World's Most Evil Killers - Season 4, Episode 18 - Todd Kohlhepp - Full Episode | Forensic Files

- MALE NARRATOR: On the 3rd of November 2016, police searching for a missing couple
at a property in Woodruff, South Carolina made an incredible discovery. - [tool grinding]
- OFFICER: Kala, how are you honey? This is bolt cutters. - NARRATOR: Thirty-year-old, Kala Brown had been chained up
in a metal storage container for 65 days. Her boyfriend, Charlie Carver had been shot dead.
- CHUCK: And the coroner came up and said that they had positive ID that it was Charlie.
That was a hard time. You just, don't wanna hear those words. How could a man just walk out, not knowing who this person was,
anything about this person and just end his life right there? - NARRATOR: The killer was a popular real estate agent,
named Todd Kohlhepp. Police would soon discover two more bodies on the grounds of his property.
But the 45-year-old, had even more skeletons in his closet. The murder of four employees at a motorcycle dealership,
thirteen years earlier. - Todd describes that before he leaves the scene, he goes back to each victim, and shoots them in the head
before he leaves. - NARRATOR: In total, Kohlhepp had taken the lives of seven people.
The twisted serial killer had been hiding in plain sight for over a decade. - DR. YARDLEY: Getting away with those murders
signals to him that there are no consequences for this, "I can kill and I can get away with it."
- NARRATOR: Todd Kohlhepp had been unmasked as one of the world's most evil killers.
- ♪ - NARRATOR: When 45-year-old real estate agent, Todd Kohlhepp was arrested for the murder of three people,
and the kidnap of another, on his property in Woodruff, South Carolina, in November 2016,
investigators had no idea he was also responsible for an unsolved shooting spree which killed four others
thirteen years earlier. Journalist Daniel Gross knows Kohlhepp's story better than most.
- DANIEL: When I hear the name Todd Kohlhepp, I picture him sitting in that interrogation room
when he was initially arrested and in his mind he had those investigators wrapped around his finger.
He was confessing to a murder that they were not able to solve for 13 years, and so, um, when I see his name
or see his face, I always just think about his ego and personality behind the man
that--that's murdered all these people. - NARRATOR: Daniel continues to discover more about
the deranged serial killer. Kohlhepp regularly pens letters to him from his cell.
- DANIEL: I mean, as a journalist, this is one of those cases that you only really dream up,
you know, it's--it's sorta larger than life, um, almost like, uh, you're just reading
a horror book or something. Even today, you know, he's in prison for the rest of his life, he's convicted of murdering
seven people. I almost feel like we're still just scratching the surface. - NARRATOR: This killer's story begins in the sunshine state
of Florida. Todd Sampsell was born in Ft. Lauderdale on the 7th of March 1971. But his parents split up when he was just two.
Todd adopted his stepfather's surname, Kohlhepp, when his mother remarried, but his formative years
were far from happy. - DR. YARDLEY: When we look back at Kohlhepp's childhood, we are almost ticking off all of the warning sign
behaviors for serial homicide. We've got somebody who has real difficulty forming a relationships with his peers,
so he doesn't see children his own age as potential allies, potential friends, he sees them as competitors.
He can only communicate and interact with them aggressively. He basically wants to crush everybody else
and to come out victorious. We also have a history of animal cruelty. We know that he bleached a goldfish.
We know that he shot a dog with an air gun. Here is somebody who enjoys causing harm to other people
and other living creatures, it's something that makes him feel powerful and that sadism is a threat that will run
throughout the rest of his life. - NARRATOR: The family relocated to South Carolina,
but Kohlhepp's mother divorced again in 1982. The couple would go on to remarry each other
several times throughout Todd's life. Twelve-year-old Todd was causing so much disruption at home,
that a decision was made to move him 2,000 miles across the country. - DANIEL: Eventually, he was fed up with living here
and convinced his mother to let him go live with his birth father, who he really hadn't seen
at all in Arizona. And I think that might have been a way for him to try to see life in a new light
and maybe get a fresh start, change of scene, change of venue. - NARRATOR: But there was to be no improvement
in Todd's behavior. In fact, in November 1986, the troubled teenager would soon turn to violent crime.
