A search for two bodies in South Carolina has ended following a tip that incarcerated serial killer Todd Kohlhepp told someone that he buried additional victims on the side of the highway.
GoUpstate.com reported that Spartanburg County deputies concluded their six-hour search of a wooded area off Sumner Road near Interstate 26 at 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday. From the start, authorities were suspicious that Kohlhepp’s admission might be his way to manipulate police and keep his name in the news.
“I’m going to go ahead and put this out to everybody: This is going to be the last time this happens until he gives me some specifics I can corroborate,” Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright told reporters at the start of the search.
“I don’t want this to become one of those things where he wants to stay relevant.”
Wright also mentioned that they’ve found no evidence of any disappearance within the timeframe Kohlepp provided and that they’ve been unable to confirm most of his story.
Kohlhepp is serving seven consecutive life sentences at Broad River Correctional Facility in Columbia after pleading guilty in May 2017 to burying three of his victims on his 100-acre Woodruff property in 2016 and shooting fatally shooting four others at Superbike Motorsports near Chesnee in 2003.
Kohlhepp’s arrest came in November 2016, after a woman named Kala Brown was found chained up in a shipping container on his Woodruff property.
In a statement issued Wednesday to GoUpstate.com, police spokesman Lieutenant Kevin Bobo said Kohlhepp, in 2016, claimed to have killed two people at Superbike Motorsports prior to the quadruple slaying. Investigators were unable to corroborate his story but Kohlhepp provided the same account to filmmakers with Investigation Discovery and revealed where the bodies could be located, Bobo said.
The statement also noted that Kohlhepp told investigators that the two victims were buried at one spot while he told film crew that they were left in two separate locations. Kohlhepp has refused to speak with investigators until he received assurance that the death penalty is off the table, Wright said.
While the identities of Kohlhepp’s possible victims haven’t been released, Wright claimed Kohlhepp said they “may be pizza delivery people.” However, Wright claimed that also hasn’t been confirmed.
“Again, we didn’t find any evidence to support his claim,” the sheriff’s office said of Wednesday’s search in a statement, according to WSPA. “At present, there aren’t any plans to go back to the site tomorrow, and that lead will be suspended until Kohlhepp decides to share more detailed information that can be verified.”
[Featured Image: Todd Kohlhepp/Police handout]
