the west coast? i was driving last night. sure enough, she skipped down. >> the police trapped her as she

fled south to kentucky. >> 33-year-old kelly cochran was arrested in graves county, kentucky, after a tip to the u.s. marshals. >> juju: she now claims she knew in advance jason was going to kill chris regan the night she invited them to their home. >> you took part in the planning of it. you allowed it to occur when you didn't have to allow it to occur. your agreement since the time you were married, you have an affair, it's your responsibility to kill off that person. >> then he'd kill me. >> juju: now in jail charged with murder, kelly cochran is taken out of her cell to go on what cops are calling a field trip. >> kelly had agreed that she would take me to chris' remains, where she left them. she wanted to do the right thing. >> what was the biggest piece of bone that you --

>> torso. >> torso? and that was here? then we should find ribs. >> the skull should be the biggest, though. >> juju: while the search continues, chief rizzo takes her to the house. >> you say that, you know, jason pulled him into here, that's where he cut him up? >> and she's eating a piece of pizza, of course, while we're doing this. >> juju: back in these woods, an even more important discovery. chris regan's skull itself. >> i just said to myself, i finally found you. i just literally said that to myself, you know? and the only bright spot on that is, they could link kelly cochran to his murder. >> juju: eight months later, kelly cochran goes on trial, pleading not guilty. after some 60 witnesses, kelly

takes the stand. >> kelly testified about the abuse she claims she suffered in her marriage. >> there was a lot of times where he would grab he me, push me, shove me. he became very jealous, very angry. there was times when he had me in the house, outside of the house, thrown stuff at me. >> remember, her story changed in all those recorded interrogations, from i know nothing to jason forced me to help kill chris. >> what does that agreement occur? >> wedding night. >> to, we had a wedding pact and i was part of the murder. >> you never told people that he was abusive until this case came about, did you? >> until after. >> you never told people he threatened you until this case came about, right? >> until after. >> all rise. >> guilty of first degree premeditated murder, aiding and abetting.

>> following the guilty verdict, kelly is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of chris regan. >> juju: 11 months later, kelly pleads guilty to murdering her husband, jason cochran, in indiana, is sentenced to an additional 65 years in prison. i spoke to kelly cochran from her prison in michigan. you told police that you had killed others in the past? is there truth to that? >> no, i've never killed anybody. >> juju: i've spoken to investigators, kelly, who said that when they talked to you and heard your story that it made them believe in pure evil. what would you say to that? >> i'm not a bad person. i was raised by good people. i've never harmed anybody. >> this is a game. she's going to continue this game as long as she can. and she's not done with it yet. >> juju: coming up --

>> i felt immediately connected to him just because of the person he was. >> one last twist in the story. narrator: the man with the troublesome hemorrhoid enters the room. phil: excuse me? hillary: that wasn't me. narrator: said hillary, who's only taken 347 steps today. hillary: i cycled here. narrator: speaking of cycles, mary's period is due to start in three days. mary: how do they know so much about us? narrator: your all sharing health data without realizing it. that's how i know about kevin's rash. who's next? wait... what's that in your hand? no, no, stop! oh you're no fun. [lock clicks shut] arthritis pain? we say not today. tylenol 8 hour arthritis pain has two layers of relief. the first is fast, the second is long-lasting. we give you your day back, so you can give it everything. tylenol. number one doctor recommended for arthritis pain. do you struggle with occasional nerve aches number one doctor recommended in your hands or feet? try nervive nerve relief from the world's number one nerve care company. nervive contains ala to relieve nerve aches,

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♪ >> juju: in spite of the darkness in this case, a happy ending for the two lead investigators. for laura rizzo, she found romance in an unlikely place. >> i felt immediately connected to him just because of the person he was. >> juju: and so you kind of made the first move? what happened? >> one day, texted him. and i said, do you want to kiss me?

i was like, why did i send that? there was dead air, just no response for a long time. >> you know, the answer was yes right out of the gate, as soon as i read it. >> juju: you asked for the first kiss. who asked for whose hand in marriage? >> i did. >> juju: how'd that go, big guy? >> went well. she accepted right away. >> juju: what's the future for both of you? >> we own a piece of land that laura picked in the u.p. right on the lake. and one day i'm going to build her a dream house there. >> juju: you can stream the full episode of "2020: where monsters hide" on hulu. thousands of women with metastatic breast cancer are living in the moment and taking ibrance. ibrance with an aromatase inhibitor is for adults with hr+/her2- metastatic breast cancer