In a chilling scene in February 2019, Natalie Cochran was forced to rush her husband, Michael, to a hospital in West Virginia as he battled for survival.
Assistant prosecutor Ashley Acord recounted during a July 19 episode of Oxygen’s Snapped that Michael’s blood glucose level had plummeted to a perilously low 21, a situation she described as critical. “Such levels can lead to a coma, depriving the brain of oxygen, with death being a probable consequence,” she explained.
After being placed on a ventilator, Michael remained in a fragile state for nearly a week before doctors declared him brain-dead, leading to his transfer to hospice where he eventually passed away. Despite the absence of an autopsy, his passing was chalked up to natural causes.
However, the cause of death didn’t sit right. At 38, Michael was a vibrant father deeply invested in bodybuilding, making his sudden demise all the more baffling. It wasn’t until much later that the true circumstances began to emerge.
Who Were Natalie Cochran and Michael Cochran?
The pair shared a history that stretched back to high school, with Natalie serving as a retail pharmacist while Michael ran an IT business. Yet, despite their achievements, their aspirations extended far beyond.
In 2017, the couple started Tactical Solutions—a company managed largely by Natalie—that bought and sold government contracts. The business quickly took off and, before long, they were buying homes, cars and taking lavish vacations.
But after Michael’s death, the couple’s finances came under scrutiny.
“A lawyer in Beckley had approached me about an investment that he had made with Natalie Cochran,” private investigator James Quesenberry told Snapped. “He was concerned that he wasn’t going to receive his money back.”
That $40,000 transaction wasn’t the only payment in question—investigators soon identified other frustrated clients of Tactical Solutions awaiting payment.
“There were all sorts of excuses as to why those promises couldn’t be fulfilled,” Raleigh County Prosecutor Tom Truman told Snapped. “Natalie would blame the bank for not transferring the money as promised.”
But when investigators could not find records showing Tactical Solutions had ever secured a government contract, they suspected that Natalie was committing fraud.
The discovery triggered two separate investigations: One into Michael’s death and the other into the couple’s finances.
Natalie Cochran’s Secrets Are Exposed
When detectives interviewed family friends Stephanie and John Hamilton, they learned a lot about the Cochrans.
For starters, one month before Michael fell ill, Natalie revealed that she had cancer.
“I was devastated for her,” recalled Stephanie. “She’s got young kids.”
So, when Natalie contacted the Hamiltons on Feb. 6 to report that Michael had collapsed at home, they rushed over to help.
Michael appeared to be sleeping on the couch and Natalie explained that he had a seizure. However, when John insisted on calling an ambulance, Natalie declined.
“She said, ‘I’m going to let him sleep it off—this is what he does whenever he has seizures,’” John told Snapped. “You’re thinking, ‘I really don’t think this is the best idea,’ but it’s her husband.”
According to the Hamiltons, Natalie waited eight hours before bringing Michael to the emergency room—a detail that alarmed investigators.
“It seems like she was delaying care for him,” retired West Virginia State Police Lieutenant Tim Bledsoe recalled. “But why would you do that? Then your gut sinks because you’re thinking, ‘Man, that’s pretty cold-blooded.”
But Natalie had an explanation.
Michael hated hospitals after a prior health scare that doctors initially attributed to a brain tumor before diagnosing him with seizures, she told investigators. According to Natalie, Michael was furious about the time and money he had spent on doctors and vowed to not visit a hospital again.
Natalie also suggested that Michael had died of an overdose from a mystery supplement he was taking to build muscle.
“She stated that after Michael had passed away, she found this bottle in a medicine cabinet which was labeled as enclomiphene citrate,” Acord said. “She didn’t know what it was. She said he got it on a trip to Mexico.”
Three months after Michael’s death, both investigations accelerated after police found two pieces of evidence in the Cochran home.
First, a contract indicated that Natalie was attempting to sell half of Tactical Solutions for millions—a sign to investigators that she wanted to offload the business before fraud allegations came to light.
They also found a small vial of insulin with a single puncture, buried under a stack of candy bars in her refrigerator.
“How many of us that don’t have [diabetes] have insulin in our refrigerators?” said Truman. “Not many.”
Natalie told investigators that she was storing the insulin for a neighbor’s diabetic child. The neighbor confirmed giving the insulin to Natalie but said it was supposed to regulate Natalie’s high blood sugar caused by her cancer treatments.
When police requested Natalie’s medical records, there was no evidence she had ever been treated for cancer.
“Who lies about that?” said Bledsoe. “If you’re capable of that, is it hard to believe you’re capable of killing your husband?”
Police Exhume Michael Cochran’s Dead Body
Seven months after Michael’s death, police obtained a court order to exhume his body, hoping an autopsy could determine whether he had been murdered.
“At that point, Michael was already pretty severely decayed,” noted Acord. “His cause and manner of death were ruled undetermined and undeterminable.”
With the murder case stalled, investigators could only pursue their financial case, and Natalie was arrested for wire fraud and money laundering. In September 2020, she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Meanwhile, police were determined to solve Michael’s sudden death. They searched Natalie’s phone, uncovering thousands of messages in which she made excuses to investors about their missing money.
It was also clear that Michael was starting to catch on to his wife’s activities.
“The night before Michael collapsed, he was getting so outraged that the money was not coming,” said Truman, “because Natalie had been telling him that they have hundreds of millions of dollars.”
In fact, on the morning of his death, Michael had booked plane tickets for him and Natalie to meet with bank officials.
“At that point, the Ponzi scheme ends,” noted Truman. “She had to do anything she could to prevent the meeting.”
According to authorities, Natalie canceled the flight and instead delivered a fatal injection of insulin to her husband.
In November 2021, Natalie—still in prison—was indicted for murder. A second autopsy later concluded that Michael’s death was a homicide caused by an insulin injection.
During the three-week trial in January 2025, Natalie’s defense argued that if she had injected Michael with insulin, he could have easily fought her off.
The jury, however, found Natalie guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
