More details have emerged in the investigation of Todd Kohlhepp, a South Carolina man who police say may be responsible for seven killings, including a quadruple homicide.
On Wednesday, two bodies unearthed on property Kholhepp owned near Woodruff, in the northern part of the state, were identified as Johnny Joe Coxie, 29, and his wife, Meagan Leigh McCraw Coxie, 25, Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger said.
Clevenger said it appeared Megan Coxie was shot in the head and Johnny Coxie was shot in the torso. The Spartanburg residents were identified through extensive tattoos that matched photos of them, he said.
The Coxies were reported missing in December by Megan Coxie’s mother, who said her daughter said she’d just gotten a new job, said Lt. Kevin Bobo, Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office spokesman.
The couple, who had a child together, had just gotten out of jail, Bobo said. They were known for panhandling beside Interstate 26, he said.
Bobo would not comment on how Kohlhepp knew the Coxies. He said the child was safe, but didn’t offer details.
Kohlhepp, 45, of Spartanburg was a registered sex offender who had served time in prison for kidnapping and worked as a real estate agent in the area.
The sheriff’s department first went to Kohlhepp’s property on November 3 to search for Kala Brown, 30, who’d been missing since August with her boyfriend.
Investigators found her chained by the ankle and neck and screaming for help inside a shipping container.
Authorities said Brown and Kohlhepp knew each other and that a social media post indicated she was to meet him at the farm on the day she and her boyfriend disappeared. The last ping from her cellphone came from Kohlhepp’s property, authorities said.
Kohlhepp didn’t cooperate at first but on November 5 he went back to the property with investigators and led them to the the bodies of Brown’s boyfriend, 32-year-old Charles Carver, and the Coxies, Bobo said.
Bobo said Kohlhepp cooperated after he was allowed to see his mother, allowed to transfer money to a friend’s child’s bank account and allowed to deliver a photograph to his mother.
Kohlhepp also confessed to a quadruple homicide that took place 13 years ago at a motorcycle shop in Chesnee, about 15 miles north of Spartanburg.
Business owner Scott Ponder, his mother Beverly Guy, service manager Brian Lucas and employee Chris Sherbert were found fatally shot inside the shop on November 6, 2003, CNN affiliate WYFF News 4 reported.
Kohlhepp told detectives details that only the killer would have known about the homicides at Superbike Motorsports, authorities said.
He’s been charged with four counts of murder in those killings. Kohlhepp has not been charged in the Coxies’ deaths but will be, Bobo said.
He has been charged with kidnapping in the abduction of Brown, who has been released from a hospital.
Bobo said investigators don’t think any more bodies will be found on the property.
“We feel at this time we’ve done a thorough search,” he said. “As far as anybody processing acreage, that part is over.”
Kohlhepp, who previously spent 15 years behind bars for kidnapping on a 1987 conviction in Arizona, did not enter a plea at his kidnapping hearing Friday. He appeared without an attorney.
Kohlhepp owns the Woodruff property, which he bought in May 2014 for $305,000. He lives in Spartanburg, not on the Woodruff property where the bodies were found.