Watch Serial Killer Victim’s Harrowing Rescue From Shipping Container
Newly released videos from Kala Brown’s chilling kidnapping case reveal the dire conditions the victim lived in for the two months she was held hostage in a shipping container in South Carolina before her rescue last November.
According to the Associated Press, investigators were first clued in to the container after hearing a woman’s screams coming from the large metal structure, situated on the property of real estate agent Todd Kohlhepp. One video, released by prosecutors earlier this week, shows the exact moment when authorities sawed through the bin’s locks and entered the container.
The video shows several shelves of boxes and some labeled plastic bins – and at the very end of the dark container, Brown, fully clothed and curled up on a mattress with her neck chained to the wall.
“Do you know where your buddy is?” an officer asks her as the group of men try to reassure Brown and remove the chain from her neck.
“Charlie? He shot him,” she responds.
“Who did?” the first officer asks, leading Brown to let the full story tumble forth.
“Todd Kohlhepp shot Charlie Carver three times in the chest, wrapped him in a blue tarp, put him in the bucket of the tractor, locked me down here,” she said. “I’ve never seen him again. He says he’s dead and buried. He says there are several bodies dead and buried out here.”
Brown was discovered in the shipping container on November 3rd, 2016. The body of her boyfriend, Charles Carver, was found buried in a shallow grave on Kohlhepp’s property a short while later, after Kohlhepp was arrested and admitted to kidnapping Brown and shooting Carver, just as Brown had said.
Kohlhepp also confessed to shooting and killing a couple, Meagan Leigh McCraw Coxie and Johnny Joe Coxie, who had been missing for more than a year at that point. Their bodies were found buried on Kohlhepp’s property.
In another one of the videos, Kohlhepp can be seeing confessing to investigators about the murders, and even bragging about how he wore gloves while loading his gun to make sure he didn’t leave any fingerprints on the casings.
He told the detectives that he killed Coxie right away but kept McCraw Coxie alive for several more days, killing her later on after she tried to burn the container with cigarettes he gave her.
“She wanted Little Caesar’s pizza,” he says in the clip, expressionless. “I hate that shit. It gives me heartburn. Dr. Pepper, cinnamon rolls and freaking Newports. If you go down to that building, you’ll find an unused package of Newports that I bought for her.”
Kohlhepp also confessed to a quadruple murder in 2003 that has come to be known as the “Superbike murders,” in which he shot and killed four bike-shop employees. “I cleared that building in under 30 seconds,” he said in one video. “I’m sorry, but you guys would have been proud.” Kohlhepp also likened the slaughter to “a video game.”
Brown opened up to Dr. Phil this past February, speaking out about her harrowing experience being locked up and raped by Kohlhepp for two months. According to Brown, Kohlhepp maintained his cool exterior even when he was raping her twice a day.
“He explained Stockholm Syndrome to me, and told me that it would kick in and we’d be happy together,” Brown said at the time.
Kohlhepp pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder, two counts of kidnapping and one count of criminal sexual assault in May. He was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole.