On June 16, I received the first email from an Uncovered Case Research Team informing me that my application had been received and on June 27, I received another email from them saying my case had been accepted. I was so excited. It said "Please let us know if you have information you are willing to share that might expedite this process." Did I have information I was willing to share? I sure did and I began immediately sending information.
On July 4, I received my first email from Cathie telling me what information they would need and on July 7, three days later, Cathie and I exchanged several emails. In one email she said "[Y]ou have done an exemplary job of sending information." She also asked if I had been in contact with any investigative agency recently. In another email on July 22 Cathie wrote "Your diligence is nothing short of amazing and you have done your son proud. We are doing what we can from our end." She said she had "another special question/request. Do you have any oil inspector reports?" I did have and sent several oil inspector's reports to her. She also asked "would it be possible for you to do a Zoom meeting with us when we are done looking at the materials?
On August 1, I received an email from Cathie asking if I would be available for a zoom call on August 11 at 2:00 pm. I responded and asked if my son, Shawn, could be included in the zoom meeting. And on August 5, I received 2 emails from Cathie. In the first one Cathie said that Shawn was welcome to attend the zoom meeting and that "two analysts, one arson investigator, an intern familiar with your case and me" would be included in the meeting. The second one said "You have amassed more information than we usually see and have afforded us the gift of being able to help. You can relax a little...we have your back." I could hardly wait to show Shawnee Cathie's email and tell him that I really believed that we had finally found an organization that was going to look into Mike's murder. OMG! On August 10, I received another email from Cathie with information for a zoom meeting that had been sent to her by Dean Jackson, Deputy Executive Director. August 13, two days after the zoom meeting another email from Cathie said "This is a great team, and I can assure you we are going to give it our all."
On September 4, I received an email from Hilary Rodela (Cathie was away and other members of Cold Case Foundation were taken care of Mike's murder case.) and he wrote "We are certainly putting our best foot forward on the case."
On Oct. 10, Cathie's email said "We are gathering our investigative paperwork together, based on the information you have provided to us." She also said "My respect for you is immense." The next day, I responded to Cathy's email telling her that her email meant a lot to me and thanking her for saying she had respect for me. On Oct. 30, I received an email from Cathie asking if Sean and I were available for a Zoom on November 10 at 12:30 EST to go over our investigation? The next day I emailed Cathie: "Just to say thank you. I so appreciate you and your organization. A 40-year dream of mine to find someone to look at Mike's case. "
On November 9, I had not heard from Cathie since Oct. 30 and the zoom meeting was scheduled for noon the next day. I first emailed her in the evening of Oct. 9 at 7:19 pm in the evening and then we exchanged a few emails concerning the date and time. On November 10, 2022, Shawn and I went to his office in the basement of his home shortly after 12:00 PM to wait for the CCF investigators to come on the computer screen for the zoom meeting scheduled for 12:30 pm This meeting had been scheduled to give Shawnee and I an update on their five month investigation of Mike’s murder. At 12:11 pm I received an email from Zack Scott saying that "Cathie wanted me to clarify that the meeting starts at 1 pm EST." I knew that was not the time she had written to me in her October 30 email. It confused me as to why she changed the time at the last minute. I was so nervous during the wait for the meeting to start and Zack's email intensified my nervousness. As I waited something didn't feel right. I had to ask for the link for the zoom meeting the evening before the scheduled meeting and now I was being told that the meeting time was extended. But I certainly never imagined what they were going to tell me. Cathie had been so kind and the supportive things she had written to me especially saying ("You can relax a little...we have your back.") caused me to believe that during Cold Case Foundation's investigation with professional investigators that they had at least uncovered some of the injustice that had happened in Mike's murder case.
November 10, there were five team members on the zoom meeting, there were Executive Director Dean Jackson, Arson Investigator Bryan Crumb, Advocacy/Case Management Supervisor Cathie Vallas McKinzie, and two others, a woman and a man. I don’t remember their names. The meeting started with Cathie saying they had never received the amount of information from another person that they received from me. She praised me for all the work I had done on Mike’s case and thanked me for all the documents I had sent to them.
Arson Investigator Bryan Crumb then gave a rundown of his arson investigation of Mike's death. He said that
My rebuttal to The Team's investigation is below:
First, I want to say that there were reporters who wrote articles about Mike's murder and they called Mike's death a murder. They did not report it as an accident.
