The Ponzi Plot | Fatal Fraud | Forensic Files

[audio logo] NARRATOR:<i> Every fraud</i> <i> begins with a promise,</i> <i> but most don't end in a murder.</i>
TOM TRUMAN: They were selling the idea that you could make a lot of money if you could secure government contracts.
NARRATOR:<i> A quick fortune, easy</i> <i> money, or a life torn apart.</i> ASHLEY ACORD: We have this really cool idea for a company,
and we think it could make you a lot of money. If you put in $10,000, you'll get back $60,000.
NARRATOR:<i> But behind</i> <i> these illusions</i> <i> lie calculated</i> <i> deceptions, carefully</i>
<i> hidden in plain sight.</i> KERI NIXON: In fraud, trust is a weapon. Without it, you wouldn't get anywhere.
NARRATOR:<i> Sometimes</i> <i> these criminals</i> <i> are backed into a corner</i> <i> and feel their only way out</i>
<i> is to kill.</i> TIM BLEDSOE: After the initial interview was when I really knew in my gut that this was a murder.
TOM TRUMAN: Prosecutors love to have the stuff you see on TV. DNA, fingerprints, videos, confessions.
We had none of them. [theme music] - My name is Tim Bledsoe. I'm a retired Lieutenant with the West Virginia State Police
It's a small community. Like most communities in West Virginia, the majority of the people either know each other
or know of each other. It's a fairly quiet community, low crime rate, somewhere,
you know, that you would imagine would be a good place to raise a family. NARRATOR:<i> In 2017, Michael</i> <i> and Natalie Cochran</i>
<i> and their children were well</i> <i> known in the local community.</i> MICAH LEITH: My name is Micah Leith,
and I'm the news director at WOAY-TV. The Cochrans lived in the same community that they grew up in.
Michael and Natalie were high school sweethearts. They dated throughout college, and
they were married, and most of the people that they became friends with in the community,
at least knew of them their entire lives. - I'm Tom Truman, I'm the prosecuting attorney
for Raleigh County, West Virginia. The Daniels community is very tight knit, and the Cochrans were heavily involved,
especially youth sports. MICAH LEITH: Michael was seen as this very involved in his kids' lives.
He was really into sports. He was always bodybuilding and powerlifting with friends.
ASHLEY ACORD: My name is Ashley Acord, I'm an assistant prosecuting attorney for Raleigh County,
West Virginia. Michael Cochran was very enamored with his wife, Natalie. He loved his children.
He was very involved in their lives and in all of their activities. He would coach sports, hold fundraisers, do really anything
he could to be involved. MICAH LEITH: Natalie was kind of seen as the typical-- typical mom.
She-- she worked a good job. She took care of her kids. In the community, they had a pretty high profile.
They were involved in a lot of community events at church and youth athletics, which
in Southern West Virginia, youth athletics are probably the biggest thing that pulls the community together.
TOM TRUMAN: Natalie went to West Virginia University, graduated from pharmacy school.
She was such an accomplished pharmacist that CVS paid for her to get an MBA. She developed a specialty with diabetes.
MICAH LEITH: I can't overemphasize enough how trusted Natalie was. Her neighbor more or less trusted
her to provide medical guidance to their child who was diagnosed with diabetes. I mean, these are people that grew up with Natalie.
They knew Natalie their whole life. ASHLEY ACORD: Michael was definitely a more domineering figure.
He was a man's man, very prototypical in that way. And Natalie was always his rock,
like the person that supported him and was behind him. NARRATOR:<i> In June 2017,</i> <i> the couple started</i>
<i> a new business venture.</i> TIM BLEDSOE: Natalie Cochran left the profession of pharmacy
in 2017 to form a business with her husband called Tactical Solutions Group, or TSG.
TOM TRUMAN: They were selling the idea that you could make a lot of money if you could secure government contracts,
and she would get people to invest, oh, there's all sorts of money to be made here.
ASHLEY ACORD: The government would put out a solicitation for something that they needed,
whether that was medical supplies or weapons, or anything like that. And then these companies would bid on those contracts
and would say we can fill them for this price. So Natalie actually got the idea for TSG
from watching the movie<i> War Dogs.</i> And in that movie, they had a company that operated the same way that TSG was purported to work.
She would tell her friends and family, hey, you know, Michael and I just watched this really great movie,
and we have this really cool idea for a company, and we think it could make you a lot of money.
