This recent true crime case in South Carolina is grabbing headlines nationwide, and it contains enough twists and turns to make the world’s greatest mystery writers jealous.
What started out as a missing persons case has developed into a full-blown investigation into a suspected serial killer. A 13-year-old unsolved quadruple homicide case has seemingly been solved as well.
Just a couple of weeks ago, on November 3, authorities descended on a 95-acre property in Woodruff, South Carolina to search for missing 30-year-old Kala Brown and her boyfriend, Charles Carver. In investigating banging coming from a shipping container on the property, police discovered Brown chained up inside. Apparently, Brown had been kept isolated in the container ever since she and Carver had gone missing during Labor Day weekend, two months earlier.
Photo Credit: CBS News
After Brown was freed, she had quite a story to tell. Originally, she and Carver went to the isolated property to clear some land for the owner, a 45-year-old real estate agent named Todd Kohlhepp. Brown claims that, shortly after they arrived, Kohlhepp shot and killed Carver in front of her. She was then abducted and forcefully chained up in the shipping container on the property. Brown said she was kept prisoner in the dark container and fed once a day during her ordeal. She also said that Kohlhepp had taken her to see three graves on the property, telling her that, if she attempted to escape, she would join the dead and buried.
Police arrested Kohlhepp, but the story did not end there. Kohlhepp soon confessed that he was responsible for an unsolved quadruple homicide that occurred at a Superbike Motorsports in Chesnee, South Carolina in 2003. In the Superbike case, four people, aged 26-52, were murdered during business hours at the motorcycle shop. A number of suspects had been cleared in the case over the past 13 years, and the murders were considered cold – until Kohlhepp’s arrest.
Photo Credit: AP
Charles Carver’s body was indeed discovered in one of the graves that Kohlhepp had showed Kala Brown during her imprisonment on his property – but the other two bodies turned out to be a couple missing since December 2015.
It appears that Todd Kohlhepp is a serial killer.
Interestingly, Kohlhepp’s mother, Regina Tague, has opened up to the media in an attempt to shed light on her son’s actions since his arrest on November 3. Tague told 48 Hours that Kohlhepp murdered the four victims in 2003 because someone “made fun of him for trying to return a motorcycle.” As for Charles Carver? Tague said that Carver was shot because “he got nasty and smart mouthed.”
Photo Credit: AP
Digging into Kohlhepp’s past has led investigators down a disturbing path as well. When Kohlhepp was only 15-years-old in 1986, a 14-year-old female neighbor of his went missing in Tempe, Arizona. Police discovered that Kohlhepp had abducted the young girl at gunpoint and raped her. He was charged as an adult and spent 14 years behind bars. It was upon his release in 2001 that Kohlhepp relocated to South Carolina.
How many more murders is Todd Kohlhepp responsible for? It will be horrible and fascinating to watch as this grisly true crime saga continues to unfold.
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