The Devil's in the Details

Summary

Dateline NBC: "The Devil's in the Details" – A Detailed Summary

Release Date: April 29, 2025

Introduction

In the gripping episode titled "The Devil's in the Details," Dateline NBC unravels the tragic and mysterious death of Michael Cochran, a beloved husband and father from Beckley, West Virginia. Initially perceived as a sudden medical emergency, Michael's death soon exposes a web of deceit, fraud, and potential foul play orchestrated by his wife, Natalie Cochran. This long-form summary delves into the key points, discussions, insights, and conclusions explored throughout the episode.

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1. A Picture-Perfect Life Shattered

Beckley, West Virginia, known for its close-knit community and Appalachian charm, was home to Michael and Natalie Cochran—a seemingly idyllic couple deeply involved in their local community. Michael, an IT professional and baseball coach, and Natalie, a pharmacist and treasurer of their son's baseball team, appeared to lead a harmonious and successful life. Their venture, Tactical Solutions Group, aimed to bid on government contracts for weapons and medical supplies, reflecting their entrepreneurial spirit.

Notable Quote:

"On the outside looking in. They looked like a storybook relationship." — Andrea Canning [02:54]

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2. The Day Everything Changed

On February 6, 2019, Michael Cochran experienced a sudden health crisis. While attending to a business matter, he collapsed in his kitchen, suffering a seizure that led to his untimely death five days later. Friends and neighbors rushed to assist, only to find Michael in a dire state.

Key Events:

• Michael received a text from Natalie: "He's collapsed, hit his head on the counter and he's had a seizure. I don't really know what is going on, but I know it's bad." [00:00]
• Friends, including contractor Jason Bowen and state trooper John Hamilton, responded to the emergency.
• Michael was admitted to Raleigh General Hospital, where his condition rapidly deteriorated, culminating in his death. [06:37]

Notable Quote:

"Michael was too young. We're supposed to go before he goes. It's really hard to bury a child." — Lester Holt [17:21]

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3. Initial Investigations and Rising Suspicion

Following Michael's death, questions arose regarding the circumstances surrounding his collapse. Suspicion intensified when friends discovered a bottle of insulin in the refrigerator—a substance unfamiliar to Michael, who was not diabetic. Additionally, large sums of money went missing from investments made by friends and family in the Cochran's company.

Key Findings:

• Discovery of insulin beneath chocolate bars in the fridge. [47:19]
• Investors reported missing funds, totaling approximately $2.5 million, linked to a Ponzi scheme orchestrated by Natalie Cochran. [41:18]
• Investigation led by Bob Heinzman and Lieutenant Tim Bledsoe unveiled fraudulent activities within Tactical Solutions Group. [19:58]

Notable Quote:

"Devil's in the details. Well, the devil was all in this." — Lester Holt [01:56]

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4. Unmasking the Ponzi Scheme

The investigative team uncovered that Tactical Solutions Group had fabricated government contracts and manipulated financial records to siphon investor funds. Friends and family, having entrusted their life savings to Michael and Natalie, were left devastated as the extent of the fraud became apparent.

Key Developments:

• Discovery that the company never secured actual government contracts despite claiming to be a leading supplier to the Department of Defense. [34:56]
• Examination of fake spreadsheets and bogus financial documents revealed a classic Ponzi scheme structure. [41:44]
• Natalie Cochran was arrested and charged with multiple counts of fraud, leading to heightened scrutiny of Michael's death. [42:10]

Notable Quote:

"The business began as a pretty legitimate business model. They were in a position to where they could have legitimately bid on government contracts. The only problem was they never bid on any contract with the federal government." — Lester Holt [34:56]

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5. Linking Fraud to Michael's Death

As the fraud investigation deepened, Lieutenant Bledsoe focused on the potential connection between the Cochran's financial deceit and Michael's unexpected demise. The presence of insulin in the fridge, coupled with Michael's extremely low blood sugar levels at the time of death, pointed towards possible foul play involving insulin poisoning.

Key Evidence:

• Insulin found hidden in the refrigerator was identified as enclomiphene, a testosterone-boosting drug not approved by the FDA in the U.S. [27:54]
• Michael's blood sugar levels were critically low, leading to brain swelling—a condition that aligns with insulin overdose. [48:29]
• Testimonies from friends revealed Michael's dependence on supplements and steroids, raising questions about self-administration versus murder. [73:09]

Notable Quote:

"Low blood sugar can lead to brain swelling. The very thing that caused Michael's death." — Andrea Canning [48:34]

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6. The Legal Battle: Trial and Testimonies

The trial against Natalie Cochran was a complex interplay of forensic evidence, testimonies from family and friends, and contrasting theories of death. Prosecution argued that Natalie orchestrated Michael's death to conceal the Ponzi scheme, while the defense contended it was a medical crisis exacerbated by Michael's health issues and possible self-administration of insulin.

Prosecution's Case:

• Dr. Paul Uribe, an expert pathologist, testified that insulin poisoning was the only plausible cause of death. [59:40]
• Testimonies highlighted Natalie's delay in seeking medical assistance and her misleading explanations about Michael's health. [60:17]
• Evidence linking Natalie to the insulin vial and her motive to cover up financial fraud. [64:03]

Defense's Case:

• Michael and Natalie's children testified about his health struggles and aggressive behavior post-hospitalization, suggesting natural causes. [75:56]
• Defense experts argued that Michael's seizures and steroid use could have independently caused his sudden death. [73:50]
• Natalie chose not to testify, avoiding direct questioning. [82:38]

Notable Quote:

"Michael's remains were pretty advanced in decomposition, so it made it very difficult for the medical examiner." — Andrea Canning [49:24]

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7. Verdict and Sentencing

After intense deliberations, the jury found Natalie Cochran guilty of first-degree murder. The prosecution's compelling presentation of circumstantial evidence prevailed over the defense's arguments of natural causes. Natalie was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, providing a sense of closure for Michael's family and the affected investors.

Key Points:

• Jury's unanimous decision based on the accumulation of evidence pointing towards insulin poisoning. [86:29]
• Natalie offered apologies and expressed regret but maintained her innocence regarding the murder. [44:32]
• The sentencing reflected the community's and families' desire for justice, despite the emotional toll. [87:12]

Notable Quote:

"Yes, that was the most shocking. It moves from a mystery novel to a horror flick." — Lester Holt [53:14]

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8. Aftermath and Reflection

The Cochran case left a lasting impact on the Beckley community, highlighting the devastating effects of financial fraud intertwined with personal tragedy. Families grappled with loss, betrayal, and the unraveling of what once seemed unbreakable bonds. The episode underscores the intricate details that can mask deeper evils and the relentless pursuit of truth by investigative authorities.

Emotional Repercussions:

• Michael's parents and friends mourned the loss of a man they believed was innocent of any wrongdoing. [85:07]
• The children struggled with their father's death and their mother's betrayal. [75:15]

Notable Quote:

"It's a tragedy. They've lost their dad. We've lost a son, and our views are our views. It's just heartbreaking." — Lester Holt [80:24]

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Conclusion

"The Devil's in the Details" serves as a poignant reminder of how appearances can be deceiving and how critical scrutiny can unveil hidden truths. Through meticulous investigation and unwavering determination, Dateline NBC sheds light on a compelling true-crime mystery that intertwines personal loss with financial deceit. This case exemplifies the profound impact of trust broken by those closest to us and the enduring quest for justice in the face of overwhelming adversity.

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Notable Quotes Summary

• "Devil's in the details. Well, the devil was all in this." — Lester Holt [01:56]
• "Michael's remains were pretty advanced in decomposition, so it made it very difficult for the medical examiner." — Andrea Canning [49:24]
• "Yes, that was the most shocking. It moves from a mystery novel to a horror flick." — Lester Holt [53:14]
• "It's a tragedy. They've lost their dad. We've lost a son, and our views are our views. It's just heartbreaking." — Lester Holt [80:24]

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Final Thoughts

This episode of Dateline NBC masterfully combines investigative journalism with emotional storytelling, providing viewers with an in-depth exploration of a case where the devil truly lies in the details. By focusing on the intricate layers of evidence and personal testimonies, the episode offers a comprehensive understanding of the complexities involved in solving such a multifaceted mystery.

Transcript

[Lester Holt]

What if you could turn your curiosity for true crime into a degree at Southern New Hampshire University? You can. Southern New Hampshire University offers over 200 degrees you can earn online, including subjects like forensic psychology and criminology. And with some of the lowest online tuition rates in the U.S. southern New Hampshire University makes earning your degree affordable. Find your degree at snhu. Edu Dateline. That's snhu. Edu Dateline Brought to you by the Capital One Venture X Card. If you love to travel, the Capital One Venture X Card is perfect for you. Earn unlimited double miles on your purchases and turn them into extraordinary travel. Enjoy premium benefits at a collection of luxury hotels when you book through Capital One Travel and get access to over 1,000 airport lounges worldwide. Capital One what's in your wallet? Terms apply. See capitalone.com for details. Tonight on Dateline, we receive a text message. He's collapsed, hit his head on the counter and he's had a seizure. I don't really know what is going on, but I know it's bad. He is my only son. It's really hard to bury a child.

[Andrea Canning]

You must have been worried about Natalie. She has two children. Her husband's gone.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, she was strong, stoic. They were very close. They did everything together. She starts saying he was taking supplements from Mexico. That's what had caused the seizures. We found a bottle of insulin in the refrigerator. He's not a diabetic. Why is it beneath a pile of chocolate bars? They're asking very personal questions about me and my husband's relationship.

[Andrea Canning]

The money's gone.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, there was a tremendous amount of money. The circumstances became more and more suspicious.

[Andrea Canning]

Some really dark secrets were about to tumble out.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, everything has been a lie. You know the saying is devil's in the details. Well, the devil was all in this. A young husband and father dead in a heartbreaking medical mystery. Was it murder? I'm Lester Holt and this is dateline. Here's Andrea Canning with the devil's in the details.

[Andrea Canning]

Beckley, West Virginia, a quiet city tucked into the foothills of Appalachia. The kind of place where neighbors become family and trust runs deep.

[Lester Holt]

We've got so many good people here in this community.

[Andrea Canning]

Weekends meant barbecues and Little League games. At the center of it all, a beautiful couple, Natalie and Michael Cochran.

[Lester Holt]

On the outside looking in. They looked like a storybook relationship.

