In December 2015, a 25-year-old woman named Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie and her 29-year-old husband, Johnny Joe Coxie, vanished from Spartanburg, South Carolina. The couple, who had a history of panhandling, were reported missing shortly after Meagan's mother bonded her out of jail for a job she claimed to have lined up. Their disappearance remained a mystery for nearly a year, leaving their families in agonizing uncertainty.
The break in the case came in November 2016, not from a direct lead on the Coxies, but from another horrific discovery. On a large property in Woodruff, South Carolina, belonging to a registered sex offender and real estate agent named Todd Kohlhepp, investigators found a woman chained inside a metal storage container. The rescued woman, who had been held captive for two months, told authorities that Kohlhepp had shot and killed her boyfriend and that other bodies might be buried on the property.
This chilling revelation led to a large-scale search of Kohlhepp's land. It was during this search that the remains of Meagan and Johnny Coxie were unearthed from shallow graves. The Spartanburg County Coroner later confirmed their identities, aided by their extensive tattoos. An autopsy revealed that Meagan had died from a gunshot wound to the head, while her husband had been shot in the torso. It was determined they had been buried on the property for about 11 months.
Following his arrest, Todd Kohlhepp confessed to the murders of the Coxie couple. He told investigators that he had killed Johnny Coxie around December 19, 2015, and had held Meagan captive for several days before killing her on or around Christmas Day. In addition to these murders, Kohlhepp also confessed to a quadruple homicide at a motorcycle shop in 2003, bringing the total number of his known victims to seven. He was subsequently charged with multiple counts of murder and kidnapping.
