Todd Kohlhepp is an infamous American sex offender and serial killer, convicted of seven murders (2013-2016) in South Carolina. He is now serving seven consecutive life sentences, and is not eligible for parole.
Age, Early Life, and Education Background
Todd Christopher Kohlhepp was born in Florida, USA, under the Pisces zodiac sign on 7 March 1971, which makes him 51 years old as of 2022 – he spent his childhood in Georgia and South Carolina. He had a troubled childhood – his parents divorced when he was barely two years old, and his mother remarried shortly afterward – psychological reports established that he did not have an intimate relationship with his stepfather, who officially adopted him in 1976, as he was abusive towards his mother, and also beat him up constantly; he wanted to relocate and live with his biological dad.
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Todd was described as a very troublesome child who was very aggressive, and would frequently destroy other kids’ properties in nursery school. He started going for counseling sessions at the age of nine, and was not only described as ‘explosive’ but was also found to be ‘preoccupied with sexual thoughts.’ He was also cruel towards animals, and was eventually taken to a psychiatric hospital in Georgia, where he spent three months because he was not able to get along with his classmates and other children. Soon after his mother parted ways with his stepfather, Todd was ultimately taken to Arizona to live with his biological dad, who allegedly taught him how to make bombs and blow things up,, and he was very fascinated with his father’s leisure pursuit of collecting weapons.
Nonetheless, his relationship with his father worsened when he started being absent and stopped spending time with the young Todd.
Kohlhepp is a Computer Science graduate – from Central Arizona College – who completed the course while he was still in prison. He later worked for Spartanburg, which is a graphic design firm in 2002 and 2003 before he attended Greenville Technical College (2003). A few years later, he graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Business Administration- Marketing from the University of South Carolina in 2008.
Beginning of His Life in Crime
Todd abducted and raped a 14 years old girl in Tempe, Arizona, when he was 15-years-old.
He threatened her with a revolver before he committed the beastly act, and further warned that he would shoot her if she told anyone. He was eventually arrested and arraigned a year later; he pleaded guilty and was imprisoned for a decade and a half, and was labelled as a sex offender. Todd was reported to have an above-average IQ of around 118, although he suffered from emotional dysregulation disorder, or borderline personality disorder. He was released 14 years later in 2001, and moved in with his mother.
Career
Despite being a sex offender, Kohlhepp somehow managed to obtain a real estate license in June 2006, later founding a firm and employing a couple of agents.
His company was very successful, and was well recognized in Carolina, and it also owned a number of properties outside the state – he previously purchased around 100 acres of land in Moore, Oklahoma, for approximately $305,000. The previous owner of the land described Todd as professional and very outgoing.
Kohlhepp liked going to a local Waffle House eatery in Roebuck. and one of the waitresses whom he later murdered, named Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie found his behavior very disturbing to the extent of refusing to serve him – she only allowed male waiters to attend to him. Between 2014 to 2016, Todd left more than 139 Amazon reviews for several items which included tactical gear, knives and guns.
In his previous review of a hardened steel padlock that came with ‘hidden shackles,’ he became what most people called being gruesome in honesty, when he revealed his sadistic nature, ‘… (it) works great… also if someone talks back… go old school on them by putting it in a sock and beating them… they will not appreciate the hardened steel like you will.’
Murders and Arrest
A customer found four people gunned down inside the Chesnee-based Superbike Motorsports dealership – Scott Ponder, bookkeeper Beverly Guy (Scott’s father), service manager Brian Lucas, and mechanic Chris Sherbert.
Todd was a regular customer there, and according to his mother, he was attempting to return a motorbike but the management refused to refund him, and to add insult to injury, the employees allegedly made fun of him because he did not know how to ride one. He ended up killing the four, as he later confessed in 2016.
In August 2016, Charles David Carver and his girlfriend Kala Brown went missing after they went to Todd’s residence to clean. David’s body was later discovered in the residence riddled with bullets. In November that year, the authorities tracked Kala’s ‘phone, and they luckily found her chained inside a container in Todd’s property. She claimed that she had witnessed her boyfriend being shot for being ‘very smart,’ which seemed to annoy Todd.
Following Todd’s arrest in November, police found two more bodies on his property, and identified the victims as Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie and her husband Johnny Joe Coxie – the two residents of Spartanburg had been reported missing in 2015, after being hired by Kohlhepp to work for him.
Detention
Kohlhepp confessed to multiple killings and abductions after he was arrested. Officials also found multiple weapons including pistols, which he’d acquired illegally, on his property. He was initially charged with four counts of murder in relation to the motorbike shop shooting in Chesnee, and was later found guilty of three more killings, the Coxies and Carver murders. He was also charged with a count of sexual assuault, and after he pleaded guilty on 26 May 2017, he was sentenced to serve seven life sentences back to back at Broad River Correctional Institution.
Personal Life
One of Todd’s old friends from his university years, Cherry Laurens found it hard to believe that he could commit the atrocious crimes he was convicted of, saying that she had known him to be a decent person. Todd’s personal details are not known to the public, and he hasn’t disclosed whether he was married or not before being detained.
Height, Weight, and Physical Appearance
Todd is 5ft 9ins (1.80m) tall and weighs approximately 200lbs (95kgs). He is of Caucasian ethnicity, and has brown eyes and black hair.
Net Worth
Todd is reportedly worth around $500,000 – he had previously accumulated a lot of wealth through his real estate firm, but a large portion of his fortune was used to compensate the families of his victims after he was imprisoned.