- DANIEL: He was 15 years old and, the reports say that he had gone outside and found a neighbor
who was a 14-year-old girl, and he ended up kidnapping her and taking her back to his father's house,
and--and that's where he duct-taped her mouth, he held a pistol to her head, and sexually assaulted her.
- NARRATOR: It was a horrific and unprovoked attack. - DANIEL: He threatens to kill her, he says,
"If you tell anyone about this, I'll kill your family, I'll kill your siblings, I'll kill you."
I mean, scared her to death. - GEOFFREY: It's chilling, genuinely chilling that he's so convinced of his own importance,
so convinced of his own superiority that he can get a way with anything. He really does think that the girl won't tell anyone.
- NARRATOR: But the girl's family were already concerned for the missing teenager.
Her young brother had recently been taught what to do if you need help in an emergency,
and he had raised the alarm. - DR. YARDLEY: The rape victim had a five-year-old brother
and he was concerned that he couldn't find her, so he called the police and as he was on the phone
to the police, his sister comes in through the door, and then talks to the officers and tells them
what had happened. But for me, the interesting thing is--is Kohlhepp's reaction when he was arrested because his overriding concern was,
"How much trouble am I in, how much prison time am I likely to serve?" Absolutely no concern for his victim whatsoever,
it's all me, myself and I. - NARRATOR: In October 1987, aged just 16, Todd Kohlhepp
was sent to prison for 15 years. - DANIEL: You know, alot of people say that's your time for rehabilitation, um, I think for Todd,
it was the opposite. I think he--he sat there and continued to harbor all this inner struggle.
- NARRATOR: After serving his sentence, Kohlhepp was released on November the 24th, 2001.
He'd spent almost half his life in prison. - DANIEL: So now, he's 30-years-old and, uh,
newly out of prison, so of course he's gonna move back to South Carolina to be with his mom.
- DR. YARDLEY: When Kohlhepp is released, he starts an image management campaign, essentially.
During his time in prison, he's performed this role as a model inmate, now he's been released,
he needs to, basically, do some damage limitation, in terms of establishing a new life for himself.
- NARRATOR: Five years after his release in 2006, Kohlhepp applied for a real estate license
in South Carolina. Despite being on the sex offenders register, the 35-year-old managed to talk his way around it.
- DANIEL: They raised that issue with him and said, "Well, we know you're applying for this license,
but there's this on your record," and he submitted a letter, essentially just downplaying
the entire conviction. - DR. YARDLEY: And he basically explains this offense as a misunderstanding between him and a girlfriend,
so he's basically saying, "Well, this was-- this was her fault, this wasn't really me."
- NARRATOR: In June 2006, Kohlhepp was granted his real estate agent's license. He opened his own business, and on the outside,
was living the life of a well-respected model citizen. Albeit, with an unhealthy fascination for guns.
- DR. YARDLEY: Kohlhepp was an avid collector of firearms and I think this is something that he inherited,
in a way, from his father, who also had quite a considerable collection, but I think for me,
it's about what firearms represent. They represent power, they represent authority,
and I think if you look at them in the context of Kohlhepp's other hobbies and interests, they are quite grandiose,
they are quite alpha males. So he had a pilot's license, he was into motorbikes,
he liked fast cars, so all of this paints a picture of the--the kind of American dream, you know,
the macho American character. - NARRATOR: But this charming man about town was hiding a huge secret.
In November 2003, less than three years before becoming a successful real estate agent,
Todd Kohlhepp had gunned down four people in cold blood. On the 6th of November,
Kohlhepp walked into a local motorcycle dealership, called Superbike Motorsports.
