Sex slave freed from her chains
Dramatic end to two-month ordeal at the hands of a killer
SHACKLED from neck to ankle and chained to the wall of an industrial storage container, a woman shies away as a police officer uses bolt cutters to free her from two months of captivity.
Kala Brown had been repeatedly raped by her captor Todd Kohlhepp, a serial killer who also murdered her boyfriend and six others in the US.
Prosecutors in South Carolina have released video footage of the moment police found Miss Brown, 30, on a remote farm in Spartanburg.
It shows a shower of sparks as they use a metal cutter to open the container, before venturing inside, hands on their guns. They pass a sinister-looking cage, then their torches pick out the hostage chained up on a pile of filthy mattresses.
As her chains were cut, she told her rescuers how Kohlhepp had shot dead her boyfriend Charlie Carver. ‘He says he’s dead and buried, he says there’s several bodies dead and buried here,’ she said.
Investigators later found three bodies – including that of Mr Carver and a married couple – on the 95-acre property.
On the way to hospital, Miss Brown told police that Kohlhepp, 45, a successful estate agent, had also confessed to killing four people in a rampage at a motorcycle repair shop in a notorious unsolved crime 13 years earlier.
Police had gone to the property in November last year after signals from Miss Brown’s mobile phone indicated she might have been in the area when she van- ished in August. Sheriff’s deputies heard her banging on the walls of the container as they served a search warrant on Kohlhepp.
‘It was pretty emotional,’ said county sheriff Chuck Wright. ‘She was chained like a dog. It’s only by God’s grace that we found that little girl alive.’
Last month, Kohlhepp pleaded guilty to raping Miss Brown and killing seven people. He was spared the death sentence in exchange for his guilty plea and was given seven life sentences.
During her captivity in the 30ft by 15ft container, Miss Brown was given a five-gallon bucket for a lavatory, and just crackers and mouldy cheese to eat. Kohlhepp fed her once a day and occasionally took her out for exercise, leading her around his property by the chain on her neck.
Miss Brown had worked for Kohlhepp for several weeks, cleaning houses he was trying to sell.
She and her boyfriend went to his ranch home after he asked them to clear some undergrowth. But when they arrived, he took them hostage. He shot Mr Carver, 32,up in threethe container.times and chained her
The bodies of the two others found on the property were Johnny and Meagan Coxie, a young couple who had been reported missing nearly a year earlier. Both had been shot after also being lured to his home on the promise of work.
Prosecutors discovered Kohlhepp, who enjoyed killing pets as a child, was convicted, aged 15, of kidnapping a 14-year-old girl and raping her at gunpoint. He served nearly 14 years behind bars registeredin Arizonasex offender.and was still a
Speaking about her ordeal, Miss Brown said: ‘I would tell him that no matter what he did to me, he did not break me. He cannot destroy who I am and I won. He tried to crush me but I’m not broken. I’ll recover from this.’