Who is Todd Kohlhepp? Suspected South Carolina serial killer who confessed to seven murders and kidnapped Kala Brown

A SUSPECTED serial killer has confessed to killing seven people since he was arrested on suspicion of keeping a woman “chained like a dog”.

Cops found missing Kala Brown in a metal container on Todd Kohlhepp's land after she was missing for two months.

Since the discovery there have been many sinister developments - this is what we know about the alleged killer.

Who is Todd Kohlhepp? What was his childhood like?

Todd Kohlhepp was born on March 7 1971 in Florida.

His parents divorced when he was very young and he was raised by his mother, Regina Tague, in South Carolina and Georgia.

Regina remarried a year after her divorce.

As a teenager Kohlhepp went to stay with his father in Arizona.

It was in Arizona in 1987 that he was sentenced to 15-years in prison and registered as a sex offender after he admitted kidnapping a 14-year-old girl.

The judge in the case said he was "very bright and should be advanced academically," but was "behaviourally and emotionally dangerous".

Adult life

In 2001 Kohlhepp was released from prison and moved to South Carolina.

From January 2002 to November 2003 he worked as a graphic designer.

He graduated from the University of South Carolina Upstate with a degree in business administration-marketing in 2008.

Two years earlier he had gained a real estate licence and he worked to build up a successful firm, which employed more than a dozen agents.

In May 2014 he bought Woodruff Farm for $305,000.

What has he been accused of?

Kala Brown, 30, and her boyfriend Charles David Carver, 32, went missing on August 31, 2016.

On November 3, police found Kala chained up inside a metal storage container on Kohlhepp's property.

Carver was later found dead having suffered multiple gunshot wounds.

Sheriff Chuck Wright said Kohlhepp has since confessed to gunning down four people at a motorcycle shop in Chesnee, Spartanburg County in 2003.

Kohlhepp, 45, has been charged with four counts of murder in connection with the deaths of Brian Lucas, Scott Ponder, Beverly Guy and Chris Sherbert.

Two further bodies were found on Kohlhepp's property since his arrest - both having suffered gunshot wounds.

Husband and wife Johnny Joe Coxie, 29, and Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie, 26, were both drifters from .

The couple, who were newly married and had a newborn son, had been reported missing on December 22, 2015.

Kohlhepp was charged with four counts of murder in relation to the to the motorcycle shootings, as well as one count of kidnapping over Brown's abduction.

He has also been charged with three counts of murder over Charles' death, as well as those of Johnny Coxie and Meagan McCraw-Coxie.

What happened to Kala Brown?

Kala Brown was held captive by Kohlhepp for two months, chained up "like a dog" inside a large metal container.

Speaking to Dr Phil, Kala revealed Kohlhepp warned that if she tried to run or hurt him, he would kill her.

She said: "He let me know if I tried to hurt him, he'd kill me. If I fought back, he would kill me. And then he raped me. He would rape me twice a day, every day.

"He told me as long as I served my purpose, I was safe".