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Police search for remains expands after confession

WOODRUFF, S.C. (AP) — Law enforcement investigators have expanded their search for human remains beyond the South Carolina property where they discovered a woman chained inside a storage container after the landowner confessed to a 13-year-old quadruple slaying and led them to graves where he says two bodies are buried.

Todd Kohlhepp, 45, became a suspect in at least seven deaths in the days after a woman was found Thursday chained by her neck and ankle in a metal storage container on his 95-acre property near rural Woodruff.

The body of her boyfriend was found a day later. Following his arrest, Kohlhepp confessed to a 2003 quadruple slaying at a motorcycle shop in the small town of Chesnee, said Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright.

He was denied bond Sunday on four murder charges for gunning down the motorcycle shop’s owner, service manager, mechanic and bookkeeper.

Wright has said Kohlhepp gave details only the killer would know. His confession came a day before the 13th anniversary of the crime, which many feared would never be solved.

Before his confession, authorities granted three requests, WSPA-TV reported. One was to transfer money to a girl Kohlhepp says he’s helping raise, to help pay for college.

The second was to give his mother a photograph, and the third was to let him talk to his mother.

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