And so she would promise them, if you put in $10,000, you'll get back $60,000. And people were more than willing to buy into that
because they trusted her. - They would get the contract, make the purchases and provide them to the government,
and the government would pay them for it. That's how it was supposed to work. But in reality, it didn't work like that.
NARRATOR:<i> The couple operated</i> <i> under two company names,</i> <i> Technology Management</i> <i> Solutions, TMS, and</i>
<i> Tactical Solutions Group, TSG.</i> <i> They had an office</i> <i> nearby in Beckley.</i>
ASHLEY ACORD: Michael Cochran was purported to be the one that was actually looking for contracts, and Natalie
specifically targeted people that she knew trusted her. She went to Michael's family.
She went to her own family. She specifically would go to people that she knew had money to spare, like businessmen,
lawyers, dentists. KERI NIXON: In fraud, trust is a weapon. Trust is crucial. If a family member or a friend that you trusted and
you thought were capable, they were a professional person and they were known in the community, that would mean
that you would trust them. TIM BLEDSOE: The Cochrans gave the appearance. They did a tremendous volume of firearms sales
and provided a tremendous amount of firearms contracts to the federal government.
Natalie was offering for these weapons, with sometimes 75% less than what you would pay for retail.
She claimed that the investment opportunities into Tactical Solutions Group were very lucrative
and would be very lucrative for the potential investor. But in reality, there was no investment.
It was just-- it was a Ponzi scheme. FIONA HOTSTON MOORE: My name is Fiona Hotston Moore,
and I'm a forensic accountant and expert witness. Ponzi schemes are named after one
of the very early cases of a large case, which was perpetrated by Mr. Ponzi. Typically, the way that it works
is that the fraudster will approach friends and family. They will take small amounts of investment,
they will promise high returns, and they will make high returns to those initial investors.
But those returns are actually coming from other investors. It is artificial. There is no business.
It grows very quickly and then tends to collapse very quickly, with typically no money being available to repay the victims.
NARRATOR:<i> As the scheme</i> <i> grew, Natalie persuaded</i> <i> more investors to buy in.</i>
<i> One person in North Carolina</i> <i> invested over $500,000.</i> - A later investor would bring their money in.
Natalie would take a chunk of it and give it to an earlier investor and say, hey, here's
part of your return on your investment. But we have this other big contract coming up,
and I think you should reinvest it because it will really double the return that you're going to get
or triple or quadruple it. So that was one way that she kind of kept the scheme going.
- But over time, it's not. The Ponzi scheme is not sustainable because the investments dry up.
And that was exactly what was happening here. NARRATOR:<i> In late 2018,</i> <i> Michael and Natalie Cochran</i>
<i> had gotten investments</i> <i> of almost $2.5 million</i> <i> for contracts</i> <i> to the US government.</i>
ASHLEY ACORD: When that money from the investments from friends and family was in Natalie's pocket,
she and Michael were really living large. They were buying new properties. They bought a boat, they bought a motorcycle,
they bought new cars. They went on lavish vacations. MICAH LEITH: They were making extravagant purchases,
going on trips, bringing friends and family with them and paying for all of it. Living a lifestyle that was pretty far into a lot of people
that are in this town, it certainly seemed that their business was thriving. There was no indication that there was anything
bad under the surface. It just seemed like they had built a business that was performing extremely well.
- My name is Dr. Keri Nixon, and I'm a consultant forensic psychologist. Their spending habits, their presentation, their standing
in the community, all of these things are part of the same motivator to generate trust,
generate confidence. ASHLEY ACORD: Natalie was spending a lot of the money from investors on personal items.
She would buy luxury handbags. She bought a pair of bulldog puppies. She was really just willing to show off all of the money
that she had suddenly come into. TIM BLEDSOE: The Cochrans made some very large purchases,
you know, but also in that demonstrates a lot about who Michael Cochran was as well.
He not only spent money for himself or for his family, but he spent money for others.
He did acts of philanthropy for the local school, for the local youth sports. There was a local widow, her husband had passed.
