A missing South Carolina woman was found chained in a metal storage container after she disappeared two months ago. Her boyfriend, who disappeared from their shared apartment the same day, was killed by her kidnapper, the woman told police.
Investigators found 30-year-old Kala Brown chained by her neck in a 30-by-15-foot storage container owned by her employer on Thursday, FOX Carolina reported. A sex crimes tip led them to the shipping container on a rural property owned by Todd Kohlhepp, a registered sex offender, where they heard banging from inside the metal crate. Kohlhepp is a real estate agent, and Brown reportedly worked for him cleaning houses. Kohlhepp was arrested for kidnapping. But Brown said Kohlhepp also murdered her boyfriend Charlie Carver, who went missing with her in August.
Brown told police that she watched Kohlhepp shoot and kill Carver, a spokesperson for South Carolina's Spartanburg County Prosecutor told The Daily Beast. A body was recovered from Kohlhepp's property on Friday, although it has not yet been identified, the spokesperson said. Carver's car, which had been missing since he disappeared, was discovered nearby, WYFF reports.
ADVERTISEMENT
Brown allegedly told police that up to four bodies might be buried on the property.
"She said that there are four people buried on this property," Sheriff Chuck Wright told WYFF. "I don’t know if that’s true or not, but we will stay here as long as it takes to make sure that what she said is true or not true."
Investigators are overturning the 100-acre property with a backhoe and cadaver dogs. Guns and ammunition were also discovered on the property.
"We’re trying to make sure we don’t have a serial killer on our hands," Wright told WYFF, calling it "very possibly could be what we have."
Kohlhepp was convicted of a 1987 kidnapping, public records show. A real estate agent, Kohlhepp had access to multiple rural properties including the overgrown lot where Brown was discovered in a storage unit. One of Brown’s friends told the Anderson Independent Mail that Brown worked for Kohlhepp cleaning houses before he showed them for sale.
Brown and Carver disappeared under unusual circumstances in August. Carver’s car vanished from outside their apartment, where their door was left unlocked. Inside, their dog had been left without food or water, and the couple’s medications were still on the property. Their phones went dead, or were turned off.
But to the horror of the couple’s friends, Carver’s Facebook page remained active, posting cryptic messages about the couple.
One ominous post featured an old picture of the couple with the caption “‘we are fine,’” Brown’s friend Lindsey Mayson told The Daily Beast last month, “which is not him. His Facebook posts have been hacked. It’s not him posting.”
Family members told FOX that Brown and Carver had been friends with Kohlhepp after meeting online, although he does not appear to be Facebook friends with Brown. Carver’s Facebook was deleted following months of suspicious activity.
On his own Facebook, Kohlhepp appeared to comment on Brown and Carver’s disappearance.
“Reading the news.. this person missing, that person missing, another person missing.. oh wait.. that person just went to beach with friend, other person found with her parole violation boyfriend,” Kohlhepp wrote on September 15, apparently dismissing the disappearances.
“In the event I become missing, please note no one would take me… most likely if I am missing, its because my dumb ass did something on that tractor again and I am too stubborn to go to the doctor… I got 9 lives.. I aint done yet.”