- DANIEL: Scott Ponder opened it and he had a passion for motorcycles, loved to ride, you know, so they built
this whole business around this motorcycle shop, and, um, people knew about them, you know, it was,
it was a thriving business, and it was a family business. - NARRATOR: 30-year-old Scott employed
a small number of people, including his 52-year-old mother, Beverly Guy. Scott's wife had moved to South Carolina
from Arizona to be with her husband. They were married in January 2002. - MELISSA: From a young age, um, teen years,
he was really into motorcycles, and so, I think, early on in his years, he always planned on having
his own motorcycle dealership, like, he knew that-- that would happen. He was just a gentle person.
He had the ability to make you feel really comfortable. I think is why he was so successful in his business
is because people that came in were immediately put at ease with just his demeanor.
- NARRATOR: In November 2003, Melissa had recently found out that she was pregnant with the couple's first child.
- So, Scott was not going to actually go to that first appointment with me, he was busy
and at the last minute, he just decided, "You know what, I'm gonna go hear the heartbeat.
I've never heard this before, this is new and exciting," and so he surprised me by showing up at the hospital.
I'm going to forever remember that day because he wasn't supposed to be there, and he was and we walked in and we were able to experience
that together and it was pretty exciting, you know, for them to find this beating heart
and us to, you know, get excited over the fact that, yeah, we're gonna have a family
and that was a good day for us. I never would have imagined that two days later,
it would all change. - NARRATOR: On the day of the attack at Superbike Motorsports, nothing seemed
out of the ordinary. - MELISSA: So November 6th of 2003, he went on to work and I got ready for work, and my last, um, memory
in my mind, and the picture I have in my mind is I passed the motorcycle dealership
that morning and honked at him, and he was standing at the side of dealership and he waved and blew a kiss
and that's honestly the last time I ever saw him alive. - NOVEMBER: At around 3:00PM, Melissa received a call
from a concerned colleague who'd heard news of a shooting at the bike shop. She immediately raced across town.
- MELISSA: I got to the location that all of the law enforcement was at, and there was a good ten or 12 law enforcement
vehicles with their lights on, had the road blocked off, and I just ran past all of them and said,
"That's my husband's business down there," and I just started running. - NARRATOR: Before she could get near,
Melissa was escorted home by police officers. Together they sat and waited for news from the crime scene.
- MELISSA: I was standing at my front glass door, just looking out front, and I see
Spartanburg County Coroner drive up my driveway. So, two people walked in, told me to have a seat.
The woman immediately started talking, and she identified herself as one of the coroners,
and she just said, "We had an unfortunate event "happen at your husband's business today, um,
Scott was shot and killed." - NARRATOR: The bottom fell out of Melissa's world. - MELISSA: And--and I immediately started crying
and said, "I don't, I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm pregnant, I can't run this business by myself, I'm--"
you know, just...sorrow. I started to think, you know, his mom, "I've gotta call his mom, where's is mom,
"I need to talk to her, where is she? where's--where's Beverly?" and... That is when they told me that his mom had been shot
and killed as well, and that Brian Lucas had been shot and killed and they hadn't identified
the fourth victim yet because he didn't have any identification on him. - NARRATOR: The fourth victim was 26-year-old mechanic,
Chris Sherbert. Chris, Brian Lucas, Beverly Guy and her son, Scott Ponder, had all been murdered in cold blood.
The identity of the gunman was a mystery. Seven months later, in June 2004, Melissa gave birth to a ten-pound baby boy
and named him Scott Junior. - MELISSA: He changed everything for me. I, um, the first moment I laid eyes on him,
I thought, "This is why I'm still here." Because, honestly, I wanted to have been down there
at the dealership that day and just taken with him, it was so hard, but, yeah, as soon as they put
that little boy in my arms, I--I knew that that was my soul purpose, why I was still here.
- NARRATOR: Scott never knew his father and over 15 years later, his mom has never
let the memories fade. - SCOTT JR.: She told me alot about him and how, um, he liked to, um, mess with my grandma a lot
back when he was younger, and he thought it was funny, and, uh, she liked to tell alot of stories about him,
and, uh, it helped me, like, just picture what, I mean, who he really was. During his birthdays, usually I'm in school
so she takes me out of school and we go to lunch. We just kinda celebrate his life,
I guess and not--not feel down about it, just have a day where we celebrate him and just him, you know.
