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.

Graves of Tortured Women and Children Found in Palmyra

Palmyra mass grave: Tortured women & children among dozens

of ISIS victims unearthed by Syrian army

© Omar Sanadiki / Reuters

The Syrian army is unearthing a mass grave consisting of at least 40 corpses, many of them women and children, butchered by the Islamic State in the recently liberated ancient city of Palmyra.

The grave was discovered by engineers and “popular defense forces” in the Masakin al-Jahizia neighborhood in the city, which lies only 500 meters away from the ancient ruins, SANA reports.

Initially, the army has managed to pull 25 corpses out from the ground. Among those killed by IS were three children and five females. As the excavation proceeded, 15 more corpses were unearthed – all of them women and children.




Initial examination of the bodies revealed that some of the victims had been beheaded while other had been brutally tortured right before their death.

The army continues to excavate the mass grave, fearing that more bodies may be found.

In May of 2015, Islamic State militants killed at least 400 people in Syria's ancient city of Palmyra, mostly women and children, Syrian state television said Sunday, citing residents.

According to Reuters, opposition activists on social media claimed that hundreds of bodies were in the streets of the city.

"The terrorists have killed more than 400 people.. and mutilated their bodies, under the pretext that they cooperated with the government and did not follow orders," a Palmyra resident told Syria's state news agency.

State employees were among hundreds killed in the massacre. Among them was the head of nursing department at the hospital and all her family.


Landmines

In the meantime, engineering units continue their search for landmines and explosives as thousands had been hidden by the jihadists before they were driven out from the city with the help of the Russian forces working with the Syrian army.

Russian combat engineers arrived in Palmyra on Thursday with special robotic units to offer their expertise in detecting and dismantling mines in an area comprising over 180 hectares (445 acres) to save the UNESCO world heritage site, and help locals to return to safe existence.

“At least 3,000 explosive devices were installed in the city,” the sapper explained to RT. He said ISIS created an almost invisible interconnected network, partially hidden under hard paved roads, which could blow up the entire city.

A strategically important location, Palmyra had been seized by IS jihadists since May 2015. That month, ISIS reportedly slaughtered 400 people, mostly women and children. At the time, Reuters reported that a video posted by IS’ supporters showed the militants entering governmental buildings in search of Syrian soldiers. They were also seen pulling down pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad and his father, Hafez Assad.