December 28, 1986, John Lovell a reporter at the Maine Sunday Telegram, did an article titled Mother Haunted by Son's Murder, 5 years after Mike's murder. He did a run down of what had happened after Mike's murder up until 1986. November 29, 1991, Randy Wilson reporter at Maine Times did an article on Mike's murder titled Up Against the System, 10 years after his murder. Wilson reported that I had brought suit against Paul Daniel Pollard and my attorney walked out on me eleven days before trial to work for the Maine Attorney General's Office. Dec. 3, 2017, Eric Russell reporter at Maine Portland Press did another article titled This is My Struggle, 36 years later. He wrote that I had devoted more time to Mike's cold case murder than any of the many detectives assigned to it. And also reported that a Maine State Police Officer had told the paper that Mike's murder was a "travesty of justice."
"Kenneth MacMaster, a former Maine State Police detective who wasn’t assigned to the Cochran investigation but knew the victim and many of the people involved, agreed with the victim’s mother that the case was mishandled. In an interview last month, he called the case a “travesty of justice,” and said the details were etched into his memory. After MacMaster offered to share those details, though, he stopped returning a reporter’s calls and emails."I am also including a letter written to the Board of Overseers of the Bar by a defense attorney who represented a man indicted for Mike's murder and the problem the attorney had with the State's lead detective on Mike's murder.
I wrote a book in 2018 concerning spending half my life fighting for justice for my son Mike. A review of my book by Alice at Defrosting Cold Cases believed there was a cover-up in Mike's case. . There is also a video of just a Dog in Maine reporting Mike's murder and asking who will speak for Michael Cochran?
Det. Ralph Pinkham told me the first time I met him after Mike was murdered that Percy Sargent sent a phone call to have Mike taken care of and that Paul Pollard's brother, Lionel Cormier, killed Mike. Less than a month later he looked me in the face and said he didn't tell it to me. This was the beginning of the cover-up. But they ARE the men who killed Mike including Paul Pollard. But I have never found out why the state wouldn't investigate the men. They covered up for them.
So I was really hoping that Cold Case Foundation investigators would find out why the state refused to investigate the men who murdered Mike during their five month investigation. I was so anxious to speak with them while Shawn and I waited for 1:00 pm.
Crumb told Shawn and I that he was surprised to see that Mike’s body was found behind a door.
There is no information concerning Mike's body being found behind a door. When Maine State Police Cpl. Allen Jamison and 42-year veteran Fire Marshal William "Bill" Ricker arrived on the scene they found the cottage about burned down. A Photo of the burned cottage shows the cottage completely burned down. How could he say that! There is no evidence of Mike's body being found behind a door. During ME Dr. Roy's deposition he was asked by defense attorney Glazier If he noticed if the body was by a door way and Roy's response was "Well, I can't really say that I would recognize any doorways at that scene." I didn't ask Crumb if Mike had been found behind a door why that was so surprising to him. I know from all he said during the meeting that he was trying to say that it proved Mike wasn't murdered.
Crumb told Shawn and I the glass that was blown out was all jagged.
Maine State Police Cpl Allen Jamison stated that the glass was "even and not jagged" according to his report.
Crumb told Shawn and I that the fire caused the small piece that holds the hydraulic storm door open to be locked in an open position as well as the hinges to the outside door.
Fire inspector Ricker's testimony disputes Crumb's information. Ricker said the fire couldn't slide the little piece across to keep the storm door in the open position nor could the fire cause the hinges to the outside door to change. Maine State Police Allen Jamison's report also says that the door was propped open.
Crumb told Shawn and I that the gas cans sitting beside the burned down cottage were fuel for the oil furnace.
On July 25, 2022, Cathie wrote me asking "Were you able to find any oil inspector reports?" I sent many copies of oil inspector reports to Cathie. In December of 1980 there had been a fire in the small outside building that housed the oil fired hot water boiler. On the second page of an insurance investigator's reports it states that it was an oil fired hot water boiler. Not a gasoline furnace.
On Feb. 18, 1981, Fire Inspector Wilbur "Bill" Ricker was called to an arson fire at the cottage and found 3 gasoline cans sitting beside the burning cottage. He took 2 of the gas cans to be tested at the Maine Crime Lab on same day of the fire. After the cans were tested, Ricker took them home and stored them in his barn until Feb. 8, 1990, 9 years. The state investigators weren't interested in them. He also brought the gas cans to his deposition and they were exhibits during my law suit in US Federal court. The cans were left at the US Federal Court. The court contacted me asking me to pick them up. I had the gas cans for 12 years when a new detective, Gerald Coleman, was assigned Mike's homicide in 2002. He asked me for the gas cans and gave me a receipt for them. There were also a couple of Ricker's photos left at court that was given to me along with the gas cans.. One was a photo of a third can that he found on the ground below the back door with fire debris on and around the can.