[Andrea Canning]

Children, friends, success, a life that seemed perfect. But beneath it all, a secret one so cold blooded it would leave them all reeling. Your reaction when you learn it was all smoke and mirrors.

[Lester Holt]

It Took all the breath out of me. It just sank. It was absolutely crushing. I was lucky to have him. He's a good guy, good friend. I just couldn't believe it. This is what movies are made of, you know? And here we are. We're living it.

[Andrea Canning]

February 6, 2019. Contractor Jason Bowen had just picked up supplies for a job when he got a text. It was Natalie Cochran with bad news about her husband Michael.

[Lester Holt]

Mike is sick. He's laying on the kitchen floor and I can't get him to the couch. Can you come help?

[Andrea Canning]

Jason had done a number of renovation projects for the Cochrans. They'd become good friends, and of course, we responded.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, we're on our way. We'll be right there. We kind of walk through here to find Natalie standing over here to the left hand side. When I came around the corner, we could see Mike laying over here in a fetal position. And he was just kind of curled up with his head right here in the corner, just laying. She's like, can you help get him to the couch? We kind of rolled him over real gentle and picked him up and carried him to the couch.

[Andrea Canning]

Other friends went over as well. John Hamilton is a state trooper and his wife Stephanie, a physician's assistant. Natalie told them Michael had a seizure, then fell to the floor.

[Lester Holt]

And then I asked Natalie, how do you want to get him to the hospital? I said, you know, it's like just however you want to take him, Mary. She said, well, no, I'm just going to let him sleep it off right now. She's like, well, this is just always what he does. This is what he always does when.

[Andrea Canning]

This happens after a seizure.

[Lester Holt]

Just lays it on sleep. And a lot of people do do that.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie said Michael was prone to seizures. He'd landed in the hospital months earlier he hated, so she was reluctant to take him back. And she was a pharmacist, so instead she monitored his blood pressure and pulse as he lay on the couch.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, like all of his vitals are good.

[Andrea Canning]

Close friends Chris and Jennifer Davis also heard that Michael was ill. How do you get word that something has happened to him?

[Lester Holt]

We receive a text message saying that he's collapsed, hit his head on the counter, and he's had a seizure. For me personally at the moment, it was really like, what does he need? Like, what do you need me to do?

[Andrea Canning]

Do you rush over there?

[Lester Holt]

No, no, because she says the contractors are here and they've got him on the couch. He's resting.

[Andrea Canning]

By nightfall, he was still out cold. Chris came to check on him.

[Lester Holt]

And he's snoring. So that's the other thing. It's like he's not. Like, he's not laboring when he's breathing, you know, but he's not responding.

[Andrea Canning]

He's not responding. Buddy's snoring.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah. Like, I don't really know what is going on, but I know it's bad. I go to him, and I'm now standing over him and I'm talking to him. I'm like, you know, hey, man. Hey, bud, you need to wake up. You gotta give me something, buddy. You gotta give me something. And so I'm kind of pushing him, nudging him a little bit.

[Andrea Canning]

Are you getting anything?

[Lester Holt]

I'm getting nothing.

[Andrea Canning]

Are you thinking we need to be calling 911?

[Lester Holt]

Yes. Well, what I'm thinking is even quicker than calling 911. I'm going to take him to the hospital now. I promise you I'll have him there quicker than an ambulance, you know?

[Andrea Canning]

Do you end up taking him?

[Lester Holt]

Absolutely.

[Andrea Canning]

At nearby Raleigh General Hospital, things went from bad to worse.

[Lester Holt]

They take him in to the emergency room, and they go down to almost the last room on the left, and they go in there, and so they. They pull the curtain. To me, it seemed like maybe five or ten minutes later. They pull back the curtain, and he's on a ventilator.

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, my.

[Lester Holt]

And that's when I knew, like, no, like, what is going.

[Andrea Canning]

Like, what is going on that fast?

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, I mean, he was.

[Andrea Canning]

That's such a. Like a shocking scene.

[Lester Holt]

Well, it is. To go from, like, what in the world.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie was by Michael's bedside, conferring with doctors and working her phone. Michael's mom, Donna Bolt, got a text from her about 10:30 that night.

[Lester Holt]

And I just remember screaming on text message, you know, what happened? What happened?

[Andrea Canning]

The answers would come in time. You end up finding something that you didn't even know you were looking for.

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

And when they did.

[Lester Holt]

I'm gonna need you to say that one more time. What did you say?

[Andrea Canning]

It would tear their world apart.

[Lester Holt]

Very hurt, very betrayed, just in disbelief. You know, the saying is devil's in the details. Well, the devil was all in this.

[Andrea Canning]

Michael Cochran lay in a place he loathed in a condition that was dire, hooked up to a ventilator. His friends Chris and Jennifer prayed for him and supported his wife, Natalie, as best they could. How was Natalie doing through all of this?

[Lester Holt]

She was strong, stoic, had it all under control.

[Andrea Canning]

She's trying to be strong for everyone else, taking care of business. You know, I'm taking care of his medical situation.

[Lester Holt]

Yes. She's going to take care of what has to happen.

[Andrea Canning]

It's what Natalie always did, take care of things as a pharmacist. She stepped up when the Davises learned their son had diabetes.

[Lester Holt]

He was diagnosed at seven and a half, and she was a certified diabetic educator.

[Andrea Canning]

Wow. So to have a friend like that. Yes. Must have been incredible.

[Lester Holt]

Yes. So we went to the pharmacy to pick up his medicine and everything. She took us in a room and just explained everything to us. And from then on, you know, we just became close.

[Andrea Canning]

Chris and Michael bonded over baseball coaching, their sons together, becoming best friends.

[Lester Holt]

And so, you know, we usually had the same focus and desires for the outcomes of the sporting events we were at. You know, we wanted to win, and that's probably the connection.

[Andrea Canning]

So fun. So you're building memories together as families.

[Lester Holt]

Absolutely. I mean, it's life developing and memories.

[Andrea Canning]

Being made, and it's so great when the kids are all at the center of that.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, absolutely, yeah.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie and Michael's love story began in high school in 1998, after a chance meeting at a Dick's sporting goods store near Beckley, where Natalie worked. Michael's mother, Donna, remembers it fondly.

[Lester Holt]

I told Michael as we were leaving the store, I said, she's flirting with you, Michael. He said, oh, no, she's not, Mom. I said, yes, she is, Michael.

[Andrea Canning]

So Michael keeps finding a reason to go back to Dick's.

[Lester Holt]

Yes. And they started dating. You know, I found out later that they had started dating.

[Andrea Canning]

What did you think of the relationship?

[Lester Holt]

Well, I mean, she was a nice girl, you know, a pretty girl. And, you know, the only thing we didn't like about it was they started dating so young because, you know, he was getting ready to go to college.

[Andrea Canning]

They did end up going to college together.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, ma'am. Natalie was supposed to went to Concord College, but she changed schooling and went to wvu.

[Andrea Canning]

They were so in love that Natalie followed Michael to West Virginia University.

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

They got married in the spring of 2000. Then they got their degrees. Michael in IT, Natalie in pharmacy. Two kids, Nicole and Ashton, and a move back home to the Beckley area followed. While Michael was working with computers and coaching, Natalie became treasurer of their son's baseball team and worked as a pharmacist. Stephanie, the physician's assistant, quickly found a lot in common with Natalie.

[Lester Holt]

We would, you know, talk back and forth about medications and things like that. She always would send me, like a scripture every day, like a Bible verse.

[Andrea Canning]

That's thoughtful.

[Lester Holt]

So it was, you know, kind of like positivity for your day.

[Andrea Canning]

In 2017, Natalie and Michael did something daring. They started their own company called Tactical Solutions Group, bidding on contracts to sell weapons and medical supplies to the government. The business took off.

[Lester Holt]

She was getting to do a lot that she'd wanted to do, and I was happy for him.

[Andrea Canning]

What does Michael say to you about their good fortune?

[Lester Holt]

He's excited about it as well.

[Andrea Canning]

The Cochrans wanted to share their success with friends. Natalie and Michael say, hey, would you like to get involved in this too? These contracts?

[Lester Holt]

Absolutely. So they. They were doing Department of Defense, all their contracts. Department of Defense.

[Andrea Canning]

When Michael wasn't on the job, he was working out. Staying in shape meant everything to him. He was known to take lots of supplements to improve his performance.

[Lester Holt]

Mike was a very athletic person. He liked his appearance to be perfect. It wasn't about, oh, I'm the biggest guy in the world. It was more of, I look good, I feel good.

[Andrea Canning]

But then in early 2019, the Cochrans charmed. Life began to fray. Natalie has some really sad news to share with you.

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

She tells you that she's very sick.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah. She texted me in January and says, I just found out that I have leukemia.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie was fighting back. She told friends her treatments were aggressive. But now it was Michael who was fighting for his life. Doctors at the local hospital couldn't figure out why he was sick. They sent him to a larger facility, where he was admitted to the ICU and given more tests. During one, Donna and Michael's stepdad, Ed, saw a glimmer of hope.

[Lester Holt]

The young male nurse came in, and he started to check the reaction and the alertness of an unconscious patient. And he took his fist and rubbed it into Michael's chest. It's called a sternal rub. And Michael raised up in the bed and opened up his eyes.

[Andrea Canning]

Really?

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

Did that give you hope? That.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, yes. Yes, it did. Where there's life, there's hope.

[Andrea Canning]

It wasn't to be. Natalie told friends. Michael continued to decline.

[Lester Holt]

And then it was kind of like, like, I gotta make a decision. I'm like, what are you talking about?

[Andrea Canning]

Like, whether he lives or dies?

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, like, we're gonna have to pull them off the vent.

[Andrea Canning]

That's hard to hear. How did we get to this? The next thing the friends heard, Michael had been moved to hospice. How do you say your final words to Michael?

[Lester Holt]

He knew faith was important. He knew it was important to me. And so my goodbye is more about, I'll see you again. I'll see you in heaven. It's all God's will.

[Andrea Canning]

Yeah. We should all be so lucky to have friends like you who care this much. Jennifer, that must have been so hard for you to watch Chris going through this, knowing how close they were.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, it's very hard.

[Andrea Canning]

Michael's mother watched her son fighting to breathe.

[Lester Holt]

Of course, you know, kissed him and told him that I loved him.

[Andrea Canning]

It's heartbreaking.

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

And then he was gone.

[Lester Holt]

Then he'd passed away. Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

Five days after he collapsed on the kitchen floor, Michael Cochran was dead. What on earth had happened? It was a medical mystery. Investigators would soon wonder if it was something more.

