A Daniels woman who is serving a sentence in federal prison for operating a $2.5 million Ponzi scheme is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Raleigh County Circuit Court for a first-degree murder charge in the February 2019 death of her husband.
Natalie Cochran, 40, is expected to attend the hearing remotely from Federal Correctional Institute-Hazelton in Bruceton Mills, W.Va., where she has been serving an 11-year sentence since May 1 after pleading guilty in 2020 to one count each of wire fraud and money laundering.
Following a lengthy investigation by West Virginia State Police investigators Lt. Timothy Bledsoe and Bob Hinzman, Raleigh Prosecuting Attorney Ben Hatfield brought a state charge against Cochran in December accusing her of murdering 38-year-old Michael Cochran, Natalie’s high school sweetheart.
The couple had two children together.
Michael Cochran passed away on Feb. 11, 2019, at Bowers Hospice House. He had become seriously ill at home on Feb. 6, 2019, after he had made plans to investigate the reason that his mother and stepfather had not seen returns on their investments in a business that he and his wife ran and was later found to have been fraudulent.
Hatfield did not issue a criminal complaint with a narrative that details the charge against the defendant. Instead, he…
