Accused serial killer’s mom talks, prays with families of his alleged victims
The mother of accused serial killer Todd Kohlhepp prayed and talked with family members of his alleged victims for more than 10 minutes on Thursday morning prior to a hearing in a lawsuit.
A woman found chained to a storage container on Kohlhepp’s property filed a lawsuit against him, who was schedule to appear in court Thursdsay morning in Spartanburg.
She was allegedly chained inside for two months on Kohlhepp’s Woodruff property.
Regina Tague answered questions from the families about Kohlhepp and if they talk on the phone.
Among motions to be presented in the hearing is a request for the appointment of a receiver to identify and control Kohlhepp’s assets.
The former real-estate agent and registered sex offender has been charged with seven counts of murder and two kidnappings, according to warrants.
The South Carolina Commission on Indigent Defense, a group that provides legal representation to state residents who cannot afford to hire attorneys, has represented Kohlhepp in the criminal case against him.
Though Kohlhepp has purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars’ in property and saved enough money to transfer some to a friend as part of investigators’ efforts to secure his cooperation, he may qualify for that state-supported criminal defense because of high costs associated with such capital trials, according to John Blume, a Cornell Law School professor and former executive director of the South Carolina Death Penalty Resource Center, a nonprofit organization since renamed Justice 360 that provides resources to lawyers in death-penalty cases.
The civil case the woman filed against Kohlhepp seeks money for medical expenses, punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.
The lawsuit alleges Kohlhepp “presented a firearm” to “forcibly kidnap and imprison” her when she was on his rural property near Woodruff to perform cleaning services.
Police discovered her “chained like a dog” inside a container, according to Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright, sparking investigations that have tied Kohlhepp to the the deaths of seven people, including her boyfriend Charlie Carver, according to investigators.
The remains of Carver and Johnny and Meagan Coxie were discovered on that property after Kohlhepp confessed to killing them in the past year, according to Wright.
Kohlhepp also confessed to killing four people at a motorcycle shop in Chesnee in 2003, according to Wright.
Police in Tempe, Arizona, meanwhile, are focused on unsolved homicides preceding his arrest in 1986 and his release from prison for a kidnapping conviction in 2001 as they investigate Kohlhepp’s potential involvement in at least one unsolved shooting there.
This story was originally published January 5, 2017 at 11:11 AM with the headline "Accused serial killer’s mom talks, prays with families of his alleged victims."