A West Virginia woman will never walk free again after she killed her husband to cover up her $2 million Ponzi scheme.
A Raleigh County Circuit Court Special Judge, H.L. Kirkpatrick, handed Natalie Cochran a life term in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of her 38-year-old husband, Michael Cochran. After almost two hours of deliberation, Natalie Cochran was found guilty and convicted by a jury of first-degree murder.
The sentence stemmed from a federal wire fraud and money laundering charge in which the defendant pleaded guilty to federal wire fraud and money laundering in 2020 and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. In 2017, the couple registered a company called Tactical Solutions Group (TSG), which was designed for commercial weapons trade with the U.S. government and contract bids for other products. At the time, Natalie Cochran, who had quit her job as a pharmacist and was a majority shareholder in TSG, had received six-figure investment funds from family and friends.
“Natalie Cochran was a puppet master. She had everybody dancing at the bottom of their little strings,” said Raleigh County Prosecuting Attorney Tom Truman, according to 59 News.
While the couple’s lifestyle suddenly took a lavish turn, with the purchase of three homes, exotic cars, and motorcycles, an investigation into $15,000 missing from a middle school baseball league ensued. Soon, investors started asking Natalie Cochran for their money back, but they were told the government was delaying payments and she was undergoing cancer treatment.
Later, authorities discovered there were no government contracts or bids, and unbeknown to investors, early investors received false profit earnings from new investors’ payments.
On Feb. 6, 2019, both Michael and Natalie Cochran were scheduled to fly to Virginia for a meeting with Bank of America representatives when the defendant alerted their friends her husband was unconsciously ill with the flu. Despite friends urging her to take Michael Cochran to the hospital, she refused for several hours. At the hospital, it was determined that the victim had suffered cerebral edema with a dangerously high level of glucose. Michael Cochran was pronounced dead 5 days later.
Months later, during the investigation and a search of the couple’s home, they found a vial of insulin. As a result, authorities exhumed Michael Cochran’s body for testing. According to prosecutors, Michael Cochran was unaware of his wife’s Ponzi scheme, and Natalie Cochran had injected him with a high dosage of insulin, which led to his death, to cover her secret. In addition, after Michael Cochran’s death, the defendant had arranged to sell half of Tactical Solutions Group for $ 4 million.
Six months into her 11-year sentence for federal wire fraud and money laundering, Natalie Cochran was indicted for murder.
"It would hurt a lot less for this to have been someone that I didn't know that had scammed me out of money. It would hurt a lot less knowing that I was already wounded from my husband passing away and my kids the same," said an investor, Toni McCall, reported ABC News.
Natalie Cochran is the first woman in West Virginia’s history convicted of murder not to receive a recommendation for mercy. Kirkpatrick ordered her to pay $2.5 million restitution to the victims.
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