Videos show rescue of rape victim chained in metal container, serial killer's confessions

WARNING: The videos and information on this page contain graphic content; viewer discretion is advised.

FOX59 does not typically name the victims of sexual assault, but in this case, the victim has spoken openly about her ordeal in an interview on national television.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- (WXIN) -- After hearing a woman's screams inside a large metal container, investigators sawed and pried open the bin, rescuing the woman who had been chained inside for about two months by a serial killer, according to new videos released by prosecutors.

The videos also show Todd Kohlhepp, in cold and emotionless detail, confessing to killing seven people in South Carolina. He pleaded guilty two weeks ago to avoid the death penalty and was sentenced to life in prison. On Friday, prosecutors released several videos, dozens of pictures and hundreds of pages of evidence against him.

In the rescue video, once the container was opened after the 10-minute operation, officers walked in carefully with their hands on their guns and found a clothed Kala Brown, sitting on the floor with a chain around her neck stretching to the wall.

“Do you know where your buddy is?” an officer said.

“Charlie? He shot him,” she said quietly.

“Who did?”

“Todd Kohlhepp shot Charlie Carver three times in the chest, wrapped him in a blue tarp, put him in the bucket of the tractor, locked me down here. I've never seen him again. He says he's dead and buried. He says there are several bodies dead and buried out here,” she said.

Investigators found three bodies on the rural Spartanburg County property. They had gone to the land on Nov. 3 to look for Brown and her boyfriend, 32-year-old Charles Carver. The couple had been missing for two months, and Brown's cellphone indicated she might have been in the area when she vanished.

Kohlhepp also pleaded guilty to raping Brown. The Associated Press typically doesn't identify victims of sexual assault, but Brown has spoken publicly about her traumatic experience, appearing on Dr. Phil's television show in February.

Authorities say on the way to the hospital, Brown told them about how Kohlhepp confessed to killing a married couple before she was captured, and about killing four people at a Spartanburg County motorcycle shop — murders that were unsolved for 13 years.