Here’s what happened to serial killer Todd Kohlhepp’s homes, guns after his conviction

Piece by piece, the land and belongings of convicted serial killer Todd Kohlhepp have gone to others in private sales and auctions over the past three years.

That includes the 96 acres in Woodruff where he chained a woman inside a shipping container for months, killed her boyfriend and buried him near two others Kohlhepp had killed earlier.

Also sold was his home in Moore, where he lived. BMWs and a motorcycle, tools, artwork, the stuff of everyday life for a well-to-do real estate broker with a diabolical secret life.

Still to be sold — if a sale is allowed by federal law enforcement agencies — is the extensive gun collection Kohlhepp accumulated illegally with the help of a man subsequently sent to federal prison for buying the guns. Kohlhepp was barred for life from owning firearms after an earlier felony conviction for rape and kidnapping.

The sales benefit the woman Kohlhepp kidnapped, Kala Brown, and survivors of the others he murdered: Brown’s boyfriend Charlie David Carver, Johnny Coxie and Megan McCraw Coxie, whose bodies were found at the Woodruff property, Scott Ponder, Brian Lucas, Beverly Guy and Chris Sherbert, who were shot to death at Superbike Motorsports in Chesnee.

When Kohlhepp was arrested for the Woodruff murders and kidnapping in 2016 he confessed to the long-unsolved Superbike murders from 2003.

In all, the proceeds from the house sales netted Brown and the survivors $350,000, far from the amounts ordered by the court. Brown was awarded $6.3 million, court records show. Brown received half of the $350,000 and the others $25,000 each, according to court order.

It is rare for victims in a criminal case to be able to recover any assets. Few have many.

Kohlhepp’s assets

As with the case of lawyer Alex Murdaugh, the Lowcountry lawyer embroiled in allegations of embezzlement and insurance fraud, Kohlhepp’s assets were frozen and the court appointed a receiver to sell them.

Kohlhepp’s Woodruff property on Wofford Road sold for $500,000 to Strange Properties #1 LLC, Spartanburg County property records show. The agent for that company is listed by the South Carolina Secretary of State’s Office as Annie Strange, who also owns Strange Properties 2, 3, 4, and 5.

Three of those entities own property, most of them large tracts bought from estates in Greer and Duncan.

Strange could not be reached for comment about what she intends to do with the acreage.

The proceeds from the Woodruff sale was less than the sales price because the property had been financed by the previous owner, who was owed $122,000, along with attorney’s fees and unpaid property taxes. Also, there was a $10,000 for a fence Kohlhepp had installed all around the 96 acres. Court records show another judgment in the amount of $3,380, but does not specify what it was for.

After he was arrested, Kohlhepp told detectives he wanted the 96 acres in Woodruff with its expansive fields and woods to be a sanctuary, but it became a “killing field.”

The Moore house is a two story brick-fronted residence with four bedrooms, three baths in an upscale neighborhood outside Spartanburg. Kolhlepp bought it for $137,000 in 2007 and it was sold in 2019 for $150,000. It was sold again in June for $295,000.

Kohlhlepp is serving seven life sentences in Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia.

All of the lawsuits brought by survivors are still pending because there could be more possessions to be sold, including Kohlhepp’s large gun collection.

The federal government seized the guns, some of which Kolhlepp had altered to make them fully automatic. Among the guns was a Barrett 82A1 .50 caliber rifle, which sells for about $8,000, and two Sig Sauer rifles, which are AR-15-type weapons.

Kolhlepp also owned a number of handguns and silencers.

Dustan Lawson pleaded guilty to 36 counts of buying the guns for Kolhlepp despite knowing Kolhlepp was a convicted felon. He is serving time at Butner federal prison in North Carolina with a release date of Nov. 12, 2024.

The guns are being held until a lawsuit against Academy Sports, which is accused of selling the guns to Lawson, is resolved.

This story was originally published November 15, 2021 at 2:09 PM.