Hobart woman suspected of being serial killer gets 65 years for husband's murder

HOBART, Ind. (WLS) -- Kelly Cochran, 35, of Hobart was sentenced to an additional 65-year prison term in Lake County, Indiana, Thursday for the murder of her husband. She is already serving a life sentence for the murder of her lover Chris Regan in 2014.

Lake County Judge Salvador Vasquez gave Cochran a piece of his mind during sentencing. Cochran murdered her husband Jason in Hobart more than two years ago.

Retired Police Detective Jeremy Ogden closed the case and attended the sentencing hearing.

"She put it back on her husband calling him a monster, possibly two different people inside one person. And I think the judge called it right after her statement was over with, the judge said that he feels the same as most of the other people in the room, that she's the monster," Ogden said.

Cochran is the subject of an upcoming Investigation Discovery documentary. Her story appears to have begun as a "pact" made between husband and wife to kill any lovers they might take.

Prosecutors said Christopher Regan was a victim of that pact; shot by Jason Cochran inside the couple's home in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, his body was then dismembered and disposed of with Kelly's help.

It took 18 months of exhaustive detective work in both Indiana and Michigan before Kelly Cochran began to admit her part in the killing, prosecutors said. She even led police to the area where Regan's body was dumped.

By this time she was also being investigated for her husband's murder. Jason Cochran died in February of 2016 after being injected with a lethal dose of heroin then strangled at their Hobart home. They had recently moved back.

Based on some of her statements, investigators believe Cochran may be a serial killer. Lake County prosecutors agreed to take the death penalty off the table, in part hoping she might someday help them close other unsolved cases.

"I have two cases I've asked her about," said Ogden. "I have nothing else that I can provide on those situations, but you never know, someday."

Kelly Cochran will now be transferred back to Michigan where she is already serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole.