In October 2014, 53-year-old Air Force veteran Christopher “Chris” Regan abruptly vanished, leaving not only the state of Michigan but the entire country perplexed to the core. He wasn’t one to just walk away from his life of discipline, hard work, and obligations after all, as extensively chronicled in ABC’s “20/20: Where Monsters Hide,” and it proved out to be true. Terri O’Donnell, his ex-girlfriend, had suspected his death ever since she became aware of his disappearance and reported it to the Iron River Police Department.
Who is Terri O’Donnell?
Chris reportedly met teacher Terri when he was still assigned to the KI Sawyer Air Force Base in Marquette, but their relationship quickly developed into much more. In fact, she was one of the main factors in his decision to settle in this adjacent small town after being released from active military, other from Iron River’s convenient access to the great outdoors. At that point, the couple started dating exclusively and even started to make plans for “a future together”; according to the latter, they were considering moving in together after moving to a completely other location.
When Terri realised her lover had two personalities—one that embodied charm, humour, and passion, and the other that had unwavering wandering eyes—things began to shift. She once admitted openly, “He decided that he was going to hook up with other ladies while I was [on vacation] in England. “He told me it wasn’t significant,” I didn’t understand that aspect because it was just sex and had nothing to do with his love or our relationship. Thus, it should come as no surprise that she decided to break up with him. However, the truth is that they remained close friends and communicated frequently; in fact, they had planned to spend Thanksgiving and Christmas together.
As a result, Terri reported Chris missing after not hearing from him for ten days straight after a text message he sent on Oc tober 14, 2014, claiming that this was exceedingly unusual. Since no one else had heard him, she had previously spoken to his coworkers and friends before going to his flat, where she discovered it to be “in ruins, it was a wreck, there was stuff scattered everywhere… He was no longer there; he had left. He disappeared. After seeing his car in the most implausible location—at the Park and Ride—given that he had just undergone knee surgery, she drove to the closest police station in a state of panic.
Where is Terri O’Donnell Now?
As one of Chris’ pals, Terri had heard rumours about his purported explicit relationship with married coworker Kelly Cochran, so she didn’t think twice to bring her up to the police. Though she and her then-husband Jason had killed him over the affair, she could never have anticipated that this woman would confess to being involved in his horrible murder over two years later before pointing authorities to his beheaded skull in the Upper Peninsula forests. Because he was genuinely “gone,” Terri’s silent desire for a happily ever after was dashed. We were never given the chance to test whether or not we could recreate things. Kelly removed that.
Naturally, Terri made sure to testify against Kelly in Chris’s first-degree murder case during her trial before making an impact statement on the day she was given a life sentence for the crime. She recalled, “I first saw her at the courts. “All I can think of is her looking at me and smiling. She was the scariest person I had ever seen, so I inhaled deeply. I was scared. For the remainder of my testimony, I was unable to look at her. Look at what I did, she seemed to be saying while giggling. I will not be stopped. She simply sat there beaming. It appeared to be the devil staring at you.
“After I testified, I lost it,” Terri continued. Insanely, I lost it. I can only recall travelling at a high speed and not knowing whether I had crossed the border. I wasn’t sure if I was in Michigan or Wisconsin. I was at a loss for what to do. I simply wanted to get away from Kelly as quickly as I could. There’s just no way that the first person you select to kill is going to be able to clean up the blood and get rid of the body so that FBI agents can’t extract DNA off the walls, she continued, adding that she doesn’t think Chris was the first person she killed. If that was the first murder you had ever committed, I don’t see how you could manage to do that.
Terri was happy that Chris had received the justice he deserved, but she was also saddened by the fact that she wasn’t ready for it. She had her suspicions after Chris went missing, but she never anticipated the savagery of his demise. In light of this, it seems as though the proud West Iron Public School teacher is merely making an effort to move on with life while still holding fond memories of her ex-husband close to her heart today.
