Topics: US News, Crime, True crime, News
WARNING: This article contains material that some might find distressing
Shocking footage shows the moment a woman who was kidnapped by a serial killer and 'chained up like a dog' is freed by the police.
Kala Brown is a survivor in every sense of the word. Her ordeal began in 2016 when she and her boyfriend, Charlie Carver, visited the property of Todd Kohlhepp.
Brown, who was 30 at the time, had carried out some work for Kohlhepp's real estate business and so she had no hesitations when she and Carver were asked to visit his South Carolina home to help clear some underbrush.
Advert
What no one knew back then was that 45-year-old Kohlhepp had killed seven people.
When authorities finally caught up with the murderer, no one was prepared for what they'd be faced with.
After the couple went to the property, friends and family grew increasingly concerned that they weren't returning their texts or calls.
Their worries were only heightened when a Facebook account claiming to be Carver started sharing strange updates about the pair on Facebook, insisting that they were fine and living happily together.
After they were reported missing, police got to work trying to figure out where they had gone, and were able to find messages in which Brown and Kohlhepp discussed the job.
Officers obtained a search warrant for Kohlhepp's 96-acre land. When they began searching, they heard banging coming from a shipping container.
Disturbing body cam footage shows the moment officers busted open the metal container to find Brown inside with a chain and padlock tied around her neck. She had been held hostage inside there for 65 days.
During this time, she was sexually assaulted every day, and Kohlhepp also showed her graves of his victims, telling her: "Kala, if you try to escape you’re going directly into one of those graves."
She was forced to stay on two thin dog beds while surviving on crackers and peanut butter.
Following her rescue, Spartanburg County sheriff Chuck Wright said in a press conference: "I want to thank God for allowing us to find a missing person from Anderson city who was in a container chained up like a dog.
"We found her alive and she’s being treated at a medical facility right now. It’s tragic that this person was being treated like that."
When police asked Brown about her 33-year-old partner, she explained: "He shot him. Todd Kohlhepp shot Charlie Carver three times in the chest.
"He wrapped him in a blue tarp, put him in the bucket of the tractor, locked me down here, I’ve never seen him again."
At the property police found three bodies - Carver's, as well as a man named Johnny Joe Coxie, 29, and his wife, Meagan Leigh McCraw Coxie, 25.
Once arrested, Kohlhepp admitted to killing four more people who were found dead at Superbike Motorsports.
The victims included the motorcycle shop owner Scott Ponder, 30, his mother Beverly Guy, 52, service manager Brian Lucas, 29, and mechanic Chris Sherbert, 26.
In 2017, Kohlhepp, who is a registered sex offender, was given seven life sentences plus 30 years after he pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of criminal sexual assault.
