Sex offender who chained up woman killed at least seven, say police
Todd Kohlhepp confesses to shooting four people in South Carolina and shows police graves of two others on his property
A South Carolina man killed at least seven people in a hidden crime spree that lasted more than a decade and only was uncovered when police rescued a woman chained at the neck in a storage container, authorities said.
Todd Kohlhepp accepted responsibility for an unsolved massacre in which four people were killed, one day before the 13th anniversary of the deaths that stumped authorities, said Sheriff Chuck Wright, who was first elected a year after the murders.
On Sunday, relatives of those killed in the massacre gathered in a Spartanburg courtroom. They sat a few feet away from Todd Kohlhepp, 45, as he was denied bond on the murder charges. It was their first chance to face the man accused of killing their loved ones.
After the hearing, magistrate judge Jimmy Henson thanked the families for their civility and composure. I know theres a lot of hurt … beyond what a lot of people understand, he said.
Authorities have charged Kohlhepp with four counts of murder in the 2003 deaths at the Superbike Motorsports motorcycle shop in Chesnee. Kohlhepps alleged role in those killings was uncovered, authorities said, after a woman was found last week chained in a locked metal container on Kohlhepps property in rural Woodruff.
The murder charges against Kohlhepp represent welcome progress for investigators and families haunted by the slayings at the motorcycle shop. The killings shocked the state and left the victims parents and spouses reeling with each new rumor about a possible motive.
We got em today. We got em today, Sheriff Wright said, referring to answers in the cold case. Im rejoicing that this community can know that four people who were brutally murdered, theres no wondering about it anymore.
A Spartanburg County sheriffs investigative report from Saturday said Kohlhepp confessed to investigators that he shot and killed the owner, service manager, mechanic and bookkeeper of the motorcycle shop, giving details only the killer would know.
Now, investigators fear they will make more disturbing discoveries as they unwind a hidden crime spree that unfolded over more than a decade. Kohlhepp is also charged with the womans kidnapping, and prosecutors say more charges are expected. Authorities say Kohlhepp is a suspect in at least three other deaths.
Authorities were searching again on Sunday on the suspects 95-acre Woodruff property. Wright said Kohlhepp had shown investigators where he says he buried two other victims there.
Those are in addition to the body found on Friday at the site. Authorities identified that victim as 32-year-old Charles Carver, the boyfriend of the woman found on Thursday. Carver, who died of multiple gunshot wounds, went missing with the woman at the end of August.
The Associated Press is not naming the woman because the suspect is a sex offender, though authorities have not said whether she was sexually assaulted.
In Spartanburg, Kohlhepp appeared in an orange jumpsuit for the brief bond hearing and declined to make a statement. He did not have an attorney. After Kohlhepp left the courtroom, Henson told the family members they would have a chance later to address Kohlhepp in court.
When it comes your time to speak to that defendant, speak from the heart, he said. You have something to say. Youve been waiting 13 years to say it.
The father of Brian Lucas, the 29-year-old service manager who died at the motorcycle shop, thanked the judge.
Your honor, I appreciate your words to us and your counsel, Tom Lucas said as two others put their hands on his shoulders. We thank you. Standing with his wife before the hearing, Lucas said he wanted to be in court to look Kohlhepp in the eye.
I want to look at him, and I want to try to use that in healing, he said.
He and his wife, Lorraine, said there was a vigil on Friday night to mark the anniversary of the killings, and gatherings were a regular occurrence over the years.
Before Kohlhepp emerged as a suspect, investigators said all four victims were killed with the same pistol. They have theorized that the killer came in the back and killed mechanic Chris Sherbert, 26, as he worked.
Bookkeeper Beverly Guy, 52, was found just outside the bathroom, in the middle of the showroom. Thirty-year-old shop owner Scott Ponder was found just outside the door, in the parking lot. He was Guys son. Brian Lucas was in the doorway of the shop.
Kohlhepp was released from prison in Arizona in 2001. As a teenager, he was convicted of raping a 14-year-old neighbor at gunpoint and threatening to kill her siblings if she called police.
Kohlhepp had to register as a sex offender. But that didnt stop him from getting a South Carolina real estate license in 2006, building a firm and maintaining the appearance of normalcy.
Melissa Ponder, who was married to Scott Ponder, said detectives told her Kohlhepp was an angry customer who had been in the motorcycle shop several times. She said that she had resigned herself to Scott Ponders death remaining unsolved until she got a phone call on Saturday evening from detectives.
It isnt closure, but it is an answer, Ponder said by phone. And I am thankful for that.
Another grieving relative who came to the hearing, Terry Guy, was Scott Ponders stepfather and Beverly Guys husband. He said Kohlhepps arrest means relatives of the victims can now finally be at peace.
Im just so relieved, Guy said.
The building that housed the shop is now shuttered and surrounded by a chain-link fence, along a two-lane highway leading toward the Blue Ridge Mountains. Two miles away in downtown Chesnee, Danny Lee said the killings rattled his quiet hometown of about 900 residents. The 52-year-old knew the victims and had a bike in the shop for repairs at the time.
He said he did it. Weve got to take his word for it, he said of the suspect. What I still want to know is why.