November 6th, 2003. Police were called to a ‘shots fired’ call at the Superbike Motorsports shop. A passing customer heard something, entered the premises to find four dead people, gunned down in the shop. The police identified them to Scott Pinder, the owner of the popular shop. Service manager Brian Lucas, chief mechanic Chris Sherbet and the company’s bookkeeper and wife to Scott Pinder, Beverly Guy.
Police believed the suspect entered the rear of the premises with the sole aim of killing people. The police had no suspect, nothing stolen, no trail of evidence. The shooting appeared to be a random act of violence.
The bodies led the way the killer took, from the rear of the shop, through to the garage, out to the parking lot where the fourth body lay.
This crime remained unsolved until the arrest of Todd Kohlhepp, a well-known property realtor, who openly admitted to the crime while being interrogated for murders, unrelated to the motorcycle shop.
Born March 7th, 1971, in Florida, Todd Kohlhepp moved at a very early age to South Carolina with both parents. It didn’t take long for the marriage to breakdown and Kohlhepp’s father moving back to Florida.
The house was running smoothly until Todd’s mother remarried. Todd and his stepfather had a rocky relationship from the get-go. The stepfather struggled with the anger issues Todd showed. It disrupted his schoolwork with outbursts of extreme anger. Isolating from other children at the school and becoming more violent.
It was here they incarcerated Kohlhepp in a child psychiatric hospital for nearly four months.
With strict rules which Kohlhepp struggled with and therapy sessions. It was during Kohlhepp’s court case for the murders where the details of Kohlhepp’s childhood anger issues surfaced.
Psychiatrist said Kohlhepp had an unhealthy attraction to porn with a misguided understanding of what sex was. He was seen killing animals with a BB gun, particularly maiming them and dragging out their demise. Once, Kohlhepp killed the family goldfish by adding bleach to the water. Sitting and watching the fish die with a wry smile.
Because of the antisocial behaviour, the one thing Kohlhepp wanted was to go live with his natural father. With the blessing of the courts, social services and Kohlhepp’s mother, he went to Arizona, where his father was now living. But it didn’t take long for the boy to run into trouble.
Kohlhepp collected weapons, any weapons with an unhealthy interest in guns. His father, a keen shooter, taught his son how to handle a gun, regularly taking the boy out to the ranges to shoot at targets.
His anger resurfaced again when his father started seeing other women, taking him away from Kohlhepp as the resentment grew. He wanted to rebound to his mother.
She was in no rush to have him back, now living in a state of peace. She knew having her son return, he would come and start tearing the place up again.
Bored with a sense of rejection from both parents, Kohlhepp, now a 15-year-old boy kidnapped and 14-year-old girl using a.22 pistol.
The girl quietly did as she was told. Kohlhepp returned to his home, bound, gagged, and then repeatedly raped the girl. Afterwards, he walked the girl home, warning her and her sibling that if the cops were called, he would kill the lot of them.
Of course, the kids did the opposite, telling their parents. The police called Kohlhepp and arrested. The mounting evidence, they advised Kohlhepp to plead guilty. If he did this, the only charge they would try him for was the kidnapping, which carried a prison term of 14 years. The lawyers didn’t want the sexual assault charge to be tried in court to further traumatise the family and the wider community. A 16-year-old boy kidnapping and raping a 14-year-old wasn’t normal.
The psychiatrist completed a full evaluation on behalf of the court. They found Kohlhepp with borderline personality disorder with an IQ of 118.
The judge ruled in the case and when summing up, he said ‘you’re very bright and academically gifted but your behaviour makes you a dangerous young man and likely to never be rehabilitated.’
The judge sent him down for fifteen years and a permanent record on the sex offender’s register.
In prison, he wasn’t the model prisoner. Before his twentieth birthday, Kohlhepp was repeatedly involved in fighting and disruptive behaviour. After this milestone birthday, there is no other documentation to say he carried on misbehaving. He did while in prison graduate.
Kohlhepp took to study with ease, achieving bachelor’s degree in computer science accredited by the Central Arizona College
August 2001 saw the release of Todd Kohlhepp and moved straight to South Carolina. He took a job as a graphic designer while doubling down for more study with the University of South Carolina, graduating with another degree in business administration.