[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

Michael Cochran, active, full of life. Was gone, dead at just 38. No warning, no explanation to his friends and family. None of it made any sense.

[Lester Holt]

Mike had general health problems that we all have as we age, per se. But Mike was healthy. Mike was. He was fit. He's coaching. He's out there. He's doing everything that I'm doing. Nobody knew what was wrong. Nobody knew what happened. It was just gone. Why? Why did he. Why did he leave this world so fast, so sudden? There was no rhyme or reason for it.

[Andrea Canning]

It all happened so suddenly.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, it did. Yes, it did. He was too young. We're supposed to go before he goes. It's really hard to bury a child.

[Andrea Canning]

Doctors were just as baffled. They'd found that Michael had extremely low blood sugar and that he died from brain swelling. But they couldn't say what caused any of it. They listed the manner of death as natural. For now, all Michael's loved ones could do was comfort his widow, Natalie. You must have been worried about Natalie, given everything that's going on. She has two children. Her husband's gone.

[Lester Holt]

Yes. We would go down and take food down to her and to the kids and. And she would say, oh, I'm upstairs. I'm too sick to come down.

[Andrea Canning]

They sympathized as she described her ongoing cancer battle.

[Lester Holt]

She sent me pictures one day that she was losing her hair from the chemo and she had cut her hair. She said that she would have a triple chemotherapy treatment and a triple radiation treatment all at the same time, at the same day.

[Andrea Canning]

Did the community really support her during this difficult time? I mean, you know, that's what you do in Beckley. You help each other, right?

[Lester Holt]

Yes. The community reached around them and stuff and, you know, tried to give them as much compassion that they could give. We all tried to, you know, help her as much as we could.

[Andrea Canning]

Then, two months after Michael died, Natalie finally shared some good news with her friend Stephanie.

[Lester Holt]

My cancer is gone. It's in remission.

[Andrea Canning]

Were you so happy for her?

[Lester Holt]

I was like, oh, my gosh, that is awesome.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie seemed to rebound. She found ways to keep Michael's spirit alive. Natalie set up a scholarship fund in Michael's name. That must have made you feel good.

[Lester Holt]

Absolutely. Yeah. We just thought, well, you know, this is really, really something. A good way to honor Michael.

[Andrea Canning]

Life for Natalie and her children slowly returned to normal. But a few months later, friends like Chris Davis started wondering about the Cochrans business and when he might see some returns on the big investment he'd made, but he didn't want to push. It's an awkward time to be asking money.

[Lester Holt]

It wasn't her excuses, wasn't, you know, the dog ate my homework or that, you know, the Cookie Monster. Right.

[Andrea Canning]

Her husband has died.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah. And so these facts kind of laid out with each other, you know, you're like, oh, okay.

[Andrea Canning]

Before long, murmurs about the Cochrans business landed on the desk of Investigator Bob Heinzman of the West Virginia State Police. He got wind of a complaint from a gun collector who'd done business with Michael and Natalie's company.

[Lester Holt]

He received approximately $40,000 worth of guns, but he had yet to receive the remaining $40,000 in firearms that he purchased.

[Andrea Canning]

Heinzman, an experienced financial crimes investigator, looked into it. Was this gun collector the only person who was owed money?

[Lester Holt]

Through the gun collector, we were given another name of an individual who ended up being an investor in Natalie and Michael Cochran's company. And we spoke to that individual next.

[Andrea Canning]

That man said he'd invested in the company, but he too was getting the runaround. Heinzman looped in his partner, Lieutenant Tim Bledsoe. What do you do with this complaint?

[Lester Holt]

The priority was let's look into this and, and see where it goes.

[Andrea Canning]

You know, what do you learn about Michael and Natalie's business?

[Lester Holt]

Initially, everything we learned about the business was through the first two individuals who provided information and what was on the TSG Tactical Solutions Group website, I don't remember verbatim, but basically that they fulfilled government contracts and that they were a leading supplier to the Department of Defense for firearms pharmaceuticals.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie and Michael had different roles. He found the contracts she was to bid on them. It was an idea straight out of Hollywood. How does this all happen from a pharmacist in a small town and someone who's in it? Where do they get this idea to do this?

[Lester Holt]

I don't know where they got the idea. I know that they referenced the movie War Dogs, which dealt with government contracting.

[Andrea Canning]

War Dogs is based on a true story of two ordinary guys who ran a government contracting business and became international arms dealers, securing contracts for hundreds of millions of dollars.

[Lester Holt]

It was crazy. The government had a public website containing every military contract currently up for bidding.

[Andrea Canning]

It was a crazy idea that seemed to pay off. Natalie quit her job as a pharmacist and the two focused on the company full time. They told Michael's parents about their success. You must have been so proud of them to see how well they were doing.

[Lester Holt]

We Were very happy, Very happy for them.

[Andrea Canning]

As the business soared, so did their spending.

[Lester Holt]

They went to Europe, Hawaii, the baseball World Series, college World Series.

[Andrea Canning]

What did you find when you started to look into their lifestyle?

[Lester Holt]

They were traveling. They were making pretty regular purchases of items that were fairly expensive. They were trying to negotiate some real estate transactions.

[Andrea Canning]

Properties, yes. Do you know how many?

[Lester Holt]

I know of at least three.

[Andrea Canning]

And just like the characters in War Dogs, Michael bought a sports car with custom plates.

[Lester Holt]

It said Gun Runner on the back of it, and he thought it was the best thing ever because he was a gun runner. I sell guns to the government.

[Andrea Canning]

They'd even considered purchasing a hangar at the airport.

[Lester Holt]

He was in the market for a helicopter and had Natalie looking everywhere for this particular helicopter that he wanted.

[Andrea Canning]

So their lifestyle is getting is on the up and up and up.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, yeah, they had everything.

[Andrea Canning]

But now there were questions about the company, and there was only one person who could answer them. Natalie.

[Lester Holt]

With Michael deceased, she was still the only one linked to the business, and she was still running that business.

[Andrea Canning]

What would she have to say?

[Lester Holt]

Hello, Mrs. Cochran? Hi. Hi. This is Lieutenant Bledsoe from the state Police.

[Andrea Canning]

That phone call would lead to even more questions, and not just about the Cochran's finances. Chris Davis, the friend who'd invested in Michael and Natalie's contracting business, still hadn't seen a dime.

[Lester Holt]

As you go through March and you get into April and you start questioning her more about, hey, I don't understand. Why is this return not coming just a year before?

[Andrea Canning]

The business seemed like a runaway success. Did it seem like a good opportunity?

[Lester Holt]

Sure.

[Andrea Canning]

How much did you Invest?

[Lester Holt]

We invested 511,000.

[Andrea Canning]

That's a lot of money.

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

Chris wasn't the only one of their friends who put money into the company. John and Stephanie had as well. Their son had recently become sick, and they were facing mounting medical bills. So she's saying, I can ease your load for you and you can focus more on your son.

[Lester Holt]

Yes. And you can make a lot of money and you can be home with him.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie's parents and Michael's came on board, too. How much money are we talking about?

[Lester Holt]

Almost a quarter of a million dollars.

[Andrea Canning]

Was that your retirement, your life savings?

[Lester Holt]

It was our retirement savings. We trusted Natalie and we loved her. And so why not?

[Andrea Canning]

Knowing that so many family and friends of the Cochrans and people you knew were involved in this investment, did that kind of make it just even easier to say yes?

[Lester Holt]

It did. It made it feel a lot more secure because it was. It was family. Family and friends around here blends a lot. So, you know, it was very comfortable. It wasn't a business transaction.

[Andrea Canning]

Now, a month after Michael's death, detectives were secretly checking out complaints against the business. With Michael gone, they could only question Natalie.

[Lester Holt]

She was still running that business. We didn't want to take the chance of her destroying records.

[Andrea Canning]

So they decided not to ask Natalie about the money. Not at first, anyway. Instead, they'd see what she could tell them about Michael's unusual death.

[Lester Holt]

We learned that Michael did not go for autopsy. He had some type of accident or a fall at home, suffered a head injury, and then died shortly thereafter. Hello? Mrs. Cochran? Hi. Hi. This is Lieutenant Bledsoe from the state police, and I hate to, you know, bring up a subject about your husband's passing, but he should have went to the medical examiner's office, and they're reviewing that, and they just ask us to talk to people. Anything you can shed some light on and what led to his illness.

[Andrea Canning]

This is more like, let's have an initial conversation with Natalie just to start feeling her out.

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie talked with Bledsoe a few times over the course of a month about the day Michael collapsed.

[Lester Holt]

Could you give me some detail on Michael's morning background stuff about his overall morning? I took the kids to school, and I had the flu. And he was like, well, I think I might have a touch of the flu, too, because I'm not feeling very good. And I was like, do you want to go to the doctor? And he was like, no, you know me. I'll be fine. So he fell asleep on the couch for about 45 minutes to an hour. Maybe woke up, and then all of a sudden, he went running to the kitchen, and he started throwing up in our kitchen sink. And then he started to have a seizure, and he fell and collapsed. He hit his head, but it didn't seem that bad. He would mumble a little bit, but he didn't seem to be in any distress. And then that evening, when he still wasn't, you know, arousing, we decided to take him to the hospital.

[Andrea Canning]

She said she later found a bottle of supplements, part of his bodybuilding regimen.

[Lester Holt]

I pulled all the stuff out of his cabinet, and it fell out. He had it hidden in the bottom of a vitamin box.

[Andrea Canning]

The bottle contained a testosterone boosting drug, which Natalie referred to as a supplement. She said it was from Mexico and suspected it caused Michael's seizures.

[Lester Holt]

You felt like the problems he was having were a result of this supplement, Right? I think you called it enclomiphene. Does that sound enclofamine? FDA was never able to get it approved in the United States, but it can double your testosterone levels. At one point I said, you know, if there's a substance that's available in this country that could potentially kill other people, that's a public safety issue. You know, your husband may have been a victim of that. I even filled out a complaint form after he passed away, but they wouldn't get back to me.

[Andrea Canning]

Bludsoe wondered if there could be other reasons for Michael's sudden death.

[Lester Holt]

I did ask, do you think Michael would have wanted to intentionally harm himself?

[Andrea Canning]

Suicide?

[Lester Holt]

Sometimes people, yes, when they get into predicaments that they see no other way out of, you know, they take drastic measures. And her comment was, well, Michael loved himself too much. So, you know, that pretty much eliminated that.

