South Carolina serial killer claims victims were criminals

A serial killer has claimed that his victims were actually ‘criminals’ and that he was trying to ‘save’ the woman he held captive in a shipping container as a sex slave for two months.

Todd Kohlhepp, 46, made the outrageous claims from behind bars in a South Carolina prison, writing a letter to a New York Post reporter that emerged on Saturday.

It is the first time Kohlhepp has spoken out since he pleaded guilty in May to seven murders and the rape and kidnapping.

The killer’s crimes came to light when authorities searching for missing woman Kala Brown, 30, tracked her cell phone to one of Kohlhepp’s properties in November. 

Cops heard Brown’s screams and banging inside a heavily padlocked metal shipping container, and found her sitting inside with a chain around her neck connected to the wall.  

Kohlhepp preposterously claims that victim Kala Brown was a ‘criminal’ who he chained in a shipping container because he was trying to rescue her ‘non-violently’

Kala Brown, 30 (left), and her boyfriend, Charles Carver, 32 (right), were the last of Kohlhepp’s victims. Brown survived after police rescued her but the serial killer murdered Carver

She told police that Kohlhepp had shot and buried her boyfriend Charlie Carver, 32, and raped her twice a day, every day, while holding her captive for two months.

Now, Kohlhepp preposterously claims that Brown ‘wasn’t raped’ and that he was actually trying to help her.

‘She was in [the] shipping container because I didn’t want to hurt her, refused to turn her over to someone else who would and was buying time while I figured out a way to resolve this non-violently,’ he claimed in the twisted jailhouse letter to Post reporter Melkorka Licea.

Kohlhepp bizarrely claimed that, far from being his victim, Brown was ‘as big a criminal as I am’.

‘All of my victims were criminals,’ he went on. 

‘No one wants to really look at who they were, families, connections,’ the killer continued.

In addition to Carver, Kohlhepp has admitted to six other slayings: a quadruple homicide at a motorcycle dealership in 2003, and the murder of a husband and wife who were lured to his property very similarly to Brown and her boyfriend.

A police officer is seen arresting 46-year-old serial killer Todd Kohlhepp last November. The serial killer has made a string of vile claims about his victims in a new letter from jail

Scott Ponder and his mother Beverly Guy were fatally shot by Kohlhepp in 2003. Now the killer outrageously claims they were running a ‘chop shop’ and deserved their fate

Brian Lucas (left) and Chris Sherbert (right) were also killed in the motorcycle shop

Kohlhepp’s letter did not specifically mention Meagan and Johnny Joe Coxie, a married couple he lured to his property and killed

Kohlhep had a veritable arsenal of guns (left), which investigators found during a search for Kala Brown, whom they found chained inside a shipping container on his property (right)

Photos from the sick killer’s home show weapons stashed around the property in toolboxes, drawers and shelves for easy access 

In his epistle from behind bars, Kohlhepp accused the Superbike Motorsports shop in Chesnee, South Carolina, where he shot four employees, of being a ‘chop shop’ with ‘$80,000 cash sitting in [a] safe.’

His letter made no specific mention of Johnny Joe Coxie, 29, and Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie, 26, the victims he shot and buried on his property in 2015.

Kohlhepp killed Coxie immediately and tried to keep McCraw-Coxie locked away, but he said he killed her after several days because she tried to burn the container after he gave her cigarettes. 

In an earlier letter, Kohlhepp lashed out at prosecutors and prison officials, saying they were trying to ‘hide’ him from the press.

Murray Glenn, a spokesman for the Spartanburg County prosecutor, told the Post that Kohlhepp is an ‘attention seeker’ who ‘needs to stay in prison and be forgotten.’

Investigators discovered an arsenal of weapons inside Kohlhepp’s home after his arrest, which they suspect he obtained illicitly due to a 1987 felony conviction for kidnapping in Arizona  that it illegal for him to purchase or own firearms.

Photos from the sick killer’s home show weapons stashed around the property in toolboxes, drawers and shelves for easy access. 

Among the many weapons confiscated were a Barrett Model 83A1 semi-automatic .50 caliber rifle and a Beretta Model 92FS semi-automatic pistol with an Ultima 9mm Sound Suppressor.

‘He had more ammo than some of my counterparts in other counties do in their whole departments,’ Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said.

Authorities earlier revealed Kohlhepp bragged in one video about wearing gloves when loading his gun to assure no fingerprints were on the casings. 

He also told authorities he pulled the gun apart and threw the components into different trash bins, putting the barrel into a bag of used kitty litter.

Men are seen working to get inside the metal container where Brown was held after they heard a woman screaming inside

This image shows five of the locks officials had to cut off the metal container before they were able to get inside and free Brown

Guns were stashed throughout the property, such as this handgun sitting on a shelf 

Even though it had been 13 years, Kohlhepp detailed each shot he fired at the Superbike shop in the quadruple-murder, including final shots to the forehead of 30-year-old Scott Ponder; 52-year-old Beverly Guy; 30-year-old Brian Lucas; and 26-year-old Chris Sherbert.

‘That was one big building. I cleared that building in under 30 seconds,’ Kohlhepp said. ‘I’m sorry, but you guys would have been proud.’

The investigators asked if anyone begged for their lives or said anything to him.

‘I don’t remember any of that. I will tell you that once I engaged, I was engaged. It was almost like a video game. It’s not a game — you’ve been there, sir, you know what I am talking about,’ Kohlhepp said. 

Kohlhepp moved to South Carolina in 2001 after 14 years in prison for a kidnapping in Arizona. 

Authorities there said the then 15-year-old Kohlhepp forced a 14-year-old neighbor back to his home at gunpoint, tied her up and raped her. 

Todd Kohlhepp is pictured during an appearance in court on Friday, May 26, 2017 in Spartanburg, South Carolina