He purchased her a home. NARRATOR:<i> Natalie was spending</i> <i> enormous amounts of money</i>
<i> on personal</i> <i> and luxury purchases.</i> <i> On loan applications,</i> <i> they inflated</i>
<i> the value</i> <i> of their business as having</i> <i> assets of over $500 million.</i>
ASHLEY ACORD: Some of the people that Natalie got to invest were able to come up with a couple thousand
dollars to put into the company, but there were some who were very wealthy individuals
in high-paying jobs or maybe had family money or something, and those people would invest hundreds of thousands
of dollars. Over time, convincing those same people to reinvest in the company. She was able to come up with at least
a good couple million dollars. FIONA HOTSTON MOORE: I think the Cochran Ponzi scheme
started with the intention to fraud. There appeared to be no evidence that it ever
was a proper trading business that it had any contracts with the governments that it said it was going to do.
TIM BLEDSOE: I think there were approximately 12 known victim investors of the Ponzi scheme, with the exception of maybe one
investor who made a one lump sum of about $500,000 at one time. Most of the investors came in in smaller increments.
FIONA HOTSTON MOORE: Red flags that might indicate a Ponzi scheme is the very rapid growth
of a business, the lack of financial reports, the lack of evidence that there is actually
external customers, and perhaps the observation that those that are running the business actually
appear to be making quite a lot of money themselves. TIM BLEDSOE: It was becoming unsustainable
because the money was running out and there were no new investors coming in. So I think at some point, it was going to come to a head.
NARRATOR:<i> By early</i> <i> 2019, investors</i> <i> were becoming anxious</i> <i> about receiving</i>
<i> returns on their investment.</i> TIM BLEDSOE: Natalie gave a number of different excuses.
A fictitious government audit was one. At one point, the US government had a legitimate government
shutdown, you know. So that provided her some time that when she just got lucky.
Some of the excuses were the government not being able to pay on time or not being able to complete a wire transfer or something,
there was a problem at the bank. There was always some kind of an excuse. TOM TRUMAN: One of Natalie's many excuses
for not making payments was she's been diagnosed with cancer. Well, then she claimed she had been
sick all night, spiked temperature, and she needed to be taking insulin to counteract
her chemotherapy. There is a connection between some chemotherapy and taking insulin, so that was a plausible explanation.
NARRATOR:<i> In early</i> <i> 2019, Natalie,</i> <i> a qualified pharmacist,</i> <i> asked her neighbor</i>
<i> Jennifer if she</i> <i> could borrow some</i> <i> of her supply of the medicine.</i>
TOM TRUMAN: Natalie tells Jennifer that she was so sick from her chemo and needed to take insulin, but if she
could just borrow a bottle, she would pay it back later. So Jennifer, being the good neighbor and loyal friend
that she is, sends her husband to the Cochran house with a bottle of insulin and-- and some other things in a bag.
NARRATOR:<i> Other people</i> <i> in the community</i> <i> also rallied</i> <i> to support Natalie.</i>
ASHLEY ACORD: Natalie was the treasurer of a local Little League, and when she was telling people
that she had cancer, a friend of theirs stepped in and was helping with those accounts.
And as he's looking at those accounts, he sees there's thousands of dollars missing.
And there are also purchases on there for clothing boutiques, for fancy dinners, for things that are not
related to Little League, that are not purchases the League should be making. MICAH LEITH: A lot of money went missing
from the Little League. When they went and looked at the account, they had hardly any money in there
and there was supposed to be several thousands of dollars and all kinds of transactions made likely
by Natalie Cochran for dinners and shopping trips and all kinds of things. NARRATOR:<i> In early</i> <i> February, Michael</i>
<i> became concerned about</i> <i> investors' feedback</i> <i> on the business,</i> <i> so he and Natalie</i>
<i> arranged a meeting</i> <i> at their bank,</i> <i> hoping to resolve</i> <i> the payment delays.</i>
MICAH LEITH: The Cochrans were supposed to fly to Virginia to meet with a representative of the bank,
to discuss an issue they were having with their account that was supposed to be getting the money
from the federal government. TIM BLEDSOE: Natalie took the kids to school that morning.
Michael had also been out and about that morning. He had gone to get coffee and returned home.
MICAH LEITH: The morning they were supposed to fly, Natalie canceled the flight.
