Todd Kohlhepp, suspected S.C. serial killer, faces more murder charges
SPARTANBURG, S.C. -- A South Carolina man suspected of being a serial killer was formally charged with three additional counts of murder Monday for bodies found buried on his land.
The murder warrants against Todd Kohlhepp weren’t a surprise. Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright already said the 45-year-old real estate agent was responsible for those three killings and four more at a motorcycle shop in 2003.
“48 Hours” investigated the killings in the episode, “Buried Truth.”
Kohlhepp was charged with killing 32-year-old Charlie Carver between Aug. 30 and Sept. 2. Carver went to see Kohlhepp with his girlfriend to check on a cleaning job when he was shot and killed and she was kidnapped, authorities said.
Kohlhepp was arrested Nov. 3 after deputies found Carver’s girlfriend alive and chained in a storage container on a Woodruff property Kohlhepp owned, Wright said. Authorities have said Kohlhepp led them to the locations of Carver’s body and two others buried on the sprawling 95-acre lot.
Kohlhepp shot 25-year-old Meagan McCraw-Coxie on Christmas or Dec. 26 after holding her against her will for about a week, according to arrest warrants that include a kidnapping charge.
Her husband, 29-year-old Johnny Coxie was shot and killed a week earlier, a warrant said. The couple lived in Spartanburg and had a child together, authorities have said.
The Coxies were reported missing last December. Coxie was killed a day after his wife was released from jail. McCraw-Coxie had told her mother she needed to be bonded out so she could go to a job, but then her mother lost contact, Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Lt. Kevin Bobo said.
An online news report from December 2015 says McCraw-Coxie had been charged with child neglect after her baby tested positive for heroin. According to an incident report cited by Goupstate.com, McCraw-Coxie admitted using heroin in the first six months of her pregnancy and later said she began using the drug again.
The Spartanburg County Department of Social Services placed the child in the care of others, the website reported.
A former co-worker told CBS affiliate WSPA Kohlhepp used to frequent the Waffle House where McCraw-Coxie used to work.
Kohlhepp already faces four additional murder charges for killing the owner, service manager, mechanic and bookkeeper at a motorcycle shop in 2003. He was also already facing a kidnapping charge in the case of the woman found alive and chained last month, 30-year-old Kala Brown.
Deputies say Kohlhepp will not face kidnapping charges for Charles Carver or Johnny Coxie because it’s believed the victims went to his property voluntarily, WSPA reports.
Kohlhepp was set to appear before a magistrate judge Monday night, the station reports.