[Andrea Canning]

What about. Did you have to give it a thought that what if someone they possibly wronged from the business could have wanted revenge?

[Lester Holt]

It's always a possibility. You don't ever want to rule anything out until you can rule it out.

[Andrea Canning]

One thing bothered Bledsoe about Natalie's story, why it had taken so long to get Michael to the hospital. He wanted to find out more, so he spoke to some friends who were there that day. He asked them about Michael's health and about his relationship with Natalie. When word of those conversations got back to her, Natalie fired off a call to Bledsoe's boss.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, sir, I was just calling to see if you knew when everything surrounding the investigation of me is going to be over. I'm having. I'm just having a very difficult time dealing with the loss of my husband. And it just seems like it keeps dragging out. I don't understand. They're just trying to determine what actually your husband died from. Well, they're asking people very polite personal questions about me and my husband's relationship.

[Andrea Canning]

The next day, she told Bledsoe she felt personally attacked.

[Lester Holt]

Where are all these questions coming from? Some community members are, you know, starting to post things and talk, and one of them said, well, there's going to be an investigation.

[Andrea Canning]

To Bludsoe, it seemed like an overreaction. Why was Natalie so defensive? Was she hiding something? His attention would soon pivot from frank fraud to Michael's death. Was it kind of like untangling a bunch of yarn? At that point, it's the same as.

[Lester Holt]

Pulling on a ball of string. You know, you just keep pulling, and it just keeps unraveling.

[Andrea Canning]

Investigators were peeling back the layers of what had once seemed like a sure bet. The Cochrans contracting business. So you start talking to more investors and things aren't adding up.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, many of them had quite a bit of documentation. They had obviously kept track of this because we're talking about a substantial amount of money, some of them life savings.

[Andrea Canning]

So you're looking at possible fraud here?

[Lester Holt]

Oh, absolutely, yes.

[Andrea Canning]

Was it kind of like untangling a bunch of yarn at that point?

[Lester Holt]

It's the same as pulling on a ball of string. You know, you just keep pulling and it just keeps unraveling.

[Andrea Canning]

More and more investors were demanding answers, including Michael's parents.

[Lester Holt]

Natalie would send me text messages and say, your money will be arriving in your bank account within 24 hours or 48 hours. And when that time came around, nothing was ever there. No, ma'am, nothing was there.

[Andrea Canning]

Stephanie Hamilton did receive a check for how much?

[Lester Holt]

For $10,000.

[Andrea Canning]

Did that make you feel like, okay, things are moving?

[Lester Holt]

Um, yeah. And then it bounced.

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, my gosh. Are you starting to get worried now about your finances?

[Lester Holt]

That, yeah, because I said to John, then I said, I don't think we're getting our money back. There's something wrong here.

[Andrea Canning]

Around the same time, authorities learned that Natalie was the subject of another investigation. This one, on a much smaller scale, had to do with money missing from the community's youth baseball league. Remember, Natalie was league treasurer and had direct access to the funds. The league asked private investigator James Quesenberry to look into it.

[Lester Holt]

The time I started looking at this, there should have been around $20,000 in the account, but it was down to 30 some dollars and some change. I immediately noticed that there were issues with what the money was being spent on. Different personal stuff that appeared to be stuff that had nothing to do with baseball. TJ Maxx, Olive Garden, various different ATM withdrawals in the neighborhood of $500, $600 a piece.

[Andrea Canning]

For investigators looking into the Cochrans business, it was yet another red flag. By now, they'd brought in federal authorities. Four months after Michael's death, they'd gathered enough evidence for a search warrant. In June 2019, local, state and federal law enforcement moved in.

[Lester Holt]

We had a team that was going to execute search at her house. We had a team that was simultaneously going to a business.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie was caught off guard when she saw investigators at her door. She called her friend John Hamilton, the state trooper.

[Lester Holt]

She said, hey, the state police are here with a search warrant. She said, you know, what am I supposed to do? I was like, well, you better let them search.

[Andrea Canning]

Investigators went room by room documenting everything. They collected computers, hard drives, files and cell phones. Word traveled quickly.

[Lester Holt]

The federal government doesn't come knock on your door just because they're not busy.

[Andrea Canning]

This is serious.

[Lester Holt]

There's something seriously going on, seriously wrong. And this. This is not good.

[Andrea Canning]

Stephanie rushed over to Natalie's house, her.

[Lester Holt]

Mom and dad standing there, and I'm like, I want to talk to her. They're like, well, I don't know if she can talk to you. But she comes out and I'm like, what's going on here? And she's like, I don't know. They took everything. She won't look at me.

[Andrea Canning]

Back at the office, Bledsoe and Heinzman pored over the digital and physical evidence they'd taken from the Cochrans house and business.

[Lester Holt]

The business began as a pretty legitimate business model. They were in a position to where they could have legitimately bid on government contracts. The only problem was they never bid on any contract with the federal government.

[Andrea Canning]

The record showed the money coming into the company was mainly from investors, and that money was nowhere to be found. Detectives met with those investors and broke the news. What are you told?

[Lester Holt]

Basically, as I'm looking at you, they go, there were no contracts.

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, my.

[Lester Holt]

And you kind of look back and I'm going to need you to say that one more time. What did you say? There were no contracts.

[Andrea Canning]

Oh, wow.

[Lester Holt]

Like, you couldn't find any or they don't exist. They never existed.

[Andrea Canning]

That's like one giant gut punch.

[Lester Holt]

It is. I didn't believe when I was hearing from this investigator said, you know, I hear what you're saying to me that everything was fake. But I said, I just. I don't believe that.

[Andrea Canning]

But once the reality set in, other questions started bubbling up about Natalie and about Michael's death.

[Lester Holt]

Once you get away from that initial shock, you start putting the puzzle pieces together. So you're immediately thinking, oh, maybe he didn't die of natural causes. It all really came together at really kind of one moment. Not only was she lying about money, oh, my goodness. This is just. This is not a coincidence. And so it all kind of hit us at once.

[Andrea Canning]

This is the kind of thing that hits you like a freight train when everything in your world is not what it seems at all. Exactly who was Natalie Cochran, this woman they'd once trusted so much? Investigators were determined to find out.

[Lester Holt]

Adam Pally here, and I'm John Gabris. We're a couple actors and best friends who you may know as the host.

[Andrea Canning]

Of the TV show 101 Places to.

[Lester Holt]

Party before you die. Now we're bringing you a comedic look at health and wellness with our new show, Staying Alive.

[Andrea Canning]

We'll have guests like our friend, actor Jerry O'Connell, ketamine therapist Dr. Stephen Radowitz.

[Lester Holt]

Paul Shear, Ego Wodom, Jillian Bell, Dr. Dolittle. Staying alive with John Gabris and Adam Pali is out right now. Get them a week early and ad.

[Andrea Canning]

Free with Sirius XM podcast plus on Apple Podcasts. You guys, I just found the most incredible Mother's Day gift.

[Lester Holt]

It's called Goldbelly.

[Andrea Canning]

Goldbelly is this amazing site where you can get the most iconic foods from.

[Lester Holt]

Restaurants all across the US Shipped anywhere in the country for free in time for Mother's Day. We're talking cakes from Ina Garden and.

[Andrea Canning]

Martha Stewart, Magnolia Bakery's famous banana pudding.

[Lester Holt]

And New York bagel brunches.

[Andrea Canning]

Make Mother's day perfect with Goldbelly.com and.

[Lester Holt]

Get 20% off your first order with promo code MOM. That's Goldbelly.com, promo code MOM. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much.

[Andrea Canning]

Please, for the love of everything good.

[Lester Holt]

In this world, stop with Mint. You can get premium wireless for just $15 a month.

[Andrea Canning]

Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments.

[Lester Holt]

But that's weird.

[Andrea Canning]

Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a [e-mail] Switch upfront payment of $45 for 3 month plan equivalent to $15 per month required intro rate first 3 months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full terms at Mintmobile do. The tight knit community of Beckley, West Virginia was shaken. First came news that the money investors had poured into the Cochran's company was gone.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, just, just couldn't believe it. We're crushed. Yeah, we just couldn't believe it. I'm just thinking, what, what is going on here?

[Andrea Canning]

And then there were suspicions that Michael Cochran's death might have been foul play. As the police investigation continued, many people in town were focused on one person, Natalie Cochran, including private investigator James Questenberry. He'd been looking into allegations that she had stolen funds from the youth baseball league. Now he was hearing about possible fraud within her company and maybe even an investigation into her husband's death. When he learned that Natalie was having a garage sale, he saw an opportunity.

[Lester Holt]

This was an attempt to find out if she had kept any of that money or spent it on something that nobody knew about. And she was going to try to sell was the fishing expedition. To see what we could find, he.

[Andrea Canning]

Rigged up his guy with a hidden camera That's Natalie in her garage.

[Lester Holt]

You have any other type of wiring or anything like that? Just that cable. This is security camera cable and then this is ethernet cable and the full boxes are $5. And the security camera cables to. She was selling some stuff that you know, belonged to Mike wire and stuff from his business. There was just miscellaneous dolls, different stuff around. My husband used to have a technology business and that's what he did is he ran cable. Did you have anything good? Just a bunch of his, like cable testing equipment, like equipment like that and his technologies. You don't want to sell the rest of anything else? Not really. I'm going to keep those for my son. My husband, my husband passed away so my dad helped me go through it and we kept things that my son might use when he grows up. Okay. Sorry about your loss. Thank you.

[Andrea Canning]

The video didn't show Natalie selling anything that would help his or law enforcement's investigation and no charges were ever filled filed concerning the youth baseball league. But Quesenberry believed he saw something else.

[Lester Holt]

She's got somebody there that's possibly buying the stuff that she has out there. She just speaks nice to him while he's looking at him. As soon as she turns around, she looks like it's killing her to talk to him and makes these faces and it's just very strange.

[Andrea Canning]

By this point, authorities had finished their seven month investigation into the Cochran's business. All those fake contracts, doctored figures and bogus spreadsheets added up to nothing short of a 2 1/2 million dollar Ponzi scheme. Explain how that worked within Natalie and Michael's business.

[Lester Holt]

As money comes in, if you're investor A, let's say, and I already have your money, well, when investor B comes in, I give you a little bit back from investor B and then try to build off and that's. It's just a. It's a pyramid really, but it's not sustainable because eventually you can't keep up.