Michael was very upset because they were not able to go to the Bank of America. She had had to cancel the flight,
and that he was so upset that she had given him two of her blood pressure pills, and he had taken those
and had been sleeping ever since. ASHLEY ACORD: Around 12:30 in the afternoon, Natalie sends a text message to a pair of contractors that
worked for her and Michael, and she tells them that Michael is unconscious in the floor of their kitchen,
and she needs them to help her get him to the couch. Around that same time, she has taken a photograph
of Michael laying in the fetal position in the floor of their kitchen. TIM BLEDSOE: Natalie also texted a another friend
of the family, who was also in law enforcement, and asked him to come to the house
as well to help with Michael. They moved Michael to the couch in the home, and these contractors described seeing
Natalie checking Michael's vital signs and to include his blood glucose. NARRATOR:<i> Later that</i> <i> day, Michael was</i>
<i> transported to the hospital.</i> TIM BLEDSOE: When Michael arrived at the hospital
initially, they found that his blood glucose level was critically low and there was no way
to know how long it had been that low, other than to see that he was in a great distress.
The decision was made to immediately intubate him. He was deteriorating rapidly, and the facility he was at
did not have the trauma capabilities necessary to-- to treat him to the level that he needed.
And the decision was made to transfer him to Charleston Area Medical Center. NARRATOR:<i> Natalie</i> <i> reported to medical staff</i>
<i> that Michael had taken</i> <i> 25 times his usual amount</i> <i> of a bodybuilding supplement</i> <i> purchased from Mexico.</i>
TIM BLEDSOE: She told them that he had overdosed on this Mexican supplement. Michael was treated for a few days there,
and Natalie made the decision to have care removed, and he passed within just a few hours of his arrival.
TOM TRUMAN: The death of Michael Cochran made no sense. He was a perfectly healthy 38-year-old fit man,
and then all of a sudden, he was unconscious and days later, he was dead. NARRATOR:<i> On February</i> <i> 11, 2019, Michael Cochran</i>
<i> was pronounced dead.</i> <i> News of his death spread</i> <i> quickly through the community.</i>
ASHLEY ACORD: Michael died in hospice after he fell unconscious at home. This to everyone was very jarring, I think,
and very shocking because Michael was a very healthy 38-year-old man. TOM TRUMAN: The death of Michael Cochran made no sense.
That made no sense to a lot of people, including the investigators that-- that took this case.
ASHLEY ACORD: I think following Michael's death, people started to get a little suspicious about the
Ponzi scheme. I know that there was one particular investor who was owed several thousand dollars.
He had told Natalie, you get me my money or I'm going to the police. And he did.
NARRATOR:<i> It was at this</i> <i> point the state police began</i> <i> to look into the Cochrans'</i> <i> business,</i>
<i> suspecting some sort of fraud.</i> TIM BLEDSOE: We were made aware of the potential financial crime.
A gentleman who was a business owner in the Beckley area had approached one of our state troopers
who he was acquainted with, and informed him that he had invested money into Natalie's company,
and he had been unable to get any satisfaction on his investment. And as time had moved forward, she
had become increasingly disengaged with him, trying to provide different excuses as
to why she was unable to fulfill the agreement they had reached. FIONA HOTSTON MOORE: You can hide a Ponzi scheme, I
think, short-term. So you can be giving verbal reports back to your family and the investors.
I think it becomes more and more difficult the longer things go on, because as time goes on,
people will be expecting to see financial accounts. They will be expecting to see audit reports,
and so on, and those will not exist. TIM BLEDSOE: I saw the text messages between them.
You know, originally, she was very sweet and very kind with this gentleman. And as he pressed her more to try
to get some satisfaction over this deal, she became increasingly belligerent in her texts.
In that conversation, he had also informed the trooper that Michael Cochran had-- had recently died,
and that the circumstances surrounding his death were somewhat suspicious. There was no investigation into his death.
There was no autopsy. At that point, we decided pretty early on that we wanted to just offer Natalie an opportunity
to speak with us. I contacted her by phone. We had no reason, really, to believe
that Natalie had done anything intentional to Michael to cause his death, but it certainly needed to be answered one way or the other.
Her position was that Michael had taken an overdose of a bodybuilding supplement
that he was using as part of his bodybuilding workout. Natalie told us that she had given
this Mexican supplement to the doctors at Charleston Area Medical Center. But when we investigated that, that was not true.
- She said that the clomiphene citrate was a supplement that Michael ordered from Mexico,
when, in fact, her email showed that she was the one ordering it and that it came from Florida.
- The second interview I had with her, she goes full in on Michael was using insulin, injecting
himself with insulin. When she introduced insulin into the conversation, that was the turning point right there in the death
investigation, for sure. ASHLEY ACORD: There was no evidence that Michael had ever injected insulin.