- NARRATOR: The investigation into the quadruple murder at Superbike Motorsports unearthed no obvious suspects.
Nothing had been stolen and there were no witnesses to the crime, but suddenly in late 2004,
the police had an unlikely suspect on their radar. - MELISSA: It wasn't until my son was about six months old
that I got called into the sheriff's department, and they said, "We got something
"that we need to talk to you about, it's really serious," and my first inclination was,
"They know who did this, and they wanna talk to me about it." So, they sat me down in a room, an interrogation room and said,
"We took DNA from a diaper "you left here a couple weeks ago, "and we sent it off and compared it to the blood
"from the crime scene and we have DNA "that does not match up with your husband's,
and so we need you to tell us, what's going on?" "Who's--who's the baby's father?"
You know, "How do you play a role in all--" I mean, I was taken so far aback I couldn't believe it.
- NARRATOR: Melissa had turned from a victim to a suspect. She was so stunned by the accusations
that she offered to have Scott's body exhumed so a new DNA sample could be taken to prove her innocence.
- MELISSA: I wanna say it took about a month. - When I--I received a call back from them.
In essence, what they told me is Scott and Brian's blood vials were mislabeled. Somebody put the wrong name on the DNA,
and so, they were doing a DNA test of my son with Brian Lucas, not knowing it was Brian Lucas' blood,
they just thought I'd had an affair. - NARRATOR: It had been a year of hell for Melissa.
- MELISSA: It--it broke my heart, it broke my spirit. I decided to move back to Arizona when my child was one.
I just figured, it was time for me to start back over in my home area, and kind of get us out
of the public eye because everybody knew who we were here and I--I didn't wanna raise my son that way.
- NARRATOR: The police had zero suspects and the murders would go unsolved for over a decade.
But the perpetrator was hiding in plain sight. A disgruntled customer who'd taken his frustration out
in the most extreme and callous way. The killer was Todd Kohlhepp. - DANIEL: There's records of him being in the store
and the shop owner and manager and some others had apparently-- making fun of him in a way, sort of a light hearted banter,
you know, they--they were, they were known to--to joke around. - DANIEL: And Todd being Todd, that just fueled a fire in him,
you know, whereas anybody else, it's like, "Okay, if somebody "was joking towards me or making fun of me even,
you know, it's, it is what it is," you know, they move on, right? Um, but Todd's not gonna take--take that from anybody,
and them making fun of him, he felt that they had to pay. - NARRATOR: Kohlhepp returned to the bike shop
on the 6th of November 2003 and waited until no other customers were in the store.
He then drew a gun and exacted his revenge. - DANIEL: And, just one by one, Todd executes them,
he shoots them, cold blood. Brian and Scott actually were the last to be shot, and, um, after they saw what was happening,
they started to run for the front door, and, um, Todd was able to shoot both of them
right outside the door. - I think getting away with those murders at the bike shop, would've been really meaningful,
um, for Kohlhepp because it signals to him that there are no consequences to this,
"I can kill and I can get away with it." - NARRATOR: Feeling invincible, Kohlhepp would spend
the next decade honing a successful career as one of the top real estate agents in Spartanburg.
But in 2015, Kohlhepp's lust for blood returned. The 44-year-old had recently acquired
a large plot of land in Woodruff, South Carolina. The 95-acre grounds would soon become
Kohlhepp's killing fields. On the 22nd of December 2015, 29-year-old Johnny Coxie and his 25-year-old wife, Meagan,
were reported missing. - Meagan and Johnny were a young married couple in their 20s
and they were quite vulnerable. They had experienced quite a few issues in the past,
um, drug addiction, they'd had their--their child removed by--by Social Services, and they came to know Kohlhepp
because he offered them work, working on his property doing manual labor. So, I think he very much saw
that vulnerability in them, um, and--and exploited that because Kohlhepp is a predator, and he is--is very good
at spotting vulnerabilities in other people. - GEOFFREY: Kohlhepp sees them as almost a perfect pair
of victims. So, he makes a pretense, on the 19th of December 2015, he says, "I would like you to come out
"to the Woodruff property, I need some clearing to be done." Now, not many people are gonna miss them, I mean,
they've been living rough. They--they haven't got lots and lots of, um, relatives around.
