Wife murdered husband with lethal injection to cover up her terrible secret

Pharmacist and conwoman Natalie Cochran was seemingly living a life of luxury alongside her husband and two children, but time was running out for her – and her husband

For investors seeking money-making opportunities that were low risk but with high financial returns, pharmacist Natalie Cochran appeared to have all the answers.

She ran two technology solutions businesses in Beckley, West Virginia, that she revealed had lucrative multi-million dollar contracts with the government. With such a sure-fire stream of income, Cochran easily managed to persuade businesspeople, locals and even friends and family to hand over their money.

Starting in 2017, she attracted more than $2 million of investment over two years, with the promise that everyone would get big pay outs, but the reality was a very different story. It really was all too good to be true. Cochran, 44, was a mum-of-two and married to Michael, 38, who was also involved in the businesses.

They enjoyed a privileged life of holidays and luxury homes and Michael believed, like the investors, that more money was coming and it was only going to get better. But his wife was lying to everyone.

Cochran was running a Ponzi scheme, which is a type of investment fraud that pays investors with funds collected from new investors. Each time, she was promising to invest the money but was simply convincing more people to buy into her scheme, to pay earlier investors token amounts to keep them happy.

Cochran was spending the money to keep up with her lifestyle. Among other things, she bought two properties, jewellery and even a 1965 Shelby Cobra classic car that cost $37,500.

By late 2018, Cochran had original investors that needed paying and was struggling to get new ones. She had taken out high-interest loans to get the capital she needed to back up her claims that the businesses were thriving. For some unknown reason, she told her husband of 19 years that $245 million would becoming into their accounts any day now.

Investors believed the same and were expecting to get their share. But over the months, Cochran stalled and dodged questions, with excuses such as audits and delays due to the complexity of banking with such a large amount of capital. The truth was, the money didn’t exist.

On 6 February, Michael and his wife were due to fly to Lynchburg, Virginia, to visit a branch of the Bank of America. They had a meeting to set up an account that was suitable for such a large amount of cash, but on the morning of the private flight, Cochran sent a text to the aviation company and cancelled it, saying her husband was ill.

Michael had also messaged friends that morning to say he felt unwell and thought he might have caught what his wife had .Cochran, who was feeling better, sent a few people messages to say Michael was dizzy and throwing up.

Around noon, she sent a few people a picture of him passed out on the kitchen floor. Horrified, they insisted she get him to hospital, but Cochran said he didn’t like hospitals and that he would be OK if he “slept it off".

Eventually, a friend of Michael’s went to the house and insisted he was taken to hospital. Meanwhile, Cochrane showed no concern as she continued to work on contracts and make plans for bingo all while her husband lay dying in the hospital.

That night, doctors discovered he was extremely unwell, with unexplained dangerously low sugar levels that had damaged his brain and his organs.

He was intubated but, tragically, Michael passed away five days later. Everyone was shocked at his death. He was a fit and healthy man, who worked out and rode motorcycles.

At the time, Cochran told people and medical staff that Michael was addicted to steroids and took above the recommended doses of unregulated supplements. No one had any knowledge of that.

Michael was buried, with many unanswered questions, while his widow was left with the fallout of her fraudulent acts. Investigators uncovered what Cochran had been doing and she was charged with federal wire fraud and money laundering. In 2021, she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 11 years in prison. She was also ordered to pay nearly $2.6 million in restitution.

But investigators didn’t stop there. They were convinced Cochran had been involved in Michael’s death because she was trying to cover up the fraud.

Cochran was originally indicted on a first-degree murder charge in November2021, but this was dropped so they could exhume Michael’s body for advanced testing by a forensic pathologist.

Experts determined Michael had been killed by a lethal overdose of insulin that would have been injected into his body. A vial of insulin had been found at their home.

In October 2023, while behind bars, Cochran was charged with murdering Michael.

At the trial this year, the prosecution said Cochran had killed her husband to stop him finding out about her fraud. He’d started asking questions and was waiting for the money that was due to come inform the government contracts. They said Cochran was a pharmacist so she would know what it would take to kill Michael.

Time had been running out for her, so she either had to come clean or kill her husband to give herself more time. The defence argued that Michael had a substance abuse addiction, although no steroids were found in the house. They admitted Cochran was a “bad girl” who had engaged in financial crimes, but said that didn’t make her a killer.

They even insisted Michael knew about the fraud, so there was no need to kill him. But piecing together the events of 6 February, it was clear that Cochran had deliberately delayed getting him medical attention. She had even asked a friend to bring round a vial of insulin on 6 February, that the friend used for her diabetic son.

When Cochran was found guilty of first-degree murder, she burst into tears, knowing she faced a life sentence. Her mum and children pleaded for the chance of parole, but Michael’s mum and stepfather, Donna and Ed Bolt, said they wanted no mercy as she’d shown no mercy to Michael. She’d let him die when he could have got help and she showed no remorse.

Donna called her “thief, a liar, taker of life and a doer of evil deeds” and urged the judge not to “fall for her con”. The jury decided against the possibility of parole and the judge handed down the sentence that would keep Cochran behind bars forever. Cochran’s greed had done untold damage and turned her into a killer. She was cruel and, in turn, her punishment was unforgiving.