Woman chained in metal box says captor bragged about dozens of victims

article

Nov 4, 2016: Todd Kohlhepp is escorted into a Spartanburg County magistrate courtroom in South Carolina (The Spartanburg Herald - Journal via AP)

A South Carolina woman who spent two months chained inside a large metal container says her captor raped her daily and bragged that he was good at killing, claiming that his victims tallied nearly 100.

Kala Brown says she did what she had to do to survive. "He told me as long as I served my purpose, I was safe," Brown told Phillip McGraw, the host of the television show "Dr. Phil."

It was the first time she has talked publicly since her Nov. 3 rescue, which authorities say helped them solve seven killings in the area dating back 13 years. Police said Todd Kohlhepp, a real estate agent with his own firm until his arrest, killed Brown's boyfriend, a couple who had been missing nearly a year and four people at a motorcycle shop in 2003.

Brown said she and her boyfriend had gone to Kohlhepp's rural property Aug. 31 to help him clear some underbrush. She'd cleaned houses for him previously to prepare them for sale. After the couple followed him to a two-story garage on the 95-acre property in Spartanburg County, Kohlhepp handed them hedge clippers and bottles of water. He said he needed to get something inside and came out shooting, Brown said.

He shot Charles Carver three times in the chest, she said. He gagged Brown and handcuffed her ankles and wrists. Kohlhepp took her to a "pitch black," 30-foot-long storage container nearby, chained her by the neck in a back corner and raped her, she said.