In fact, we knew Michael was afraid of needles. NARRATOR:<i> Insulin</i> <i> is used by diabetics</i>
<i> to regulate blood</i> <i> sugar, but if used</i> <i> by someone who</i> <i> doesn't have diabetes,</i>
<i> it can be very dangerous.</i> - I think it's fascinating that Natalie, who was a pharmacist by trade in the police interviews,
almost points the finger on herself inadvertently by bringing up the factor of insulin.
She's thinking she's being clever when actually, by giving too much information, she led the police
directly back to her. TIM BLEDSOE: After a month, I think after the initial interview was when--
when I really knew in my gut that this was a murder because she had called to complain to our state police
headquarters about what she described as an investigation of her and wanting it stopped.
No spouse is going to ask an investigation into another human being's death be stopped unless you
have something to hide. That's the way we presented it to her was like, look, man,
we're just trying to find out why your husband's dead. We're not investigating you.
I don't know. And that's what we told her. So we don't know why you're describing this
as an investigation of you. We're not investigating you. In reality, we were investigating the Ponzi scheme.
We just didn't want her to know that. NARRATOR:<i> West</i> <i> Virginia State Police</i>
<i> had been investigating Natalie</i> <i> and Michael Cochran's business,</i> <i> looking for proof of fraud.</i>
<i> Now, they suspected she may</i> <i> have also killed her husband.</i> TIM BLEDSOE: Late March 2019 and June of 2019,
we were accumulating a massive amount of financial records, bank statements, bank transactions,
anything that we could get to further the Ponzi scheme investigation, to hopefully arrive at enough probable cause
to obtain a search warrant. [tense music] TOM TRUMAN: Investigators had developed a case sufficient
where they got a search warrant and they searched the Cochran home that day. TIM BLEDSOE: We were able to seize her cell phone,
and then through that search warrant obtaining, obviously, digital evidence from her phone,
we were able to pull out just the text messages between Michael and Natalie. And there were thousands of pages that was extremely
revealing, to say the least. - If I was looking to give evidence as to whether Michael knew that Natalie's business or
their business was legitimate, I would be looking at the communications that Michael was involved in to see
whether he actually was looking at the bank statements. Was he seeing the flow of funds?
Is their email suggesting that he actually knew what was going on, or was his involvement
fairly peripheral? TIM BLEDSOE: It presented the dynamic of the relationship pretty fast, especially when it related to how the TSG business
was being operated. Michael was, I guess, more of the-- the mouthpiece. He believed that when he sent her these contracts
that she was doing exactly what he said, and then she was not. You could see just from the financial documents
that we were reviewing early on, that the problems with the Little League account
were just a drop in the bucket compared to what was really going on with-- with this TSG company.
ASHLEY ACORD: She had these doctored headings for financial institutions, banks, lending
agencies, things like that. She made up Federal Reserve employees and email addresses,
and would give those fake email addresses to Michael so that he thought he was communicating
with someone, only for his emails to bounce back because they weren't real. TOM TRUMAN: They seized a number of electronic devices,
and they also found a bottle of insulin, which was consistent with a bottle of insulin that
had been loaned to Natalie by a neighbor whose son had diabetes. ASHLEY ACORD: That was significant for a couple
of reasons. One, because at that point, we did not know what had killed Michael.
Two, no one in the house was diabetic or had any need for insulin. And three, the day that Michael fell unconscious February 6,
Natalie had specifically requested a bottle of insulin be brought to her. TIM BLEDSOE: The bottle of insulin
was concealed inside the refrigerator in the kitchen, behind some other items on one of the shelves inside the door.
NARRATOR:<i> Natalie had claimed</i> <i> Michael was using insulin</i> <i> for bodybuilding,</i> <i> but the police couldn't</i>
<i> prove a link to his death.</i> - In September of 2019, an exhumation was conducted so that autopsy could be performed
on Michael Cochran's remains. NARRATOR:<i> The autopsy</i> <i> results were inconclusive.</i>
<i> Unaware she was suspected</i> <i> of murdering Michael,</i> <i> Natalie continued</i> <i> running the business.</i>
ASHLEY ACORD: She's continuing to solicit money from investors. And at one point, she actually tries to sell the company
to a local businessman. She enters into a contract with him. He puts a down payment on the contract,
and luckily, that's about the time that the police stepped in. NARRATOR:<i> On July 24,</i> <i> 2019, Natalie Cochran</i>
<i> filed for bankruptcy.</i> <i> Two weeks later, she</i> <i> talked with the media,</i>
<i> stating the money</i> <i> laundering and spending were</i> <i> primarily done by Michael.</i>
ASHLEY ACORD: She repeatedly claimed that Michael knew about the Ponzi scheme because he would sign checks.