[Andrea Canning]

Chris Davis went back and looked at all the paperwork the Cochrans had given him.

[Lester Holt]

This is a spreadsheet to represent what the company was doing and the success of the company. This whole document is fake. Total expense, profit payouts, the factor fees, none of it's true. You know, the saying is devil's in the details. Well, the devil was all in this.

[Andrea Canning]

Three months after that raid on the Cochran house, authorities returned this time with a warrant for Natalie's arrest.

[Lester Holt]

We had several other officers there with us. Troopers also had a female trooper there to transport Natalie.

[Andrea Canning]

She opens the Door.

[Lester Holt]

She did. I said, natalie, I said, you're under arrest, and I'm going to explain to you exactly why and what the charges are. And she says, it took all of y'all for little old me.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie Cochran was charged with 26 counts, including wire fraud and money laundering. She stole from her own family.

[Lester Holt]

We just hugged each other and cried. Cause it's just so awful. It was really hard. It's still really hard except what she's done. Like this really is happening. And we have been schemed, you know, like, you don't get arrested for no reason. Then it became. It became real. And then I was just angry.

[Andrea Canning]

Did you ever think in your wildest dreams that something like this would happen to you?

[Lester Holt]

No. There's people in my life now that are friends, that I would never think they would ever do this. And she would have been in that category for us.

[Andrea Canning]

This is the ultimate betrayal.

[Lester Holt]

Sure. Yeah. Very hurt. Very betrayed. Just in disbelief.

[Andrea Canning]

And there were even more victims. High school students. Those scholarships Natalie set up in Michael's.

[Lester Holt]

Memory, well, they didn't exist. And so basically, therefore, nothing. The people who were given scholarships received nothing.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie Cochran was in big trouble. And it was about to get worse because detectives were now laser focused on something else, something they found in Natalie's kitchen during that raid. You just had no idea what was going to be hidden in the chocolate.

[Lester Holt]

I sure did not expect to find that, though.

[Andrea Canning]

This is a big, big turn in this case.

[Lester Holt]

Very big.

[Andrea Canning]

I mean, I just get chills thinking about you putting all this together.

[Lester Holt]

That was the most shocking a nightmare. It moves from a mystery novel to a horror flick.

[Andrea Canning]

One year after Natalie Cochran was arrested for running a Ponzi scheme, she pleaded guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges. She was sentenced to 11 years in federal prison. In course, Natalie offered apologies and regret. She also deflected blame on Michael, saying his supplement abuse made him angry and money was the one thing that kept him happy. Did you buy any of what she was saying that day?

[Lester Holt]

That contract is the last thing I'll ever buy from her at this point in time. She's a total fraud. So now I question everything.

[Andrea Canning]

And so did Lieutenant Bledsoe. Like the Cochrans friends and family, he believed Michael had nothing to do with the Ponzi scheme.

[Lester Holt]

Anytime he would question why they didn't have their money, why the contracts weren't being paid, he got the same exact excuses that the investors were getting now.

[Andrea Canning]

With his financial investigation over, Bledsoe turned his full attention to the death of Michael Cochran. You Had a good old fashioned medical mystery on your hands?

[Lester Holt]

Yes, absolutely.

[Andrea Canning]

When he first spoke with Natalie, she was cooperative, presented herself as a sympathetic widow. But he wasn't convinced for long. What changed it?

[Lester Holt]

Her actions changed that. The questions she would ask. Why are you investigating me?

[Andrea Canning]

Remember she even called Bledsoe's supervisor to complain. Yes, sir.

[Lester Holt]

I was just calling to see if you knew when everything started Surrounding the investigation to me is going to be over.

[Andrea Canning]

Controlling.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, absolutely.

[Andrea Canning]

I don't think you can control the state police.

[Lester Holt]

In her mind she could. That was probably one of the most concerning things that I heard was how someone whose spouse had only been dead for at that point, two months and they're concerned over somebody trying to explain why it happened.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie stuck to her story that Michael got sick from that so called supplement he was taking.

[Lester Holt]

You believed it was from Mexico. What makes you think that? Because the company told us it was manufactured in Mexico. We never found any evidence of Mexico. The farthest that we traced it was to an address in Florida. It's just the pieces that just keep adding up that just don't make sense.

[Andrea Canning]

One of those pieces was something curious they stumbled on during the house raid.

[Lester Holt]

I learned a long, long time ago that anywhere that you're allowed to look, you better look while you're there.

[Andrea Canning]

You end up finding something that you didn't even know you were looking for.

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

Inside the fridge was a vial of insulin.

[Lester Holt]

Why is that Insulin beneath a a pile of chocolate bars.

[Andrea Canning]

No one in the home was diabetic at the time. Natalie had a perfectly good explanation. She said it was for Chris and Jennifer's son who was diabetic. They said not so fast.

[Lester Holt]

We had never given her insulin for Gavin. She had no reason to keep it. We never gave it to anyone like it stayed at our house because he wore a pump.

[Andrea Canning]

According to Jennifer, Natalie did ask for insulin the morning Michael fell ill. For herself, she had the flu and the.

[Lester Holt]

Norovirus and the doctor had given her steroids. And because of the cancer, she needed some insulin because the steroids had made her blood sugar go up.

[Andrea Canning]

Okay, so that can help.

[Lester Holt]

Yes. And so I had got a bag together for her with some drinks and I put the vial of insulin in there for her.

[Andrea Canning]

That got Lieutenant Bledsoe thinking. Medical records showed that when Michael was admitted to the hospital, his blood sugar was extremely low. And low blood sugar can lead to brain swelling. The very thing that caused Michael's death. What does that do to someone, to have a level like that?

[Lester Holt]

Oh, it's critical. I mean they have to get medical treatment for that immediately.

[Andrea Canning]

Bledsoe knew that insulin is used to lower blood sugar, so we wondered if the vial in the fridge could have been used on Michael. You believe that it's possible that this vial of insulin now in your possession is a possible murder weapon?

[Lester Holt]

Yes. Yes, very possible.

[Andrea Canning]

At that point, this may have just cracked the case.

[Lester Holt]

This could be a quote unquote smoking gun, so to speak.

[Andrea Canning]

The detectives set out to find proof that Michael died from an insulin overdose. But that would be difficult with no autopsy report. So seven months after Michael was laid to rest, investigators exhumed his body. For the first time, a medical examiner was brought in. What did they find?

[Lester Holt]

Michael's remains were pretty advanced in decomposition, so it made it very difficult for the medical examiner.

[Andrea Canning]

So nothing? Nothing that shed any light on what might have happened to Michael?

[Lester Holt]

Correct.

[Andrea Canning]

The Emmy ruled the manner of death undetermined. Michael's remains would not give up the secret to his death. But would Natalie? You want me to say I hurt.

[Lester Holt]

Him and I didn't hurt him? No, I'm not saying that. I know you did. That's what I'm telling you. No, you don't. Yes, I do. Adam Pally here, and I'm John Gabris. We're a couple actors and best friends who you may know as the hosts.

[Andrea Canning]

Of the TV show 101 Places to.

[Lester Holt]

Party before you die. Now we're bringing you a comedic look at health and wellness with our new show, Staying Alive.

[Andrea Canning]

We'll have guests like our friend, actor Jerry O'Connell, ketamine therapist Dr. Stephen Radowitz.

[Lester Holt]

Paul Scheer, Ego Wodo, Gillian Bell, Dr. Dolittle, staying alive with John Gabrison. Adam Pally is out right now. Get them a week early and ad.

[Andrea Canning]

Free with SiriusXM podcast plus on Apple Podcasts.

[Lester Holt]

You guys, I just found the most.

[Andrea Canning]

Incredible Mother's Day gift.

[Lester Holt]

It's called Gold Belly.

[Andrea Canning]

Gold Belly is this amazing site where you can get the most iconic foods.

[Lester Holt]

From restaurants all across the US Shipped anywhere in the country for free in.

[Andrea Canning]

Time for Mother's Day.

[Lester Holt]

We're talking cakes from Ina Garden and.

[Andrea Canning]

Martha Stewart, Magnolia Bakery's famous banana pudding and New York bagel brunches. Make Mother's day perfect with Goldbelly.com and.

[Lester Holt]

Get 20% off your first order with promo code MOM. That's Goldbelly.com promo code MOM. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile with a message for everyone paying big wireless way too much.

[Andrea Canning]

Please, for the love of everything good.

[Lester Holt]

In this world, stop with Mint, you can get premium wireless for just $15 a month.

[Andrea Canning]

Of course, if you enjoy overpaying, no judgments.

[Lester Holt]

But that's weird.

[Andrea Canning]

Okay, one judgment anyway. Give it a try. @mintmobile.com Switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] Authorities investigating the death of Michael Cochran were determined to see it through.

[Lester Holt]

The whole reason I got into law enforcement in the first place was to help people, especially people who could not help themselves. So we were there to speak for Michael.

[Andrea Canning]

By now, Lieutenant Bledsoe was convinced that Michael had nothing to do with the Ponzi scheme. He also believed he'd found the murder weapon, the insulin found in Natalie's fridge. But he didn't have the evidence to prove she used it. So he turned up the pressure. In May of 2021, he traveled to Hazelton Federal Prison in West Virginia. Natalie's home since her guilty plea in the Ponzi scheme.

[Lester Holt]

We've been conducting an investigation into Michael's death for some time now.

[Andrea Canning]

Her story said Bledsoe didn't add up.

[Lester Holt]

You brought up enclomophene was possibly some way related to Michael's death. Okay, we now know that that's not true. So I don't. We need to clear that up. I don't know how you can know that's not true.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie denied having anything to do with Michael's death.

[Lester Holt]

I did not do anything to him. And it's just been over and over. Well, and I am telling you the truth. What you're saying is it was nothing at your hand. No, it was not at my hand. And that's what I'm saying is not true. And that not only did you then allow him to lay there all day without medical treatment. I didn't. I didn't hurt Michael.

[Andrea Canning]

Bludsoe accused her of calling friends instead of an ambulance.

[Lester Holt]

You called an alibi is what you did. No, I did not. Yeah, absolutely. You made sure that you had somebody else to blame, who you built.

[Andrea Canning]

I think.

[Lester Holt]

I think we're done. Because, I mean, you want me to.

[Andrea Canning]

Say I hurt him and I didn't hurt him?

