South Carolina Serial Killer
> How Many Has He Killed? Police Find a SECOND Body on South Carolina 'Serial Killer's' 95-acre Farm as Search for More Expands to Properties Across the US
- Investigators have found a second body on Todd Kohlhepp's farmland
- Haven't identified the remains unearthed in Woodruff, South Carolina
- Another body found on the land has been identified as Charlie Carver's
- Kohlhepp is accused of kidnapping Carver's girlfriend Kala Brown
- Also confessed to a 2003 quadruple murder that had remained unsolved
- Currently faces four counts of murder and a single charge of kidnapping
Daily Mail UK, 7 November 2016
Police have unearthed a second body from the farmland of alleged serial killer Todd Kohlhepp.
The grim discovery was made Sunday, one day after the kidnap and murder suspect led officers to the spots where he said two victims were buried.
The hunt was going on tonight for other bodies. One has been identified as Charlie Carver's whose girlfriend Kala Brown is thought to have been held captive in a container by Kohlhepp for two months.
County sheriff Chuck Wright said of the second body:
'We can't tell anything about the cause of death, gender or how long or any of that stuff.'
Police unearthed a second body from the Woodruff, Soutch Carolina farmland of alleged serial killer Todd Kohlhepp (pictured in court Sunday)
Authorities have worked tirelessly to search Kohlhepp's land and have now extended their search to other properties connected to him. They are pictured digging in Woodruff
County sheriff Chuck Wright (pictured talking to reporters Sunday) said of the second body: 'We can't tell anything about the cause of death, gender or how long or any of that stuff'
Authorities have expanded their search beyond Kohlhepp's 100-acre farmland. Pictured, Wright and Coroner Rusty Clevenger hold a news conference in front of the property Sunday
The body is thought to be one of the two Kohlhepp mentioned when investigators took him back to his property Saturday.
Authorities were in the process of recovering the remains on Sunday evening.
Detectives have expanded their search perimeter beyond Kohlhepp's 100-acre farmland in Woodruff and are now looking at other properties linked to him.
The search extends beyond South Carolina, Wright said, although he declined to say where investigators were looking.
Homeland Security and the FBI have gotten involved in the search.
Experts meticulously dug into the ground to recover the second body while preserving as much evidence as possible, Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger said.
Kohlhepp has already been charged with four gun murders dating back to 2003 and Kidnapping Brown. He might be connected to seven deaths in total, according to Wright.
Scott Ponder, his mother Beverly Guy, service manager Brian Lucas, and mechanic Chris Sherbert were found fatally shot at the Superbike Motorsports in Chesnee, South Carolina, on November 6, 2003.
The case stunned the community and baffled police for more than a decade.
Rumors swirled that the slaying was committed by a Mexican drug gang or the victims were part of a love triangle, crushing the victims' loved ones.
Now, on the 13th anniversary of the murders, the families say Todd Kohlhepp's arrest will bring them some peace.
Kohlhepp is charged with four counts of murder in the shooting deaths and the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office said that he has confessed to the killings.
Terry Guy, whose wife and stepson were among those killed, spoke with reporters outside Spartanburg County jail on his way to Kohlhepp's bond hearing on Sunday.
Guy said Kohlhepp's arrest means his relatives and the families of others killed can now finally be at peace.
'I'm just so relieved,' he said.
Tom and Lorraine Lucas lost their son, Brian, who was the service manager gunned down at the store.
Standing with his wife outside the Spartanburg County Detention Center, Tom Lucas said he wants to be in court to look the man accused of killing his son in the eye.
Quote:
CONVICTED RAPIST TODD KHOLHEPP'S RECORD SO FAR
Kohlhepp served 14 years in jail for raping a 14-year-old girl at gunpoint in 1986, when he was 15.
A sentencing report, obtained by WFXG, claims Kohlhepp lured the girl outside by telling her an ex-boyfriend wanted to talk to her.
When the two were outside, he then pointed a 'small blue steel handgun at her head' and 'told her to walk down the alley towards his house.'
Once they got into Kohlhepp's bedroom, according to the documents, he duct taped her mouth, tied her hands together, and, 'removed her clothes, then his clothes and forced the victim to have sexual intercourse with him.'
Kohlhepp pleaded guilty to kidnapping in the case and was added to the sex offender registry in Arizona. He remained behind bars from 1987 to 2001.
Two years after his release, Kohlhepp murdered four people in Chesnee, South Carolina according to a confession he gave investigators Saturday.
Scott Ponder, his mother Beverly Guy, service manager Brian Lucas, and mechanic Chris Sherbert were found fatally shot at the Superbike Motorsports shop on November 6, 2003.
Kholhepp hasn't indicated a motive. He was charged with four counts of murder Sunday.
He is now accused of kidnapping 30-year-old Kala Brown and is believed to have kept her in a metal container on his farmland in Woodruff, South Carolina, for two months.
Brown was found chained up inside the container on Thursday.
The body of her boyfriend Charlie Carver, 32, was found on Kholhepp's property and identified on Saturday.
Authorities unearthed another body on the farmland Sunday and have yet to identify the remains.
The second body is believed to be one of two that Kehlhopp located when investigators brought him back to his Woodruff property on Saturday.
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Scott Ponder and his mother Beverly Guy were found dead at the bike shop in 2003
Service manager Brian Lucas and mechanic Chris Sherbert (top) also died in the 13-year-old quadruple murder
Doris Henry, Guy's sister and Ponder's aunt, is pictured being comforted by her husband while awaiting to hear about them in 2003. A deck of cards made by Lucas' father and passed out to inmates in South Carolina prisons
'We want to see the face. I want to look at him, and I want to try to use that in healing,' Tom Lucas said.
Lorraine Lucas said she started counseling sessions several weeks ago to prepare herself in case a suspect was ever arrested.
'I needed to be prepared for when they do make an arrest, so we can accept what happened,' she said.
Melissa Ponder said she was resigned that her husband Scott's death would never be solved before getting a phone call on Saturday evening from one of the case's original detectives.
Ponder says the detectives told family members of all four victims the news at the same time - that Kohlhepp confessed to the killings.
Judge Jimmy Henson speaks to the family members of the bike shop murder victims during a bond hearing for Todd Kohlhepp at the Spartanburg Detention Facility on Sunday
Todd Kohlhepp is addressed by Judge Jimmy Henson during a bond hearing on Sunday
'He knew too much about the crime scene,' Ponder said of Kohlhepp's account to detectives. 'He knew everything.'
She added: 'It isn't closure, but it is an answer - and I am thankful for that.'
Detectives told Ponder Kohlhepp was an angry customer who had been in the shop several times, she said.
All four victims were shot multiple times, authorities said at the time.
Before Kohlhepp emerged as a suspect, investigators said all four victims were killed with the same 9 mm pistol.
They theorized that the killer came in the back, perhaps through an open garage door, and killed mechanic 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. Brian Lucas, 29, was in the doorway.
At the time, the suspect was described on 'wanted' posters as a white male, aged between 25 and 40, with dark brown feathered hair, approximately six feet tall and weighing between 175 and 200 pounds.
Kohlhepp (pictured) confessed to a 2003 quadruple murder. At the time, the suspect was described on 'wanted' posters as a white male, aged between 25 and 40
Law enforcement personnel stand near police tape on Kohlhepp's property in Woodruff, South Carolina, on Sunday
Police work on Todd Kohlhepp's property on Sunday after Kohlhepp showed officers where two other people are buried on his property
The case was Spartanburg County's first quadruple homicide.
Kohlhepp hasn't revealed a motive in the killings and declined to speak when Magistrate Judge Jimmy Henson offered him the chance to make a statement at his bond hearing on Sunday.
The victims' families were there as Henson denied bond for Kohlhepp.
After Kohlhepp left the courtroom, Henson addressed the victims' families, saying:
'What you've gone through ... is beyond what a lot of people would understand.'
Kohlhepp, who was added to the sex offender registry in Arizona after being convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl, is also charged with kidnapping a woman and keeping her chained on his property.
Kala Brown's rescue on Thursday led to the break in the 13-year-old cold case.