In 2006, Kohlhepp lied on the registration forms for the realtors’ licence, the faculty responsible didn’t check either that Kohlhepp was a registered sex offender.
It was during this time Kohlhepp ran and successful realtor company which employed several sales agents. Kohlhepp invested wisely in property, one near the town of Moore in South Carolina. A sizeable estate of 100 acres, which Kohlhepp spent a vast sum of money fencing the entire property.
Customers related to Kohlhepp. He was warm, charming, and understanding. He knew how to sell people’s homes while knowing how to get people to buy a home — a rare quality in a realtor. Although sexual innuendo was thrown into the conversation which people laughed at. Some people found it offensive. An employee found Kohlhepp het up, always angry. He would fly off the handle with unpredictable mood swings. One of his financiers said Kohlhepp would watch pornography in his office. He didn’t care if people knew about it. His office door would open with the volume up.
Before August 31st, 2016. Charles David Carver and his girlfriend, Karla Brown, were employed by Kohlhepp on his 100-acre estate to remove some brush.
On the 31st of August, they were reported as missing. The police, not knowing their whereabouts, focussed on the Facebook accounts. There was traffic happening on their pages, which would show they were still alive, but their location was still a mystery.
Although missing, the analysis of the Facebook accounts led authorities to believe someone else was operating their accounts.
After some time trying to trace mobile communications, police on the 3rd of November found Miss Brown chained to the inside of a freight container on Kohlhepp’s estate.
After some careful plotting of the last known whereabouts of the couple, according to cell phone mast signal stamps, police narrowed Miss Brown’s phone down to Kohlhepp’s estate.
At the interview, Miss Brown, who candour and strength, went through her ordeal. How Kohlhepp killed Mr Carver because he had. ‘Real smart mouth.’ He kept the woman alive because he liked her, raping her daily. On the day of the search when Miss Brown was found, another couple, husband, and wife, the McCraw-Coxie’s were found.
Kohlhepp was arrested at his home and in the interview room. He appeared to be cool, readily admitting his need to kill, but this was on a proviso. He wanted to speak with his mother. He had a photograph which he wanted to give her and transfer money from his account to hers. Police reluctantly agreed to allow Kohlhepp to see his mother where he admitted to a further four murders, bringing his tally up to seven. Kohlhepp also admitted to the killings in the Superbike Shop. Shooting each one square in the forehead; this was a damning piece of evidence because the police had left this information out of the public domain.
Through the investigation, police led to Kohlhepp’s Amazon account. Bizarre reviews. For items he had purchased. There was no hard evidence to suggest Kohlhepp had written these reviews, but the items listed were purchased or on Kohlhepp’s wish list.
After pleading guilty and receiving seven life sentences, Kohlhepp admitted to killing closer to three digits, which authorities failed to substantiate these claims.
Kohlhepp will never see the daylight again, spared execution, as I get older, knowing these a******s are incarcerated until their time is a far better deal.
Kohlhepp was indulged. I am not questioning if he was a psychopath. I believe he was. There is no doubt. The red flags littered his childhood like an air horn. What made Kohlhepp’s case interesting was his level of narcissism. His predilection to violence seemed normal, and yet he went about it in a cowardly way. Psychopaths like to watch their victims squirm and die in a terrifying way. Kohlhepp chose guns. As cold as this might be, it’s still an odd choice of weapon. Coupled with the sexual deviancy, one thing I do struggle with is sex crimes against women and children. Go on your killing spree and get it over ASAP, but to defile someone either in the present or after they’re dead is something on another level.
Kohlhepp although surprised the police had found the young woman in the fright container, his ease of admittance levels up his narcissism, at interview, he said things as to shock the officers conducting the interview but in reality; he came across as a bit of a douche bag.
Despite his cruelness and violence, Kohlhepp is a bit of pathetic damp squib. What makes his case interesting is the psychology behind his modus operandi, poor up brining, the slide into violence and the use of sexual crimes ticks the boxes. I think if Kohlhepp hadn’t underestimated modern technology, he would have been left to carry on killing. We would have seen an escalation in the killing along with an evolution in the deviancy.
Thank God I’d say, and Kohlhepp, go rot in this life and the next.