He takes them to the property, they get out of the car... - DANIEL: Then he shoots Johnny.
He drops dead, he then takes Meagan Coxie and puts her into a container and holds her captive
for about a week. - NARRATOR: In a bid to escape the clutches of Kohlhepp, Meagan started a fire in her makeshift prison.
Just like her husband, she was executed in cold blood by the twisted killer. - GEOFFREY: He said she was acting like a caged animal,
and so, he said, quite matter factly, "I put a bullet in the back of her head." So now he's got two bodies.
He digs graves for them both, and buries them on the property. Goes back to work as a real estate agent
as if nothing whatever had happened. - NARRATOR: The police had no leads in the disappearance of Johnny and Meagan Coxie.
Once again, Kohlhepp had got away with murder, and eight months later, he was ready to kill again.
On the 4th of September 2016, a family made a call to the police to report that their 32-year-old son, Charles David Carver,
known as Charlie, was missing. - CHUCK: He was just a caring person, he always wanted to help people.
He'd give you the last $2.00 out of his wallet and the shirt off is back if you needed it, you know,
he was just that kind of a guy. - DANIEL: Seemed like a--a happy life. Charlie would text his father everyday or every other day.
They'd talk about sports, um, so he lived a pretty normal life. - CHUCK: The last text I got from him before he went missing
was about football, you know, it was just a funny cartoon, and I still have it. [chuckles]
- NARRATOR: Alongside Charlie, his new girlfriend, Kala Brown, had also disappeared.
- CHUCK: I ran into Charlie and Kala in Walmart on a Saturday. We were shopping and they were coming out,
and he introduced Kala to us and that was the first time I'd met her, and five days later,
they went missing. - NARRATOR: In late August, Charlie and his girlfriend had been contacted by a friend of 30-year-old Kala,
Todd Kohlhepp. - DANIEL: Kala had already known Todd Kohlhepp. They had met previously and they had chatted online on Facebook.
Pretty often, you know, at some point, Kohlhepp had offered for Kala to work for him as well,
you know, he was looking for work and he knew Kala as sort of a friend at this point.
- NARRATOR: Days turned into weeks, and Charlie and Kala failed to return home. They had seemingly vanished off the face of the Earth.
- CHUCK: About 30 days into it, my wife and I talked and I said, "Something's wrong, don't know what,
what has happened," but just had the parent feeling that... you know, it wasn't gonna be good, and so,
we sat our kids down and, three youngest and said, "This may not, you know, end well, you know,
your brother may be gone." - NARRATOR: The search continued into October 2016, but it would be in vain.
Charlie Carver had been dead since the 31st of August. Just like Johnny and Meagan Coxie,
Charlie and Kala's visit to Kohlhepp's Woodruff home would end in tragedy. - DANIEL: So they came together on the property
and without hesitation, Todd Kohlhepp ends up shooting, um, Charlie three times in the chest,
and he dropped to the floor. At this point, Kala Brown is just stunned, you know, this-- she just watched her boyfriend
get murdered in front of her and not sure what to do, basically silent, just standing there in fear
and Kohlhepp then goes to her, shoves her in the shipping container and chains her up inside there.
- NARRATOR: Just like Meagan Coxie, Kala Brown became Todd Kohlhepp's prisoner. - DANIEL: The next two months, Kala Brown is in captivity.
She's on that property, no one's heard from her, no one knows where she is, meanwhile, Kohlhepp
is still living his normal life. He's going to work, he's working late hours, he's talking to people like normal.
