Man Arrested After Woman Found Chained for Months in a Dark Storage Container in South Carolina

Woman was found Thursday

'chained up like a dog'

The Associated Press 

    'It's only by God's grace she's alive': Police 1:42

Authorities say cadaver dogs have signalled possible remains on the South Carolina property where a woman was rescued from a large storage container.

Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright announced the development to news media Friday morning. He says deputies will excavate the area.

Love this Sheriff. He took the time to pray with the woman before she was taken to hospital.

A missing woman was found Thursday "chained up like a dog" inside a container measuring about 30 feet by 15 feet. She had been chained-up there for two months in the dark. Wright says she told him the bodies of other women could be buried on the land, owned by 45-year-old Todd Christopher Kohlhepp.

Kohlhepp, a registered sex offender, has been arrested and charged with kidnapping. He was scheduled for a bond hearing Friday afternoon in Spartanburg.

Why? What possible reason would there be for bonding the guy?

The woman's boyfriend, 32-year-old Charles Carver, is still missing.​

This photo made available by the Spartanburg, S.C., County Sheriff's Office shows Todd Kohlhepp of Moore, S.C. Kohlhepp was arrested Thursday. (Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office/Associated Press)

1986 kidnapping conviction

Kohlhepp was convicted of a 1986 kidnapping of a teen in Arizona that landed him on the sex offender registry.

South Carolina's sex offender registry lists the Arizona offence as the reason Kohlhepp is in the database of sex offenders. It indicates he was a juvenile offender, convicted in 1987 when he was a teenager.

Matching online prison records from Arizona show that Kohlhepp served about 14 years for the felony and was released in 2001.

The Arizona records show the kidnapping happened in November 1986 in the Phoenix area.

The records don't elaborate on the crime, but do list some violations while in prison.

The records say he destroyed property and fought on a number of occasions while incarcerated in 1991 and 1988.

Woman identified

The woman has been identified as Kala Brown, seen here with her boyfriend Charles Carver. The couple have been missing since August 31st.

A South Carolina coroner says he's been called to the scene where the woman was found.

Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger confirmed in an email that he arrived at the property near Woodruff after deputies received a tip from police investigating the disappearance.

Clevenger said he could not immediately talk about the situation.

Sheriff Chuck Wright said the woman told investigators there could be as many as four bodies on the property.