On August 31, 2016, 32-year-old Charles David Carver, a male, and his girlfriend, Kala Brown, disappeared after going to a large property in Woodruff, South Carolina, for a cleaning job. The property was owned by Todd Kohlhepp, a real estate agent who was also a registered sex offender with a violent past. Brown would later recount the terrifying events of that day, stating that Kohlhepp shot her boyfriend in her presence.
The coroner's report would later confirm that Carver died from multiple gunshot wounds.
For two months, the couple's whereabouts remained a mystery, with strange posts appearing on Carver's Facebook page suggesting they were fine. The truth, however, was far more sinister. On November 3, 2016, investigators, tracking the last known cellphone signals of the couple, were led to Kohlhepp's expansive property. There, they heard banging coming from a large metal storage container. Inside, they found Kala Brown alive, but 'chained like a dog' by her neck and ankle.
Brown's rescue immediately led to Kohlhepp's arrest and a thorough search of his property. It wasn't long before investigators discovered Carver's vehicle hidden in a ravine. Soon after, they located a shallow grave containing Carver's body. The grim discovery confirmed Brown's harrowing account of the events that transpired on that late August day.
In the wake of his arrest, the full extent of Todd Kohlhepp's crimes came to light. He confessed not only to the murder of Charles David Carver but to a string of other killings that had remained unsolved for years. He admitted to the 2003 murders of four people at a motorcycle shop in Chesnee, South Carolina, and to the murders of a married couple, Johnny and Meagan Coxie, who had also been hired for work on his property and whose bodies were also found buried there. In May 2017, to avoid the death penalty, Todd Kohlhepp pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder, including that of Charles David Carver, as well as kidnapping and criminal sexual assault. He was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.