- GEOFFREY: I think he's convinced himself that's it's all worked, that "My fantasy's come true,
"I have my captive, I go there everyday, "do what I want with her, and I resume my, quote,
'ordinary life' outside." He is so obsessed with his own satisfaction, with his own personality with that god complex of his,
that he doesn't believe for one second that she will ever leave his clutches. The pretty fly in the spider's web.
She is his and will remain his. - NARRATOR: But this time, by utilizing cell phone
triangulation, the police were hot on the heels of Todd Kohlhepp. - DANIEL: Then they realized that Kala's phone is pinging
in Spartanburg County, so they reach out to Spartanburg and from there, they learn property records
and they can see that, okay, this property--piece of property is owned by a man named Todd Kohlhepp.
- NARRATOR: On the 3rd of November 2016, two months after the disappearance of Charlie Carver and Kala Brown,
the police were ready to swoop. - DANIEL: We've got investigators in Spartanburg
that go to Kohlhepp's house, which is about 20 minutes or so from the Woodruff property, and meanwhile,
there's another team of investigators that go to the Woodruff property with a search warrant.
- DANIEL: And they get into the property and they start looking, they find Kala chained up
in the container. They hear her inside, they take a long time to kinda cut through all the chains and locks
that had been on the container, open it up, find her, rescue her. - GEOFFREY: Wonderful video of them actually
opening the container, taken by the police at the time. It's extraordinary and they--they walk in
and right at the back of the container, right at the far end, there she is. - NARRATOR: There was no sign of Charlie.
- NARRATOR: Investigators radio this traumatic update through to their colleagues at Kohlhepp's home.
- DANIEL: And at this point, Kohlhepp just shuts down, he--he kinda gives this blank stare and he goes,
"I don't know what you're talking about." - DANIEL: And they're pressing him on it, saying,
"We've got Kala, now you can either cooperate "and tell us more, tell us where Charlie is
or we could go the hard way." - NARRATOR: Finally Todd Kohlhepp was safely behind bars.
Kala Brown had been saved after a terrifying ordeal. - DR. YARDLEY: He held her in a storage container
for 65 days, um, and subjected her to the most horrendous sexual violence, um, he raped her, twice a day, um, on some occasions.
She was simply there as his play thing to be used as he wished. She reported that Kohlhepp told her that he owned her,
that she was his possession, and that is very indicative of--of somebody who is controlling,
somebody who sees women as objects, somebody is inherently a misogynist, so I think her account is a really valuable one,
and I'm just very thankful that she survived to tell the tale. - DANIEL: Unlike Meagan, who we know,
sort of put up a fight and was very and very disagreement with Kohlhepp, um, I think Kala did what
she had to do to--to get by. Ultimately, you know, she was rescued and I don't know
if she ever thought she would be rescued, but, ultimately that happened. - NARRATOR: But there was no good news for the Carver family.
- CHUCK: I guess it was that Saturday night about seven o'clock, it was dark, and the coroner came up,
and said that they had positive ID that it was Charlie. That was the hard time. You just... don't wanna hear those words.
- NARRATOR: Days later, Chuck was able to visit the Woodruff property where his son's life
had been so cruelly taken away. - CHUCK: Standing there on that gravel driveway,
close to the same area where he was probably been laying, I was just like, "How could he do this?"
How could a man just walk out, not knowing who this person was, anything about this person, and just end his life,
right there? - NARRATOR: Lying close to Charlie Carver on the grounds of Todd Kohlhepp's Woodruff property
were the bodies of Johnny and Meagan Coxie, all three had been shot and left in shallow graves.
- DANIEL: Meanwhile, Todd is already in jail, arrested and so the--the murder charges have already started stacking up
against him while he's sitting there in those first initial days of being caught.
Todd is already explaining to investigators, "Hey if you listen to me, if, you know, maybe if we work out
a deal, um, I've got a lot more to tell you guys." - NARRATOR: Charged with three murders
and the imprisonment of Kala Brown, Todd Kohlhepp was about to confess to a crime that had gone unsolved for 13 years.