Arson Investigator Crumb had read the many documents I sent the organization and the many documents on my website. How then could he say to me that Mike's death was an accident, the carpet in the cottage caused the fire and the gas cans were fuel for the oil furnace?. Deputy Executor Director Dean Jackson listened to this and didn't contradict Crumb.
Crumb laughs at me when he says "The cans you are holding you took from a barn.
In the information I sent Cold Case Foundation I sent a photo of myself holding the gas cans used in Mike's murder. Crumb said the photo of me holding the gas cans I took from a barn. I sharply responded "I did not! I got those cans from the United States Federal Courthouse." I felt like Crumb was laughing at me when he said "You got the cans from a barn." I had sent the CCF organization all my years of work on Mike's murder and now they were laughing at me. In Cathie's Oct. 10, 2022 email she said "My respect for you is immense." But now, one month later there was no respect for me. I was in shock.
Crumb told Shawn and I that the fire was an accident and that the carpeting on the floor in the cottage caused the fire.
I am showing four State of Maine documents that reported Mike's death as a homicide. The first document is a 2/19/1981 report on the gas cans Ricker took to the lab, it reports arson-homicide, the second is a 2/25/1981 Crime lab analyst report concerning the autopsy, it reports homicide and the third is a 3/6/1981 report on a gun found in the fire, it reports arson-homicide. The fourth is a 6/1/1981 cause of death supplement by Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Ronald Roy and it reports Mike's death as homicide. As for Crumb saying that carpeting would cause a severe fire because carpeting is like gasoline he didn't explain what caused the carpet to catch fire. He said when Pollard opened the back door it gave a draft for the fire. furthermore, Mike's death is listed as an unsolved Homicide on the State of Maine unsolved homicide website and is listed as murder on Cold Case Foundation's Uncovered website.
Crumb told Shawn and I the reason Pollard ran was because he had criminal charges against him and he was scared.
That is the same story the Maine Attorney General's Office has been telling me for 44 years except the state doesn't say Pollard had criminal charges they just say he was scared. Paul Pollard said he was scared when he woke to find the cottage on fire and when he heard the fire trucks coming he was scared of them so he ran into the woods away from them. Pollard was the only person in the cottage with Mike when he was murdered and Ricker didn't think a man fleeing into the woods away from a raging fire was normal. He said they usually run to them. I repeat what Cathie Vallas-McKinzie wrote me "You can relax a little ... we have your back." Cathie's Cold Case organization didn't have my back but the State of Maine did have Paul Pollard's back. Pollard didn't have to be scared. July 10, 1986, Det. Shuman under oath said he had to talk to County DA about Pollard not being prosecuted for Mike's murder. During Shuman's Aug. 29, 1986 testimony he committed perjury when he said he didn't arrest Pollard for reckless conduct (shooting 5 bullets into a family's home) that the Waterville Police arrested Pollard for a traffic fine and he also testified that he had no knowledge of the armed robberies until Paul Pollard told him about them. Attorney Harris showed him a transcribed conversation he had with a drug dealer and in it he told the dealer about the Dolan armed robberies. Shuman used armed robber Pollard to put Richard Sargent in prison for armed robberies but Pollard went free.
I believe the state covered for the murderers to cover for themselves. They did something wrong during their Feb. 18, 1981 DEA drug sting that caused Mike's murder and they needed to cover it up (i.e. trying to convict 3 innocent men for Mike's murder) and the murderers knew it. Cormier made a couple of comments to Richard Sargent during his and Richard's taped conversations concerning Det. Shuman's corrupt investigation of Mike's murder. In their conversation Cormier said to Richard "Now you tell me he is not in on it."
Feb. 20, 1986Crumb told Shawn and I that the blood near the woods wasn’t tested and that it could have been from someone else.
Cormier: We know more about this thing than anybody else. Seems, we definitely know more about it than the pigs.
Richard: I don’t know, I think they’re on to something now, though...
Cormier: What can I say, every man for himself here, right. Going to have to turn state evidence against him. Now how is he going to say, he’s ...little a** hole unless, Shuman, you know, Shuman, he’d do anything to bust us on this one. ...You know that more than I ... he stepped over the line to try and bust you.
Richard: Really, you know, intimidating witnesses, bribery. Tampering with witnesses.
Cormier:: "Now you tell me he’s not in on it?"
Richard: So you think Paul’s going to do it?
