South Carolina Serial Killer Todd Kohlhepp, 46, was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences in May this year for killing seven people and keeping Kala Brown chained up in a storage container. The Metro reported that he "pleaded guilty two weeks ago to avoid the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison." After several Freedom of Information requests hundreds of records, including video footage, were released by the 7th Judicial Circuit Solicitor's Office.
Couple believed they were working for the South Carolina serial killer
Kohlhepp, a real estate agent in South Carolina, owned a 95-acre property close to Woodruff.
Brown and her boyfriend, Charles David Carver went missing from their Anderson home on August 31 after going to Kohlhepp’s property where they believed they were going to work to help him clear and clean it.
The serial killer was taken into custody in November after officers searching his property heard Brown banging on the inside of a storage container on his property. She had been kept chained up as a prisoner and sexually abused for more than two months.
Officers open the metal storage container and discover Brown chained inside
In the disturbing video included below, officers can be seen walking up to a metal storage container on Kohlhepp’s Woodruff property. After breaking the lock on the container, officers enter and make their way through the container.
They discover Brown, chained up on a bed at the back of the container. Brown was chained to make her movement limited and this included a chain attached to her neck. The video shows a table next to her with a plastic container and two books.
Brown tells the officers that her neck is attached to the wall and one officer says they are getting bolt cutters to free her.
Another officer asks Brown where Carver is. Brown tells the officers that Kohlhepp had shot Carver in the chest. She says it was soon after this that the serial killer locked her up in the container and she never saw Carver again.
Serial killer takes officers to shallow graves of victims
As reported by the Metro, after discovering Brown in the storage container, Kohlhepp took the investigators to the shallow grave where Brown’s boyfriend, Carver, had been buried.
The killer then took them to the spot where he had buried a husband and wife team, Johnny Coxie, 29, and Leigh McCraw-Coxie, 26, who disappeared in December 2015 from Spartanburg.
The couple, like Brown and her boyfriend, had been lured to the serial killer’s property when he offered them work. As with Brown, the killer initially locked McCraw-Coxie in the container. However, he admitted killing her several days later when she attempted to burn the container after he had given McCraw-Coxie cigarettes.
As noted by USA Today, the serial killer then went on to confess to the 2003 killings of four employees at Superbike Motorsports in Chesnee. The killings of Chris Sherbert, Brian Lucas, Beverly Guy and Scott Ponder had remained unsolved until Kohlhepp confessed to the investigators in November.
A separate video shows Kohlhepp confessing to the Superbike Motorsports murders, saying he had “cleared the building” in less than 30 seconds.
In the video footage released, Kohlhepp can be seen speaking at length about the weapons he used in the killings and which he believed worked the best. He even asked officers whether they believed Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump would win the U.S. president election, due to happen a few days later.
Seven consecutive life sentences for serial killer
After pleading guilty on May 26 to the murders of seven people and keeping Brown chained up in a storage container, Kohlhepp received seven consecutive life sentences. On top of those sentences, he received a further 60 years for kidnapping and sexually assaulting Brown and other offenses.
The serial killer remains incarcerated in the maximum security Kirkland Correctional Institution in Columbia.