The revelation would leave investigators completely dumbfounded. He revealed to investigators
that he had even more to tell them. - DANIEL: He is just going in depth, in great detail about
the various things that he did, including and most importantly, uh, the murders of the Superbike Motorsports families.
- DR. YARDLEY: And when he's describing to the police what happened, he's bragging about it,
he's saying, "You would've been proud of me." He's looking for validation. He's--he's wanting other people to be impressed by him,
and we see this often in cases of--of serial killers. Once they are linked to a particular crime
or a series of crime, they wanna take the credit for it. They want full recognition for what they've done.
- NARRATOR: The investigators were completely taken aback. Kohlhepp knew details of the four Superbike killings
that had never been made public. They decided to call the families of the victims,
including the widow of Scott Ponder, Melissa Brackman. - MELISSA: I was walking out of the movie theater
with my family and it was Detective Lachica, and he wanted to know if I would be available in an hour,
that I needed to be able to talk to him and be home, and I said, "Sure." And so, he calls me and--and he said,
"We have a confession to the Superbike," and I break down, and I just, I--I can't believe this,
like, "Are you--are you serious?" and he's just like, "This is not something I would kid with you about,"
and he started to explain, "Have you been following the news? There was a girl that we just recovered,"
and I said, "I have been following that story, how does that relate t--?" you know, and he says,
"It's the same guy." - NARRATOR: After 13 years of unanswered questions, Melissa couldn't quite believe that the mystery
of who killed her husband had been solved. - MELISSA: I was everything. [chuckles]
I was happy, I was angry, I was sad, I was... in question of everything, like, "What was his motive?" you know,
"Why would, why would he have gone and-- "why did he kill my mother-in-law? "Why did, you know, if he was mad at the dealership,
"why would he take out my mother-in-law, what's--what's that about?" - NARRATOR: The community of Spartanburg, where Kohlhepp
was lauded as a well-respected real estate agent, was stunned. A serial killer had been operating in their midst.
- DANIEL: At this point, Kohlhepp has confessed to these four murders. He's confessed to killing Charlie Carver and the Coxies,
um, so he's got seven murder charges stacked against him and the kidnapping of Kala.
And shortly after, since he's confessed, there is-- they don't need to go to trial, um, he--he ends up
taking a, uh, plea agreement. "If you plead guilty to these seven murders, we'll give you a life sentence and you'll avoid
the death penalty," and so he said, "Sign me up." - NARRATOR: On the 26th of May 2017, Todd Kohlhepp
was given seven consecutive life sentences. One for each of his victims plus another 60 years
for the kidnap of Kala Brown. Two years later, at a civil hearing in July 2019, the victims' loved ones, seeking compensation
from Kohlhepp's estate, were given an opportunity to confront the killer. - CHUCK: The whole time I was talking, we were engaged,
you know, he wasn't looking at the ceiling or the walls or the floor, it was me and him, and I was telling
my story of Charlie. How his loss has impacted me and my family. As I finished up, our attorney asked me,
"What was the amount of damages we were seeking?" I said that we weren't seeking a certain amount
'cuz you can't put an amount on a person's life. And no amount of money was gonna bring him back.
Because I wanted Todd to hear that. [sniffling] I wanted Todd to understand what he took.
From me. - NARRATOR: Also at the lawsuit hearing, were the family of Scott Ponder, including his widow, Melissa.
- DANIEL: And, uh, it was such a powerful moment 'cuz she had actually taken the stand to explain,
you know, what this has meant to her and what this has done to her, and she used the opportunity
to forgive Kohlhepp, which is so rare to see, you know, somebody who destroyed her life in a sense,
and, you know, killed her husband. She took the high road and she sat there and she looked him square in the eye and said,
"Mr. Kohlhepp, I forgive you." - MELISSA: Did I really owe him? Not really, but I just needed him to understand that, you know,
what his reasoning and what he's using was playful banter from a couple of guys that joke around alot and that was the environment,
and, you know, that was hard and a normal person does not go in and wipe four people out because they piss you off.