Cormier:: He’s going to spill his guts, that’s what my lawyer says. ... now if he spills his guts that means everything. Murder, robberies, everything.
Richard: How else can he get around that murder except for putting it on you?
Cormier: Can’t blame it on Cochran. He’s the f****** simpleton that got wasted.
June 4, 1986
Cormier: ...Well the whole thing is if I do go to court on the aggravated assault I’ll get five years. That’s for everything.
Richard: Is that what she said?
Cormier:: Yup. Not Christopher Almy, the f******, the Attorney General here. Tom Goodwin. I’ll sing like a f****** bird.
Richard:: Think they’ll be able to convict him of murder.
Cormier: I don’t know. I don’t think so but you know what it is f****** everybody’s got egg on their face from this f****** Cochran thing. And they’ll do anything, anything Dick. Anything to f****** do it in.
David Dupray, co-owner of the cottage, told me that there was blood outside the cottage near the wooded area. The sleazebags involved in Mike's murder talked about Mike being shot. Richard Sargent (not involved) brother to Percy Sargent (man who sent call to have Mike taken care of) gave me tape recording of his conversations with Lionel Cormier (man Det. Ralph Pinkham told me killed Mike). Richard knew Cormier was guilty and he recorded their conversations. The first conversation was recorded on Feb. 20, 1986. During this conversation Cormier told Richard "[Pollard] Grabs a gun and comes out and wastes him. Flips out that he did it, goes out gets the gas, comes in burns the place down, then splits, waits until the place is burned so bad before he leaves." Mike's brother, Derry, recorded a conversation he had with Percy while Percy was in prison for rape. He asked Percy if Mike was shot and Percy said he believed so.
Richard also recorded a conversation with his brother, Percy, on April 14, 2086 six days after Percy wrote his April 8, 1986 letter to me. Percy told his brother that Cormier was at the cottage before Mike's death. "What I understood [is] that Cormier had been there and talked to Cochran and Cochran was trying to get him to take him down out of the camp too and he wouldn’t say too much about it. But he was down there I guess, before the fire. … but someone went down there cause Cormier was down there. … It was just that Lionel had come down there to pick him [Pollard] up and Cochran wanted to go with them. Cochran went no place with nobody."
Crumb told Shawn and I that Mike was on drugs.
Arson Investigator Bryan Crumb said Mike was on drugs. The chemist report reports that Mike's alcohol level at .01 gms/100 ml and 46 % carbon monoxide. The report states that there was Cocaine and nicotine in the blood but does not give a level." I know Mike did drugs but what did Mike being on drugs have to do with Crumb's accidental fire? Crumb doesn't mention the criminals who were drug dealers and had serious criminals records. Percy was in prison for rape and Lionel Cormier beat a man leaving him with broken ribs, facial bones and cut ear off. Paul Pollard named in nearly all the material I sent to the investigation team. Mike lost his life. Why did Crumb find it necessary to denigrate Mike and not the armed robbers?
Crumb told Shawn and I that the fire was an accident and all hearsay with no proof.
In Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Roy's deposition he listed manner of death as homicide. September 5, 2006, I received a letter from Deputy Attorney General William Stokes that said "I understand that you spoke to Mary Farrar, one of the Victim Advocates in our office, regarding the case involving the homicide of your son, Michael. Another letter from Stokes on September 14, 2006, Stokes said "Detective Coleman is one of the finest detectives in the Maine State Police and I know that he is strongly committed to the unsolved case involving your son Michael. I know that you have suffered greatly by losing your son, and I also know that you have been persistent in your efforts to make sure that the police and the prosecutors involved in this case do not forget that your son was, in fact, murdered." Why would the Cold Case investigators, especially Crumb, tell me that Mike's death was an accident and all hearsay with no proof?
Crumb told Shawn and I that the arson investigators didn’t do a good job of investigating the fire.
I sat in shock while Crumb, with only his face on Shawn's computer screen, disputed all the evidence the fire investigators had found at the arson scene and told Shawn and I that his investigation revealed that it was not arson that it was an accident and that the investigators didn't do a good job of investigating the fire.
