Cochran Arrested, Accused of Defrauding Banks from WA to Maine

Drifter and reputed fraudster Andrea Cochran, who last spring allegedly made off with tens of thousands of dollars purloined from Washingtonians' bank accounts, is in custody - on the opposite end of the country.

KPQ previously reported on Cochran's alleged doings in Chelan County. According to detectives here, she used a doctored passport to withdraw over $10,000 from an unsuspecting Cashmere Valley Bank account holder.

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Cochran repeated the theft at a CVB branch in Cle Elum, detectives say. She went on to defraud bank locations in Centralia, Everett and elsewhere.

The brazen fraudster made no effort to conceal her identity. Her face was captured with crystalline precision by bank surveillance cameras.

But Cochran evaded arrest until June, when she reportedly bilked at least two banking establishments in Southern Maine. Police in the tiny Portland suburb of Windham confiscated her passport - the passport - and soon Cochran was remanded into federal custody.

The sunken, sad-eyed Cochran, who apparently holds a Texas driver's license, told Windham PD that she was unhoused and had a history of addiction.

Josh Mathena, an investigator with the Chelan County Sheriff's Office, vowed in May to pursue state-level theft and forgery (and identity theft) charges. It's not clear if Cochran's detainment on a federal warrant changes anything; we are awaiting comment from Mathena.