Man who 'chained woman up like dog' confesses to seven murders

A man arrested after a woman was found on his property chained up like a dog has confessed to killing seven people, police said.

The details of Todd Kohlhepp's alleged crime spree only come to light last week when police rescued 30-year-old Kala Brown from a metal storage container.

Miss Brown said she had been kept there since she went missing with her boyfriend Charles Carver, 32, in August.

Mr Carver's body has since been found on the property. Police say he died of multiple gunshot wounds but the time of death has not yet been determined.

Kohlhepp later led police to where he said he had buried two more of his victims on his 95-acre property in South Carolina.

The sheriff said it was possible more bodies would now be uncovered.

Local police say Kohlhepp also admitted to slaughtering four employees of a motorcycle shop 13 years ago.

Kohlhepp confessed to the unsolved 2003 massacre that left the owner, service manager, mechanic and book-keeper of Superbike Motorsports dead.

The 'Superbike killings' stunned the local community at the time with rumours they were committed by a Mexican drug gang or part of a love triangle crushing the families of the victims.

Melissa Ponder, whose husband Scott was killed in the rampage, said she was glad the rumours were untrue. "It isn't closure, but it is an answer. And I am thankful for that."

At 15, Kohlhepp was convicted of raping a 14-year-old neighbour at gunpoint and threatening to kill her siblings if she called police. He was released from prison in Arizona in 2001 .

Kohlhepp had to register as a sex offender but that did not stop him from getting a South Carolina estate agent's licence in 2006 and building a firm.

Scott Waldrop, who has lived next door to the Woodruff property for nearly 22 years, said Kohlhepp paid him to put no-trespassing signs, cut trees for him and other odd jobs around the property.

Kohlhepp also installed deer cameras and put in bear traps throughout.

"I was the only one he let over there, I think because I laughed at his jokes and listened to him.

"I just hate to know somebody who's done something like this," Mr Waldrop said.