She repeatedly said that he was up to his eyeballs in this. NARRATOR: <i> On September 24, 2019,</i>
<i> Natalie was indicted</i> <i> by a federal grand jury</i> <i> for the $2.5 million fraud</i> <i> related to the Ponzi scheme.</i>
MICAH LEITH: She was arrested on the federal wire fraud money laundering charges, and she ultimately pled guilty.
It didn't ever go to trial. They reached an agreement and she was sentenced to, I believe, 11 years in federal prison.
NARRATOR:<i> No charges were</i> <i> brought against Natalie Cochran</i> <i> for the Little League theft.</i>
<i> But now, police</i> <i> and public prosecutors</i> <i> were building</i> <i> a case against her</i>
<i> for the murder of her</i> <i> husband, Michael.</i> TOM TRUMAN: The Natalie Cochran case
arose out of the federal prosecution of a Ponzi scheme. Our theory of the case was that she killed her husband
because she was about to be uncovered, and she couldn't have that happen. In our very first meeting, Ashley and
me and the Ponzi scheme investigator, he said something that really turned out to be prophetic.
He said the one thing you can always count on with people that run a Ponzi scheme,
they will do anything to keep the Ponzi scheme going. That didn't really sink in at the time,
but boy, later on, that proved to be absolutely spot on. NARRATOR:<i> In January</i> <i> 2024, Natalie Cochran,</i>
<i> already imprisoned</i> <i> for the $2.5 million fraud,</i> <i> pled not guilty for the murder</i> <i> of her husband, Michael.</i>
TOM TRUMAN: I think a murder case that is 100% circumstantial is going to be a little bit tougher case, because you don't
have anything to point to. You don't have the fingerprints. You don't have the DNA.
You don't have the video. You don't have the confession. None of those things that would go with many murder cases.
I think that that made the case more of a challenge. ASHLEY ACORD: We tapered our witness list down from around
80 witnesses to about 17. We also really treated this like a circumstantial case
that it is. We knew that we weren't working with eyewitnesses or DNA evidence or anything like that.
So we really had to build a story, and that's how we tried the case. NARRATOR:<i> The prosecution</i> <i> claimed that Natalie's motive</i>
<i> to murder her husband was</i> <i> to stop the Ponzi scheme</i> <i> being uncovered.</i>
ASHLEY ACORD: The role of Ponzi scheme in the murder was to prove that Natalie had a motive to kill Michael.
And the reason that that's important is because according to all the evidence that we have,
Michael had no idea that TSG was not a legitimate company. If he were to find out that that was happening,
the Ponzi scheme would be over. And Natalie couldn't let that happen. NARRATOR:<i> Natalie's</i> <i> defense was that Michael</i>
<i> knew about the Ponzi</i> <i> scheme, so why would</i> <i> she kill him to hide it?</i>
- They repeatedly claimed that Michael knew about the Ponzi scheme because he would sign checks,
which doesn't indicate to me in any way that he was aware of fraud going on. He was trying to pay out investors.
TOM TRUMAN: Michael Cochran was not involved in the fraud, and I based that primarily on about 1,900 pages of text
messages between Michael and Natalie, where he clearly had no idea what was going on.
And when you compare those 1,900 pages of communications between the two Cochrans with what Natalie was
telling the other investors in the company, the lies were identical. And so there is zero evidence to show
that Michael Cochran was involved in any fraudulent activity. NARRATOR:<i> In February</i> <i> 2019, everything</i>
<i> changed when Michael</i> <i> challenged Natalie</i> <i> about the delays in payments</i> <i> from the government contracts.</i>
TOM TRUMAN: Michael Cochran, who was fed up with all the delays Natalie was telling Michael were caused by banks, by government issues.
He was saying, I'm not putting up with this anymore. So they chartered a flight to fly down and
talk to Bank of America to see why this money that he believed was in the really hundreds of millions of dollars
was not being paid out to the investors. - We have a situation here where a husband is being controlled.