[Lester Holt]

No, I'm not saying that. I know you did. That's what I'm telling you. No, you don't. Yes, I do.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie never confessed, but Bledsoe was now more convinced than ever that she killed Michael. To him, all the circumstantial evidence was adding up there was her delay in getting Michael help, that call she made trying to shut down the investigation, and her story about how she got the vial of insulin.

[Lester Holt]

When you put all those circumstances together, not just the insulin, it paints a very clear picture.

[Andrea Canning]

The DA agreed. And in November of 2021, Natalie was arrested for murder. Friends still reeling from her Ponzi scheme now had an even darker possibility to consider. And now possibly murder.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah, that was the most shocking. It moves from a mystery novel to a horror flick. You don't want to believe that can happen to what you thought was a perfect couple.

[Andrea Canning]

But as prosecutors prepared for trial, a key detail was missing. This is a homicide case without a ruling of homicide.

[Lester Holt]

Right.

[Andrea Canning]

From the medical examiner.

[Lester Holt]

If you don't have the medical examiner saying homicide, you got a big problem.

[Andrea Canning]

Current Raleigh county prosecuting attorney Tom Truman says that in spite of the circumstantial evidence against Natalie, his predecessor simply could not get around the undetermined ruling and had to make a difficult decision. A year and a half after Natalie was indicted for murder. The charge is dropped.

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

That, I guess, is just the team getting together and saying, as much as we want to go to trial, we just don't have it.

[Lester Holt]

Still, I think that's a fair assessment.

[Andrea Canning]

It seemed Michael's death might never be solved. But investigators had another card to play. This man, a medical examiner who worked for the Armed Forces, Dr. Paul Uribe. He'd cracked a complicated case in West Virginia two years earlier. Seven elderly veterans died mysteriously in a VA hospital. Dr. Uribe discovered they all had low blood sugar, just like Michael, but they.

[Lester Holt]

Died with a very, very certain pattern. The pattern they had was very, very severe hypoglycemia, which is very low glucose levels.

[Andrea Canning]

Dr. Uribe suspected the men may have been poisoned with insulin, but that would be hard to prove. Insulin as a murder weapon is a tough one because it disappears, Correct. From the system.

[Lester Holt]

Yes. Insulin is metabolized or broken down by the body very, very quickly. You're not going to stumble across an insulin homicide if you're not looking for it. You're not going to find it.

[Andrea Canning]

He had the bodies exhumed, and with state of the art testing, he found evidence of needle marks on several of the men, and tissue samples revealed traces of insulin. Investigators were able to zero in on a suspect. They arrested nursing assistant Rita Mays, who pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder.

[Lester Holt]

They were there so that she could provide them aid and assistance and comfort, and instead, she coldly and callously murdered them.

[Andrea Canning]

Now, investigators were hoping Dr. Uribe could help solve Michael's case. The pathologist asked for his body to be exhumed again.

[Lester Holt]

You might be able to find evidence that something was injected into the body in a particular location.

[Andrea Canning]

Was there a tissue test you could do to see if there was any evidence in that?

[Lester Holt]

We tried to do that, but there wasn't a lot to look at. There was no way I could evaluate for injection sites just because there was so much decomposition.

[Andrea Canning]

But Dr. Uribe wasn't done yet. You, as a medical examiner need to look at the whole picture.

[Lester Holt]

Absolutely. The autopsy is just one. It's just one part of the equation. What were the circumstances? What were the results of the investigation he went through?

[Andrea Canning]

Every other possible reason for Michael's blood sugar to plummet. What could cause the level to go that low for someone who is not a diabetic?

[Lester Holt]

They could have a rampant infection, something like sepsis. They can have a drug or medication reaction.

[Andrea Canning]

Did he have any of those things that you could tell?

[Lester Holt]

Not from the medical record review and hospital records, no.

[Andrea Canning]

Leaving the doctor with one conclusion.

[Lester Holt]

This was an insulin homicide.

[Andrea Canning]

This puts the case over the top for the prosecutor's office. This new, new reveal of homicide, that.

[Lester Holt]

Was a big part of it. Now we have a medical examiner that says cause and manner of death, and it fit the bill for a first degree murder.

[Andrea Canning]

Since Dr. Uribe was not the state medical examiner, the official cause of death remained undetermined. But prosecutors thought his expert analysis could sway a jury. In October 2023, Natalie Cochran was again charged with her husband's murder. This time, could prosecutors make it stick? Some people maybe thought you couldn't win. A lot of people thought that now a jury was about to hear the state's theory of why Natalie did it. You learn something big. You learned that there is a ticking clock and there's a plane waiting.

[Lester Holt]

That was the moment. Motives.

[Andrea Canning]

January 2025. Almost six years after Michael Cochran's death, his wife Natalie went on trial for his murder.

[Lester Holt]

There were not a lot of bets that said we would get a conviction.

[Andrea Canning]

Prosecutors Tom Truman and Ashley Akerd knew they were in for a fight. This was a problem child case from the beginning.

[Lester Holt]

It was certainly long in the tooth by the time we got it.

[Andrea Canning]

And some people maybe thought you couldn't win.

[Lester Holt]

A lot of people thought that, yeah.

[Andrea Canning]

The trial began in a small courtroom in Beckley, West Virginia. The family sat up front. Natalie's behind the defense and Michael's behind the prosecution.

[Lester Holt]

We were there as Michael's voice, as his advocate. We needed to Be there every day.

[Andrea Canning]

What was it like seeing Natalie in court?

[Lester Holt]

Didn't affect me a bit. I call her the evil one.

[Andrea Canning]

She's evil. In his opening statement, prosecutor Tom Truman didn't shy away from his imperfect case.

[Lester Holt]

There is no DNA. There is no evidence of fingerprints.

[Andrea Canning]

But he argued they could prove Natalie had the means, the opportunity, and the motive to murder her husband. They started with the means, your honor.

[Lester Holt]

The state calls Dr. Paul Uribe to the stand.

[Andrea Canning]

The pathologist told jurors, after looking at all of the evidence, the only plausible explanation for Michael's death was insulin poisoning.

[Lester Holt]

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

[Andrea Canning]

Dr. Diane Krieger, an endocrinologist, backed up that testimony, saying there were 13 things that could cause an extremely low blood glucose level. In Michael's case, she ruled out all but one. Insulin.

[Lester Holt]

It's the only credible explanation since none of the other explanations work.

[Andrea Canning]

To show the jury how Natalie got insulin, the state called Natalie's former friend and neighbor.

[Lester Holt]

Could you please state your name for the record? Jennifer Davis.

[Andrea Canning]

She told the jury she and Natalie had tested the morning Michael collapsed. Jennifer said she offered to drop off some of her son's insulin. That text exchange between Natalie and Jennifer about the insulin was so important. There it is in. In writing.

[Lester Holt]

Very important. Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

Connecting Natalie to a bottle of insulin.

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

Jennifer testified that she gave Natalie the insulin because Natalie said she needed it to ease the effects of her cancer treatment. The prosecution claimed that was yet another one of her lies. A diabolical one. It's determined that Natalie did not have cancer. Did not have cancer. Despite telling everyone.

[Lester Holt]

Yes. Imagine that. A defendant that's not forthright and truthful.

[Andrea Canning]

He said Natalie made up the cancer to get sympathy and distract investors. Prosecutors then laid out their theory of how she carried out the killing. Her opportunity, they believe. On the morning Michael collapsed, Natalie sedated him with an anti anxiety medication.

[Lester Holt]

There were benzodiazepines in his system. She had a prescription for them.

[Andrea Canning]

How could she administer that without him knowing? Could that be put in a drink?

[Lester Holt]

Oh, yeah. It could have been in his cereal. Could have been in his drink.

[Andrea Canning]

Once he was knocked out, prosecutors believe Natalie injected him with insulin throughout the day. You just couldn't definitively connect the dots. Natalie got the vial of insulin, but then there's no evidence of her injecting Michael.

[Lester Holt]

The vial had been punctured with a single puncture. Can we say it was the bottle that was delivered by the Davises? No. But again, his blood glucose Level showed that he had been injected with insulin. So circumstantially, there's a lot of. A lot of arrows pointing to that.

[Andrea Canning]

And the prosecution floated the idea that Natalie had been poisoning Michael for a while. Michael's friend Jason testified that in the months before Michael died, he told him he felt sick.

[Lester Holt]

He would complain about just not feeling right, just feeling dizzy. He said he felt like he'd been poisoned.

[Andrea Canning]

Prosecutors wanted the jury to hear about how Natalie delayed getting Michael to the hospital for hours. They called Chris Davis, Michael's best friend.

[Lester Holt]

You swear or affirm to tell the.

[Andrea Canning]

Truth, the whole truth, he told jurors. When he got to the Cochrane house, about seven hours after Michael collapsed, Michael was still unresponsive.

[Lester Holt]

It was clear that something was wrong. And I was like, he's got to go to the hospital. I remember a question. You really think he should go? Yes, he needs to go, and he's going to go now, and I'm going to take him. And that's exactly what I did.

[Andrea Canning]

To show just how dire it was, the prosecutor displayed a photo of Michael that Natalie had taken shortly after he collapsed. Natalie had sent this photo around to friends, including Chris's wife.

[Lester Holt]

She sent this picture to a whole bunch of people, including Jennifer Davis, correct? Correct. She sent that picture to, like, 17 people. Why would you do that? I just think she had.

[Andrea Canning]

She got some sort of sick satisfaction.

[Lester Holt]

Out of it, I think. And I think she wanted to be able to continue to look at it, and she wanted people to see what she had done.

[Andrea Canning]

But the most crucial question remained. What was her motive? Prosecutors said it was all about the Ponzi scheme and told jurors, even though Michael was an equal partner in the company, he had no idea it was all a scam. What evidence did you have that you feel proves Michael did not know about the fraud?

[Lester Holt]

Text messages. Pages and pages of text messages. They were the exact same lies she was telling to the investors she was telling to Michael. She would even have wire transfer dates, wire transfer authorization numbers.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie even created a fake government worker named Betsy Brad. She would tell Michael Betsy was on.

[Lester Holt]

The phone, and when they tried to third party Michael in, the call would drop. It was just one of those perpetual lie machines that just kept cranking out lies.

[Andrea Canning]

And they said Michael was about to find out the whole company was a lie. Two days before his death, Michael texted Natalie asking why a government transfer of more than $2.8 million hadn't hit the their account yet. He texted her, I don't understand why it's taking so long. It's bank of America to bank of America. Natalie responded, just verifying funds because of large amounts and new account doesn't make sense to me. Michael wrote back, Michael got so frustrated, he charted a private plane. He and Natalie were to fly to Virginia to meet with bank representatives. The day he collapsed.

