Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Man caught with woman in storage unit now has body count of 6 and rising

Investigators digging into the life of Todd Kohlhepp — the South Carolina man accused of murdering four people, kidnapping a woman and then killing her boyfriend — have found a long trail of macabre online activity they think might be linked to him.
A police source at the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office confirms to PEOPLE that, among other things, law enforcement is looking into bizarre reviews on Amazon that seem to be connected to Kohlepp, a 45-year-old realtor.
In May 2014, an Amazon user began leaving reviews on products such as weapon mounts, padlocks, shovels and a tourniquet, among others more generic items such as dog toys, chocolate bars and DVD copies of The Walking Dead.
While the username was simply “me,” the account linked to a wish list named “Todd Kohlhepp.”
PEOPLE has reviewed dozens of the Amazon user’s product reviews. Most of them were posted in 2014, reportedly in the months after Kohlhepp purchased his land in Woodruff, South Carolina, where human remains and a chained-up woman have since been found.
On Jan. 14, 2015, the user reviewed a set of padlocks, saying, “now my locks have locks…place is Hotel California now,” apparently referencing The Eagles’ song (which contains the line “You can check out any time you like/But you can never leave”).
On another review of padlocks, the user wrote, “solid locks…have 5 on a shipping container.. won’t stop them.. but sure will slow them down til they are too old to care.”
Todd Kohlhepp's enters the courtroom of Judge Jimmy Henson for a bond hearing at the Spartanburg Detention Facility, in Spartanburg, S.C. Sunday, Nov. 6, 2016. The judge denied bond for Kohlhepp, charged with a 2003 quadruple slaying and more recently holding a woman captive on his property. (AP Photo/Richard Shiro)The user said they purchased a knife on Sept. 13, 2014. On the review, they wrote, “havnet (sic) stabbed anyone yet…… yet…. but I am keeping the dream alive and when I do, it will be with a quality tool like this…”
On a shovel purchase, the user wrote, “keep in car for when you have to hide the bodies and you left the full size shovel at home…. does not come with a midget, which would have been nice.”

Suspect Is a ‘Serial Killer’

The Amazon reviews might seem like attempts at dark and twisted humor, but investigators believe they could be written by Kohlhepp, who was arrested after 30-year-old Kala Brown was found chained alive in a storage container on his property last week.
The product reviews “show similarity to the language and style Kohlhepp used on his Facebook profile,” according to the Greenville News. (Citing law enforcement, the paper reports the Amazon posts are a secondary part of the investigation.)
Brown and her 32-year-old boyfriend, Charlie Carver, went missing in late August. Kohlhepp is expected to be charged in Carver’s murder after his body was found Friday in a shallow grave on the Woodruff property.
A friend of Brown’s has said the couple was allegedly abducted at gunpoint after going to do some odd jobs for Kohlhepp. A Facebook post on Carver’s page, made after he disappeared and which his family does not believe he made, referenced “Hotel California,” according to the News.
Over the weekend, Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said in a news conference that more victims are expected. “Mr. Todd Kohlhepp was here on the scene earlier today,” Wright told reporters. “Yes, he did show us where two more graves are. He sure did. He showed us where two more victims .”
A second body and two more graves were recovered this weekend, Wright said. That would bring Kohlhepp’s alleged body count to at least six, after he also reportedly confessed to a 2003 quadruple slaying in Chesnee, South Carolina.
Wright has called Kohlhepp a “serial killer,” and court documents have reportedly documented Kohlhepp’s psychological troubles as well as a previous guilty plea for kidnapping when he was a teenager.
Kohlhepp appeared in court on Sunday for a bond hearing for his murder charges. He was denied bond, and it remains unclear if he has entered a plea to his charges or retained an attorney.

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