How dare Cold Case Foundation investigators denigrate 32 year veteran Fire Chief Norman Herrin and 43 year veteran Inspector Wilbur Ricker didn't do a good job investigating the arson. They were great men and well respected. They testified in US Federal Court about their investigation of the arson and the Bangor Daily News reported a limited amount of their testimony. The BDN reported Herrin testified "During Monday's testimony, retired Lucerne Fire Chief Norman Herrin, the first fire fighter at the scene, testified he saw a person 'walking rapidly' away from the cabin and 'in the act of what we might call wiping his hands.''" Fire Inspector Wilbur Ricker's assistant Maine State Police Cpl. Allen Jamison was with Ricker at the arson scene the day Mike's body was found. He "described finding Cochran's body on top of some glass fragments and pieces of clean carpet in the front part of the cabin. 'I think the individual was in this position when the fire started.'" Fire Inspector Wilbur Ricker testified "{H}e found tracks in the woods near the cabin made by someone wearing two boots. Ricker identified two gas cans found at the arson scene. The obituary of Fire Chief Norman Herrin and Fire Inspector Wilbur Ricker tells of their many years of experience.
Eric Russell reporter with Maine Portland Press did an article in 2017 on my work on Mike's case titled "This is My Struggle." He wrote that I "had devoted more time" to Mike's cold case murder "than any of the many detectives assigned to it."
I can not understand how anyone as knowledgeable as Dean Jackson according to his webpage he has "30 years of experience working in both the non-profit world and Law Enforcement." And "has an extensive list of credentials and thousands of hours of experience in Cold Case Homicide Investigation," would allow Cold Case Foundation's Arson Investigator Bryan Crumb to tell an elderly mother who had worked for 41 years trying to get justice for her murdered son and the many newspaper articles written concerning Mike's murder and Superior court and US District Court cases I attended concerning Mike's murder were all something I imagined. And tp top it all of Did they not wonder how their story would affect me?
Crumb told me that I need to move on and find something else to do with my life.
After Crumb was finished telling Shawn and I what his investigation revealed, Cathie then demonstrated by reaching way out to the right and then out to the left with both arms while saying “we tried to put it all together but it didn’t fit.” The last one to speak was Deputy Executor Director Dean Jackson. He also said that Mike's death was an accident and then said that I needed to move on and find something else to do with my life. I will never forget those words! I contacted their organization for help in finding out why the people who murdered Mike were allowed to walk free and their response to me was that it was an accident and that I need to move on and find something else to do with my life. I believe the story they told me about my son's death was very, very insulting and cruel. I was so shocked that I was unable to answer them. The only time I remember responding was when Crumb said "you took those gas cans from a barn." I said "I DID NOT! I got those cans from the United States Federal Courthouse in Bangor." He didn't answer me.
After they disappeared off Shawn's computer screen I just sat in my chair and couldn't move or speak. Shawnee reached over and held me in his arms. We finally left his office. I knew Shawnee was hurting for me. He was only 9 years old when Mike was murdered and he has lived with a mother that has never found closure in the death of his brother. I knew my spirit was broken and it would take time for me to work on Mike's case again.
Deputy Executive Director Dean L. Jackson has an extensive list of credentials and thousands of hours of experience in Cold Case Homicide Investigations
Cold Case Foundation website lists Dean Jackson as their Deputy Executive Director and tells of his "30 years of experience working in both the non-profit world and Law Enforcement. He has an extensive list of credentials and thousands of hours of experience in Cold Case Homicide Investigation, Critical Incident Stress Management, Death Notification and Autopsies." And it also says "Dean is the author of Notifications, Delivering an Offensive Message in the least Offensive Manner.
Dean has more than 30 years of experience working in both the non-profit world and Law Enforcement. He has an extensive list of credentials and thousands of hours of experience in Cold Case Homicide Investigation, Critical Incident Stress Management, Death Notification and Autopsies. He has debriefed first responders after numerous critical incidents including fatal accidents, suicides, officer-involved shootings, homicides, sexual assaults, equivocal deaths, and officer deaths. He has personally performed hundreds of Death Notifications
Dean is currently the Deputy Executive Director of the Cold Case Foundation, a member of the Utah Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM) team, and accredited instructor for the International Critical Incident Stress Foundation. Dean is also a certified mediator with the State of Utah. He is a violent crime specialist and he continues to provide training for law enforcement agencies on homicide, missing persons, unidentified bodies and sexual assault cold cases investigations, stress management and death notifications.
Dean is a frequent guest lecturer at universities, law enforcement and fire agencies, victim assistant units, state Peace Officer Standards Training (POST). He provides training for the federally mandated Operation Lady Justice Presidential Task Force on Missing and Murdered American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Dean is the author of: Death Notifications, Delivering an offensive Message in the least Offensive Manner (2013).
He took part in the 2019 NETFLIX five-part docuseries The Confession Killer an American true crime documentary. The plot revolves around the 1983 case of Henry Lee Lucas who confessed to over 200 murders in the United States. Years after his admissions, they turned out to be lies.
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