Serial killer Todd Kohlepp left sinister Amazon reviews on weapons before a woman was found chained up in a storage container. Kohlepp, a successful real estate businessman, pleaded guilty to killing seven people across South Carolina in 2017. His sick crimes were uncovered after November 2, 2016, when a missing Anderson woman was found in a storage container on Kohlhepp’s property in Woodruff. Soon afterward, three bodies were found nearby.
The woman – Kala Brown – had been missing for two months before cellphone data led authorities to the property. When he was arrested, Kohlhepp also admitted he had killed four people in the Superbike motorcycle shop in November 2003, allowing investigators to solve a puzzling crime that had been a mystery for more than a decade.
The arrest led to a wave of creepy revelations about the killer including that he would watch porn at work, make disturbing jokes, and openly discuss his previous conviction for sex offenses. He would also leave reviews on Amazon about the weapons he used to kill his victims, told The Guardian.
The revelations come in a new documentary, The Amazon Review Killer: Chilling Confession. Both episodes of the documentary, directed by Billy Arthur, 22, will air on Monday, January 6th at 10 pm.
Kohlepp, who was born in Florida but raised in Georgia and South Carolina, suffered from mental health problems from as young as nine when he was referred to the Behaviour Evaluation Centre at the Georgia Mental Health Institute following problems at school.
In 1986, aged just 15, he kidnapped and sexually assaulted a girl for which he was later sentenced. A sentencing report, obtained by WFXG, claimed he had lured the girl outside before pointing a “small blue steel handgun at her head.”
Once they got to his bedroom he duct taped her mouth, tied her up, and “removed her clothes, then his clothes, and forced the victim to have sexual intercourse with him.” He pleaded guilty to kidnapping in the case and was added to the sex offender registry in Arizona. He remained behind bars from 1987 to 2001.
After leaving prison he transferred to the University of South Carolina-Upstate and came near the top of his class before distinguishing himself in the real estate business. In 2009 he set up his own business – Todd Kohlhepp & Associates.
In 2014, an Amazon user named ‘me’ with a wish list linked to ‘Todd Kohlhepp’ began to leave reviews. One left on 13 September 2014 under a listing for a knife read: “haven’t (sic) stabbed anyone yet…… yet…. but I am keeping the dream alive and when I do, it will be with a quality tool like this…”
One for a shovel read: “keep in the car for when you have to hide the bodies and you left the full-size shovel at home…. does not come with a midget, which would have been nice.” Another on a padlock read: “Solid locks.. have 5 on a shipping container.. won’t stop them.. but sure will slow them down til they are too old to care. (sic)”
Kohlhepp raped Brown while holding her against her will, and told her he had also killed a husband and wife in December 2015, burying their bodies on his land. Although usually the Mirror would not identify victims of sexual assault, Brown has spoken publicly about her traumatic experience.
Brown also told investigators she saw Kohlhepp shoot and kill her boyfriend, who had gone with her for a cleaning job on Kohlhepp’s property. The serial killer remains locked up at the Broad River Correctional Institution in South Carolina. At the time of his conviction, the state was not sentencing people to death due to a lack of access to the lethal injection drug.
The new Channel 4 series’ director, Billy Arthur, said: “Todd Kohlhepp lived out his twisted impulses in plain sight, and the Amazon reviews he left are a horrifying example of how someone can hide behind the mask of normalcy – until the mask cracks. “It was a privilege to bring this shocking story to light in a way that honors the victims and highlights the resilience of those who survived.”
