Wyoming Suicide: Rock Springs Teen Screamed He Wanted To Die, Then Made It Happen

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This is not the story I needed to read today.

Wyoming Suicide: Rock Springs Teen Screamed He Wanted To Die, Then Made It Happen

The mother of a Rock Springs teen said she desperately tried to get help for her tormented son, even as he refused it. He would scream he wanted to die, until the day he made it happen.

Zakary Sonntag
June 21, 2025
11 min read


Joran Cochran smiles for a photo with his dog Apollo. (Courtesy Kari Cochran)

Editor’s note: This story deals with suicide, mental illness and subjects some may find disturbing. Read at your discretion.

Joran Cochran was a sociable kid, sometimes too sociable for his own good.
His middle school teachers moved him around like a chess piece to stop him from talking to friends during class. But it hardly fixed the issue, because Cochran made friends with everyone they put him next to. … “I remember one of his teachers called me to say she had to move him three times in the same class,” said his mother, Kari Cochran, born and raised in Rock Springs. “He would make friends in any situation that he was in. He was so social and he just really liked people.”

That outsized personality paired well with his bouncy mop of brown curly hair and sky-blue eyes. Though it stood in contrast to his figure: when he entered Rock Springs High School standing 4-foot-11 and weighing 95 pounds, making him among the smallest students in his class.

What he lacked in stature he made up for with a competitive nature, especially in contact sports like wrestling. … As his teammates were cutting weight for advantage, he was bulking up simply to meet the minimum weight, which paid off when he won the status of a freshman letterman.

Even so, his small size was a source of insecurity as well as a point of belittlement from his peers and coaches, his mother said. … Kari Cochran said her son was the victim of pervasive verbal and physical disparagement that compounded his mental health and set him down a path to self-harm. That path reached its end point Feb. 3, 2023, the day 18-year-old Joran took his own life.

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