[Lester Holt]

That was. That was to take place. That could never take place because she.

[Andrea Canning]

Knew if they got on that plane and they went to meet with the bank in Virginia, all of the secrets would tumble out.

[Lester Holt]

Correct.

[Andrea Canning]

There is a ticking clock and there's a plane waiting.

[Lester Holt]

That was the motive.

[Andrea Canning]

One argument to that is even if Michael dies, it doesn't change the mess that she's in with the fraud.

[Lester Holt]

There's an answer to that, too. She was in the process of selling half the business.

[Andrea Canning]

According to the prosecutor, Natalie had convinced a well to do business person to buy into the company for half a million dollars. Could she not have put off Michael, though, and said, look, the money's coming in. Everything's going to be fine. Let me take care of it?

[Lester Holt]

Oh, she had been. Yeah, that was her while.

[Andrea Canning]

Months. Okay, so this was a ticking time bomb.

[Lester Holt]

Oh, absolutely.

[Andrea Canning]

Prosecutors wrapped up their case arguing Natalie murdered her husband to keep him and everybody else from uncovering that their company was a house of cards. Now Natalie's attorneys would have their turn. They agreed she was a fraud and a liar. But a killer? Absolutely not. And they could prove it. This isn't a whodunit mystery. This is a medical mystery.

[Lester Holt]

Correct. I did not believe this was a murder. Adam Pali here and I'm John Gabris. We're a couple actors and best friends who you may know as the host.

[Andrea Canning]

Of the TV show 101 Places to.

[Lester Holt]

Party before you die. Now we're bringing you a comedic look at health and wellness with our new show, staying alive.

[Andrea Canning]

We'll have guests like our friend, actor Jerry O'Connell, ketamine therapist, Dr. Stephen Radowitz.

[Lester Holt]

Paul Scheer, Ego Wodo, Gillian Bell, Dr. Dolittle. Staying alive with John Gabris and Adam Pali is out right now. Get them a week early and ad.

[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

So if you're looking for a gift for the food lover in your life, head to goldbelly.com and get 20% off your first order with promo code GIFT. That's goldbelly.com promo code GIFT. Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.

[Andrea Canning]

I don't know if you knew this.

[Lester Holt]

But anyone can get the same Premium Wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying.

[Andrea Canning]

It's not just for celebrities.

[Lester Holt]

So do like I did and have one of your assistants assistants switch you.

[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

I'm told it's super easy to [e-mail].

[Andrea Canning]

Switch upfront payment of $45 for three month plan equivalent to $15 per month required. Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available, taxes and fees extra. See full [e-mail] Natalie Cochran's defense team was convinced the the case against their client was riddled with holes, including the fact they said that there was no proof Michael died of anything but natural causes. This isn't a whodunit mystery. This is a medical mystery. And that was the crux of your defense.

[Lester Holt]

It was their case was flimsy. Their case was not about the murder. But bottom line is that they had no why, when and how.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie's defense attorney, Matthew Victor, didn't waste any time. He addressed the elephant in the room in his opening statement.

[Lester Holt]

She defrauded friends, relatives, investors. She was involved in a Ponzi scheme. The fact that she is perhaps a fraud and perhaps a cheat does not translate into being a mother.

[Andrea Canning]

The defense went after the state's key piece of evidence, that insulin vial found in the fridge.

[Lester Holt]

That bottle to me appeared to be full.

[Andrea Canning]

Chad Jones investigated the case for the defense. Did you look into how much insulin you would need from a vial to cause a death like that?

[Lester Holt]

Their expert testified it would take a fair amount.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie's attorneys also argued it made no sense that she would use that vial of insulin to kill Michael and then keep it after his death. Is Natalie the world's dumbest criminal for leaving the murder weapon in the fridge under the candy?

[Lester Holt]

I mean, and to say that that would be the dumbest criminal. I mean, this is an intelligent woman. So really those two things don't equate.

[Andrea Canning]

They said she kept the insulin for her neighbor Jennifer's son, the one with diabetes.

[Lester Holt]

It had been there for a while.

[Andrea Canning]

For the son, for Jennifer's son, Jennifer's son. Her attorneys also asked the question, if Natalie had injected her husband with insulin, why didn't Michael fight back or call for help?

[Lester Holt]

I think any reasonable person would Think that if they're jabbed with a needle and the person doing the jabbing doesn't advise you of what is in that syringe, I would call for help.

[Andrea Canning]

The prosecutors say he wasn't able to call for help because he was already unconscious when she stabbed him with the needle.

[Lester Holt]

I don't think there was any evidence to prove that.

[Andrea Canning]

Instead, they floated the idea that Michael, a weightlifter, may have injected himself. When cross examining Dr. Uribe, they asked him if he was aware that bodybuilders sometimes use insulin.

[Lester Holt]

To my knowledge, bodybuilders don't use insulin. Really?

[Andrea Canning]

The defense told jurors the doctor was wrong.

[Lester Holt]

Bodybuilders do take insulin, some for gaining muscle mass and burning carbohydrates. There was some innuendo that he may have been injecting insulin at some point.

[Andrea Canning]

Defense attorneys called forensic experts of their own who said there wasn't enough evidence to rule this a homicide.

[Lester Holt]

A cause of death is undetermined, in my opinion, as well as the manner of death.

[Andrea Canning]

The defense then zeroed in on what it called the state's biggest blind spot, the motive.

[Lester Holt]

Nobody was able to present any evidence to suggest that Natalie Cochran had a motive to kill her husband.

[Andrea Canning]

The prosecution says the walls were closing in, that the jig was up and he finally. Michael finally realized, and they were going to go have this meeting, and then everything was going to just collapse.

[Lester Holt]

So it was going to be, what, a preemptive killing? Are they. Are you kidding me?

[Andrea Canning]

That's the prosecution's theory.

[Lester Holt]

That's absolutely absurd.

[Andrea Canning]

Absurd because they argued Michael was in on it from day one.

[Lester Holt]

I firmly believe that if he were alive, he would be sitting in prison as well. Michael was up to his eyeballs in the business that he and Natalie have created.

[Andrea Canning]

The state says there's proof that Michael didn't know about the Ponzi scheme. You say there's proof he did know.

[Lester Holt]

It's overwhelming proof, ranging from his actions writing contracts, signing checks to enjoying the harvest of their business.

[Andrea Canning]

The defense presented a different theory about how Michael Cochran could have died, arguing he was in poor health. Something very important was that Michael had been admitted to the hospital a few months before he died. That really paints a picture of someone.

[Lester Holt]

With health problems in October of 2018. Stayed in the hospital for one day.

[Andrea Canning]

Was released a couple of days later, he was back in the hospital and stayed for five days.

[Lester Holt]

He was prescribed an anticonvulsive by a physician.

[Andrea Canning]

Were there actual medical records that said that Michael was having seizures?

[Lester Holt]

Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

And is this Based on what Michael was telling the doctors, what Natalie was telling the doctors, I think it was.

[Lester Holt]

In concert of everything. But at the end of the day, a physician prescribed him an anticonvulsive, which Natalie says he refused to take.

[Andrea Canning]

So he's not taking his seizure medication.

[Lester Holt]

Correct.

[Andrea Canning]

Though the prosecution said Natalie was the one making Michael sick by poisoning him for months, the defense argued he was making himself sick, claiming he not only took supplements, but steroids and possibly even insulin, a potentially dangerous mix. This is very important to your defense to show a pattern of seizures, health problems.

[Lester Holt]

Absolutely. Absolutely. It's certainly possible all these substances that he was taking could have had a neurologic effect that caused him to develop a seizure disorder.

[Andrea Canning]

When they called Natalie's sister Penny to the stand, she testified that she saw Michael inject himself.

[Lester Holt]

They were at the beach with us, and I came out of my bedroom, and he was in the kitchen, and I saw him do an injection. Did you ever see him take insulin? I don't know what he took.

[Andrea Canning]

She said whatever he was taking, she tried to get him to stop.

[Lester Holt]

I said, you please stop that. You've got to stop that. It's not good for you. And he would always just laugh.

[Andrea Canning]

The defense argued Michael's bodybuilding cocktail added up to a medical crisis. He had a seizure that day, and that's what caused his blood sugar to drop. Do seizures contribute to glucose levels?

[Lester Holt]

They can. It can cause the blood glucose to drop.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie's attorneys weren't done. They had two more key witnesses to call, the people who knew Michael and Natalie the best, the Cochran children. What would they tell the jury?

[Lester Holt]

Would you state your name for the record? Nicole Cochran.

[Andrea Canning]

Inside the courthouse in Beckley, both sides grilled witnesses trying to prove whether or not Natalie Cochran killed her husband. Michael, the defense's star witness, were about to take the stand. Michael and Natalie's children, they were only 13 and 11 years old when their father died. The kids are really put in this precarious position where, you know, their father is dead. They're testifying for their mom, who's on trial for dad's murder. What all went into that with the children and the decision to put them up there?

[Lester Holt]

Well, they wanted to testify. They wanted to. Yes, they wanted to clarify some. Some of the issues that were before the court.

[Andrea Canning]

Up first, the Cochran son, who's now 17.

[Lester Holt]

He looked a lot like Michael, just a younger version.

[Andrea Canning]

Court TV legal reporter Kelly Kraft was in the courtroom. As he's walking up, he looks at his mother.

[Lester Holt]

They touched one another, and he Made.

[Andrea Canning]

His way to the stand. Natalie appeared to beam with pride. Because he's a minor, he didn't give his first name and the camera didn't record his face.

[Lester Holt]

Would you tell the jury the initials of your name, Mac.

[Andrea Canning]

He began by giving the jury a peek into life inside the Cochran home. He shared that he and his dad had a special bond.

[Lester Holt]

What did you do together? All types of stuff. We. He was my baseball coach, my football coach, led me through several sports, went shooting, shooting together, went hunting together. We just always did stuff together.

[Andrea Canning]

When the defense asked him about his father's daily routine, he said he took large amounts of supplements and other medications.

[Lester Holt]

He would take his supplements, which was 30 pills a day every morning, and then his anabolics, which are steroids. Did he ever inject anything that. Definitely steroids. Where was he getting all that stuff? He did shop at GNC a lot, but that was only for his supplements. And then he used to brag all the time about him getting his steroids from Mexico.