- NARRATOR: As well as Melissa, her son, Scott, was given the opportunity to look into the eyes of the man
who'd taken the life of his father just months before he was born. Scott showed maturity beyond his years
and is certain that his actions would be met with approval from his father. - SCOTT JR.: I knew that he would be proud of me
and my, um, mom and the rest of my family that was there was proud of me. I just, in general, knew that I was doing good for my dad
and I knew that even though I was nervous, I had to push through it and I just knew
that I had to do it because this is the last chance I had to, uh, speak to him and just get the message across
and that's basically all I wanted. - MELISSA: I miss Scott, he was so good to me.
I'm thrilled that I have a child that bears his resemblance and that has picked up
some of his characteristics and it actually-- it's--it's good for me, it make, it makes me happy.
It makes me feel like, sadly as it is, it's all played out in--in a positive way.
- NARRATOR: Since his incarceration, Todd Kohlhepp has hinted there may have been other victims in the 12-year gap
between the Superbike killings and the Woodruff murders. - DANIEL: I definitely feel like this story is just beginning.
I feel like it's a story that, um, that the nation is gonna be interested in, moving forward.
If we learn about other killings, you know, these are other families out there that are looking
for answers, and they can have answers if Kohlhepp is willing to come forward and provide more detail that can lead to a discovery
of a body or who knows what else. - NARRATOR: Daniel Gross has been writing to the killer
to try and uncover Kohlhepp's secrets. - DANIEL: It's a bizarre feeling every time--every time I see
his signature on those letters or just his little banter of, you know, "Hope you're doing well,"
or, you know, whatever he might say. It's a weird feeling because, um, it's this gray area of,
um, you know, you're a serial killer and we're not friends by any means, you know,
let's try to find some more detail here and bring some other families some closure.
- NARRATOR: Kohlhepp's ability to blend into his surroundings made him an exceptionally dangerous killer.
- DANIEL: Even the sheriff, Chuck Wright, mentioned, after his arrest that he believes he might've
even met Kohlhepp at some point, without even knowing that, you know, he's shaking a serial killer's hand,
and so that just shows that, you know, Todd Kohlhepp was out there, he was, he was in the public,
he had built this successful brand. - DR. YARDLEY: I think for me what makes this case
so exceptional are the different victim types that he targets. He kills anybody who is a threat to his sense of self,
and I think it is that complete disregard for--for other people and anybody who gets
in his way is gonna suffer. - NARRATOR: Kohlhepp was a selfish killer, who murdered seven people for no reason.
Four of them in a petulant rage that left an unborn child fatherless. It is not only the lives he took,
but the lives he left behind, a grieving wife, a distraught father, an emotionally scarred
young woman that make Todd Kohlhepp one of the world's most evil killers. - ♪ ♪♪
- [swishing sound]

Todd Kohlhepp was a serial killer who murdered seven people over a 13-year period.

An in-depth look at the lives and crimes of some of the world's most evil killers, including Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, Richard Ramirez, Cary Stayner, Leonard Lake, Dorothea Puente and more.

Brief Summary

Todd Kohlhepp, a real estate agent, kidnapped and murdered multiple people, including Kala Brown and Charlie Carver, revealing a history of violence.

Key points

Kala Brown's Rescue. Kala Brown was found chained in a container after 65 days, while her boyfriend was murdered.
The Horrific Motorcycle Dealership Murders. In 2003, Todd Kohlhepp killed four people at a motorcycle dealership in cold blood.
Charlie Carver's Tragic Disappearance. Charlie Carver and his girlfriend Kala Brown went missing under mysterious circumstances.
The Horrific Murder. Todd Kohlhepp murders Charlie in front of Kala, shocking her into silence.
Kala's Captivity. Kala Brown is held captive for two months while Kohlhepp lives normally.
Confession After 13 Years. Todd Kohlhepp confesses to multiple murders, shocking the community.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

How could a man just walk out, not knowing who this person was?

Reflecting on the murder of Charlie Carver

0:48WatchAug 17, 2021

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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