He's being lied to. He's being manipulated. She is involving him in criminal activity
without his knowledge. That is abusive behavior. NARRATOR:<i> It was on the day</i> <i> of the flight, February 6,</i>
<i> that Michael fell ill.</i> ASHLEY ACORD: The morning of February 6, Natalie reports that she believes she has the flu.
She's texting a couple of different people about that. She actually goes to the doctor that morning
and gets a steroid prescription. She texts Michael and says that she is getting meds for both of them.
Michael was out that morning getting coffee for Natalie because she wasn't feeling well and was returning home.
But it was odd because Natalie texted the pilot and said, I can't go. I'm not feeling well.
And Michael said, well, don't worry about it. We'll still go. This needs to happen.
And then ultimately the flight is canceled. And then, of course, we know from that point on Michael's
not able to make the flight again. TOM TRUMAN: When Michael collapsed on the floor,
instead of calling 911, Natalie takes his picture of him on the floor and sends it to roughly 17 people.
She then proceeds to-- to summons people at different times during the day that would provide a great cover story.
She brought in a physician's assistant who has clear medical knowledge. And that person also suggested we need
to take him to the hospital. He needs to go now. Natalie said, no, I'm going to--
I'm going to let him sleep it off. Well, there was nothing to sleep off. He was clearly incapacitated and he never
recovered from that at all. NARRATOR:<i> On January</i> <i> 15, 2025, almost</i>
<i> six years after</i> <i> Michael's death,</i> <i> Natalie Cochran</i> <i> faced murder charges.</i>
<i> The prosecution needed to prove</i> <i> it was an insulin overdose</i> <i> that had killed Michael.</i>
ASHLEY ACORD: Michael was exhumed for a second time by court order in 2023 by a doctor from Texas,
and he had actually worked on a set of insulin murder cases that had taken place in West Virginia several years ago.
So he had Michael's medical records. He was able to create a timetable that showed all of Michael's blood glucose levels
throughout his stay in the hospital. He was able to determine that Michael was suffering from what
he called refractory hypoglycemia, which meant he had low blood sugar. He would receive treatment for it
and then it would drop back down. It wouldn't stabilize as you would expect it to in a healthy person.
The reason that was significant was because that indicated that Michael had been given insulin,
and that's how we knew that we had our murder weapon. At that point, he ruled the death
a homicide via exogenous insulin administration. We use Michael and Natalie's best friends and neighbors.
There were some very key pieces of testimony, I think, between the two of them. Chris was very emotional and very raw on the stand
and very upfront about how he felt about the whole thing. He was actually the one who made the decision
to get Michael to the hospital and get him medical treatment. Natalie had refused to get Michael treatment all day,
and Chris came in and he testified on the stand that the words he said were, he is going to the hospital
and I am going to take him. His wife, Jennifer, she was actually the one that Natalie had tricked into bringing
the insulin over to the home, which is ultimately what killed Michael. And I know that was very hard for Jennifer
because that was never her intention. She-- she never would have wanted something like that to happen.
KERI NIXON: Something that I've seen in many murder cases is when people have inadvertently either
not stopped something happening or provided something or in some way been involved without--
with no knowledge of what was about to happen, the guilt that they experience is huge.
ASHLEY ACORD: Jennifer had another very powerful piece of testimony, I think, because she was actually with Natalie
when Michael was in hospice for those couple of hours before he passed away. And I remember one of the last things Jennifer
said on the stand was that she asked Natalie if there was anything that she could do for her while Michael
was laying on his deathbed. And she says, help me hold this pillow over his face.
And I think the whole courtroom was just kind of floored. MICAH LEITH: Natalie Cochran was extremely
difficult to get a read on, and her demeanor is really interesting to me because she never really showed
a lot of negative emotion. And certain members of the community maybe held that against her.
And for me, because I saw every-- everything that happened basically in the courtroom during that trial.
And a lot of it seemed to me she was really happy to see her kids, because remember,
she's been serving a federal prison sentence all this time, like she-- she has not been free.
This was her first chance to see her family every single day in person, all day,
in a very long time. ASHLEY ACORD: In court, Natalie took an approach that a lot of women who are on trial for murder tend to take,
and that she adopted a much more conservative look than she had before she was incarcerated.