[Andrea Canning]

When Nicole, their 20 year old daughter, took the stand, she described a similar routine.

[Lester Holt]

He would lay all of his pills out on the count like the counter and there would be so many of them that they. They would just sit in a whole circle and it looked like the size of a dinner plate. And then he would take the steroids as well.

[Andrea Canning]

Both children recalled that their father's behavior started to change after he was hospitalized for seizures about three months before he died.

[Lester Holt]

How did he start to change, sir? Just forgetting stuff all the time. And he was more aggressive. More aggressive for sure. Towards whom? Aggressive towards everybody. Everybody.

[Andrea Canning]

The defense implied that behavior might have been caused by steroid use.

[Lester Holt]

In January of 2019, shortly before his death, how did he behave? He was kind of acting crazy. He was very upset and angry all the time.

[Andrea Canning]

She said he suffered from headaches, had balance issues and slept a lot. When asked if his condition improved before his death, I would say as time.

[Lester Holt]

Went by, it continued to worsen. And was there a suggestion that he go to the hospital? I'm not sure, but I remember several people wanted him to stop taking his steroids. I didn't see him.

[Andrea Canning]

The children's testimony backed key defense claims they saw their dad being angry, agitated. His health is not so perfect as one might have thought.

[Lester Holt]

His memory was fading. He was agitated.

[Andrea Canning]

And they both testified that their dad hated hospitals.

[Lester Holt]

So that was very helpful to the defense case as to why Natalie did not rush him to the hospital when he collapsed.

[Andrea Canning]

On the stand, Nicole revealed something else about Michael's Health. It happened a few months before he died.

[Lester Holt]

He had this conversation with his daughter, which was. I mean, it was almost poignant. This was like a farewell to life.

[Andrea Canning]

Nicole told the jury the conversation happened when her father was in the hospital.

[Lester Holt]

He seemed kind of out of it, and. But he was actually really nice. He said some kind things to my brother and I because he didn't think he would get another chance to. Is that what he told you? He told me that he always appreciated my intelligence and that he never told me that, but he wanted me to know it now just in case he never got to say it again. I've always considered that to be kind of like my goodbye.

[Andrea Canning]

The children's testimony was especially emotional for Michael's parents. They believed their son was in excellent health. Your grandchildren took the stand for the defense, supporting their mother in that courtroom, supporting that theory that he was in poor health. Very different views from you.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, it's a tragedy. They've lost their dad. We've lost a son, and our views are our views. It's just heartbreaking.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie's attorneys had one more point. They wanted the children to get across to the jury that their mom loved their dad and had no reason to kill him. The prosecution's theory that the walls were closing in on Natalie, that Michael was about to discover the Ponzi scheme didn't match what they knew about their parents business and who was really in charge.

[Lester Holt]

I think we all know who wore the pants in the situation. He definitely ran it way more than she. Your father was a dominant figure, of course. Who was working on the contracts my dad and your mom had.

[Andrea Canning]

During cross examination, the prosecution reminded the jury how young the children were at the time of Michael's death and implied the defense investigator had coached them.

[Lester Holt]

When you heard him testify, they sounded so coached. I don't think they made that great of an impression.

[Andrea Canning]

Throughout her children's testimony, Natalie displayed a range of emotions. Sometimes teary, sometimes smiley. At one point, Natalie made a heart sign with her hands and mouthed to her daughter, I love you. They had an extremely close bond, a very close relationship. The defense had one more witness to take the stand, Natalie Cochran herself. A lot of times, defense attorneys don't want their client to take the stand. But in this particular case, you felt she should.

[Lester Holt]

Yes. There's also conventional wisdom that the jury wants to hear the defendant say, I didn't do it. And that carries a lot of weight.

[Andrea Canning]

Jurors were ready to hear from Natalie, but there was a surprise coming, and finally a verdict that would Leave both families in tears.

[Lester Holt]

Either they didn't believe anything we said. Nickname quit this lady. Or she's a duster.

[Andrea Canning]

It was the moment everyone had been waiting for. Natalie Cochran was about to testify. She had already informed the judge that.

[Lester Holt]

She was was going to take the stand.

[Andrea Canning]

Natalie and her attorneys met with the judge behind closed doors. When they returned, the judge made an announcement.

[Lester Holt]

The defendant has now elected not to testify in her own behalf.

[Andrea Canning]

Smart move on her part.

[Lester Holt]

She would have had to answer for some things that I don't know that she was prepared to do. I believe Natalie Cochran has thought about the implications of testifying and may have consulted the parents, perhaps friends.

[Andrea Canning]

During closing arguments, the prosecution walked the jury through its theory of how Natalie killed Michael and said that despite what the defense said, the prosecution's expert determined that Michael's low blood sugar couldn't have been caused by supplements or steroids.

[Lester Holt]

Dr. Krieger had 13 likely causes of low blood sugar. Hypoglycemia. She eliminated all but insulin.

[Andrea Canning]

And as for Michael having seizures, the prosecution said that all came from Natalie. You heard experts testify that the seizure activity in the records was reported by the defendant. Prosecutors wrapped up by saying it's been six years since Michael's murder, and it was time Natalie was held accountable. Michael has waited long enough for justice. Natalie's defense attorney argued that the prosecution's theory made no sense for so many reasons. And he pointed out Natalie's behavior was the exact opposite of a killer's.

[Lester Holt]

You have just decided to kill your husband. He is unconscious, let's assume. And you want him dead. Well, let him die, then. Don't do anything.

[Andrea Canning]

He reminded the jurors. Natalie did do something. She called multiple people to the house.

[Lester Holt]

Is that the action of a killer who wants to get away with murder? No.

[Andrea Canning]

And he said a murder would have cremated Michael, destroying evidence. But Natalie didn't do that. He also hammered at the idea that Natalie had no reason to kill her husband. Nothing to gain from his death because.

[Lester Holt]

He, Michael Cochran, was as involved in this conspiracy as she was.

[Andrea Canning]

He left jurors with a final thought.

[Lester Holt]

If you cannot answer these three questions, what, how, and first of all and foremost, why, then the state fails to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.

[Andrea Canning]

The jury goes out to deliberate. How are you feeling? We're feeling like we've left it all out there.

[Lester Holt]

We've done everything that we could possibly do. You never know what a jury's gonna do. But I felt strong about the defense position. You're thinking, man, I don't know everything is circumstantial. You're sitting there and just pure suspense, waiting for that verdict.

[Andrea Canning]

And then, quicker than anyone imagined, the jury had a verdict. Two hours.

[Lester Holt]

Yes. Right around. Yes.

[Andrea Canning]

Usually a good sign. Are you thinking that?

[Lester Holt]

Well, it was one of those chicken or feathers things. Either they didn't believe anything we said and they're going to quit this lady, or she's a duster. I'll expect no outbursts when I read the verdict.

[Andrea Canning]

The judge told Natalie to stand.

[Lester Holt]

We, the jury on the issues joined unanimously, find the following. The defendant is guilty of murder in the first degree.

[Andrea Canning]

Take us to that very moment in that courtroom as you are listening to those words that Natalie Cochran is being held responsible for your son's murder.

[Lester Holt]

Being held accountable. Yes. There's a feeling that comes over you. I don't know if I can put it to words or not, but it is justice. It is justice. And I could just see Michael saying, you hung in there for me. You hung in there for me. And we did. We did.

[Andrea Canning]

You felt like he was with you.

[Lester Holt]

Yeah. Yes, ma'am.

[Andrea Canning]

But it wasn't over. In West Virginia, they have what called a mercy phase. As Natalie quietly shed tears, the judge explained to the jury it was up to them to decide her sentence.

[Lester Holt]

If she receives mercy, she will be eligible for parole in 15 years.

[Andrea Canning]

If not, she would spend the rest of her life in prison. He asked the jury to return the next morning to hear from both sides. First, Natalie's. One by one, members of her family spoke with glowingly about her, including her dad and mom.

[Lester Holt]

Please give mercy to her. It won't be for me, probably, but for her and her children and grandchildren.

[Andrea Canning]

And once again, Natalie's children took the stand.

[Lester Holt]

A lot of us really want our mom back, really want her back.

[Andrea Canning]

And I just beg.

[Lester Holt]

Beg you, give her mercy. She's a great woman. I've always, always kind of considered her to be my best friend. I missed her at my high school graduation, and I missed her on the day I moved into college. I'm begging you to give her mercy so that I don't have to miss more.

[Andrea Canning]

For the prosecution, several of Michael's friends spoke, including Chris Davis.

[Lester Holt]

Mike was. He was a very strong man. He's a good man. He wasn't sick. He wasn't ready to die.

[Andrea Canning]

He had a message for the jury.

[Lester Holt]

I thank you. I know Mike would thank you.

[Andrea Canning]

Finally, Michael's parents had a chance to say what was in their hearts. They had loved Natalie, but not anymore.

[Lester Holt]

Evil must be held accountable Natalie Cochran must be held accountable. We ask that you please, please, no mercy. She never gave Michael any mercy.

[Andrea Canning]

Less than two hours later, jurors had made a decision.

[Lester Holt]

We, the jury, unanimously do not recommend mercy.

[Andrea Canning]

They sentenced Natalie Cochran to life in prison without the possibility of parole. She's appealing the verdict. Michael's parents say even though there was justice for Michael, there were no winners. Not only did they lose their son, their family has been torn apart. They haven't spoken to Michael's children in six years. If they ever see this, what would you say to your grandchildren?

[Lester Holt]

Well, hopefully one day, you know, maybe they'll come and want to talk to us. Maybe they want to come and ask us some questions about their dad. There's things about their dad that we would like to share with them. He was just a tremendous young man. He had the biggest heart and the biggest smile and he was so handsome. He had a lot of friends out there. And so, you know, we just love to keep his story alive and keep it out there and keep his memory alive.

[Andrea Canning]

With your faith, you know, you'll be together again someday.

[Lester Holt]

Yes, we will. Yes. Looking forward to that day. That's all for this edition of dateline. And check out our talking DATELINE podcast. Andrea Canning and Blaine Alexander will go behind the scenes of tonight's episode, available Wednesday in the DATELINE feed. Wherever you get your podcasts, we'll see you Again Sunday at 10, 9 Central. I'm Lester Holt. For all of us at NBC News, good night. Foreign here, and I'm John Gabriel. We're a couple actors and best friends who you may know as the host.

[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

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[Lester Holt]

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[Andrea Canning]

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