So she cut all her hair off. She wore glasses every day. She did not wear bright colors.
She really toned herself down quite a lot. - It doesn't surprise me at all that Natalie
significantly changed her appearance for court. Often people going into court will
make themselves look more vulnerable, not as rich, hoping to gain sympathy from the jury.
ASHLEY ACORD: As far as her behavior, she constantly had a smirk on her face. She was very smug, did not seem to believe that anyone would
ever convict her of murder. MICAH LEITH: The overall atmosphere in the courtroom
was tense. Michael's family was there on one side and her family was there on the other.
Her family continued to stand by her. They don't feel she did anything wrong, even
though court documents show that she stole an insane amount of money from her parents,
so it was a really interesting and heartbreaking dynamic in the courtroom. TIM BLEDSOE: It was really hard to sit there and
stomach at trial, you know, as the defense stood there time and time again trying to-- to come up with this fairy tale
that Michael Cochran was somehow involved in this Ponzi scheme because that was-- that was
not the case whatsoever. You know, Michael Cochran was a victim. There, I can't imagine how hard it
was for Michael's family to sit there and listen to that crap. NARRATOR:<i> After almost</i> <i> three weeks in court,</i>
<i> the jury were ready</i> <i> to consider their verdict.</i> MICAH LEITH: The prosecution's case
was, I would imagine, quite difficult to put together because they had no smoking gun.
They had to take the evidence they had and kind of bring the narrative together for the jury.
- Well, we had a number of challenges. You know, prosecutors love to have the stuff you see on TV, DNA, fingerprints,
videos, confessions. All of those things make for a good life for a prosecutor. We had none of them.
NARRATOR:<i> On January 29, 2025,</i> <i> Natalie Cochran was found</i> <i> guilty of first-degree murder.</i>
MICAH LEITH: Michael's parents, who have been fighting for justice for their son for so long,
finally getting some semblance of closure that they know that Michael's death wasn't for nothing
and that his murderer has been held accountable. It was the most heartbreaking part of the entire proceedings
when her kids were up on the stand, basically begging the jury for mercy so that they could get a chance
to see their mom again in 20 years and maybe rebuild a relationship. And ultimately, the jury decided
that she didn't deserve mercy. - As a forensic psychologist, not many things shock me,
but occasionally, I come across cases where there is an element of shock. And in this case, we've got a woman who was a professional,
who seemed to have it all. She has a lovely husband, a family. She had the ability to make a great income
and live a great life, but she wanted more. NARRATOR:<i> Natalie Cochran was</i> <i> sentenced to life in prison</i>
<i> without the possibility</i> <i> of parole.</i> MICAH LEITH: They know they'll probably never get
to hug their daughter again. Their kids. They don't really have a mother in their life
anymore because of this. It was a very tragic outcome. - On a personal level, it was sort of the rush of a lifetime
to hear the judge come back and say that the jury had found Natalie Cochran guilty of first-degree murder.
And that's not only for me because this is a huge trial win, but really, it was more for Michael and for his mom
and for his friends. When the guilty verdict was read in the court, it almost seemed like Natalie didn't believe it.
She shed a single tear. No visceral reaction. You know, like you would maybe expect.
TOM TRUMAN: We have what's called our 20/80 list. And this goes back decades ago to an FBI presentation
that 20% of the people commit 80% of the crime. Natalie Cochran's kind of odd because she had
never been in trouble before. In her case, she made a series of bad decisions and got a life sentence out of it in a short period of time.
KERI NIXON: They were childhood sweethearts. According to everybody in the community,
they were deeply in love. They'd been together since they were 16, and she was willing to take his life
in order for her Ponzi scheme to remain ongoing. ASHLEY ACORD: Natalie and her family
continue to deny that she is a murderer. I understand that this is your family member.
But look at what she's done to people. TIM BLEDSOE: In my opinion, when you see people who are willing to go to those lengths
to protect their life, there's only one word that comes to mind-- dangerous. They don't come at you with a mask and a gun or a knife.
You don't see these kind of criminals coming. And that's why they're so dangerous.
[theme music]

In West Virginia, Michael Cochran backs his wife's booming defense business, unaware that it is a Ponzi scheme — and that he is worth more to her dead.

This true crime series delves into cases where financial schemes spiral into betrayal, violence and murder, exposing the deadly cost of lies fueled by greed.

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