Kala Brown/Facebook(CHARLESTON, S.C.) — Prosecutors have released chilling video footage of the rescue of Kala Brown after she was kidnapped by alleged serial killer Todd Kohlhepp in South Carolina in 2016.
The disturbing video, released by prosecutors late Friday along with dozens of pictures and hundreds of pages of evidence, shows the moment on Nov. 3, 2016 when officers discover Brown, who authorities say was “chained up like a dog” inside a metal storage container on Kohlhepp’s property near Woodruff.
After hearing Brown’s screams, officers are seen on video breaking open the green container she was kept in and entering into its darkness with flashlights and guns. They walk past cases of plastic water bottles, metal shelving and what appears to be a cage before finding Brown at the back of the bin.
In the video, Brown is seen on a makeshift bed. She’s dressed in a dark long-sleeved shirt, sweatpants and flip flops, and has a large chain around her neck. Her hands are cuffed behind her head.
“My neck’s attached to the wall up here,” Brown tells the officers with a quiet, shaky voice.
“We’re getting bolt cutters, honey,” one officer tells her.
One officer asks Brown, “Where’s your buddy?”
“Charlie? He shot him,” Brown says, referring to her boyfriend, 32-year-old Charles Carver.
“Who did?” the officer asks.
“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,” Brown calmly tells authorities as she is being unchained.
After freeing Brown from her chains, the officers wrap a towel around her shoulders and lead her out of the container.
Brown, 30, and Carver had been missing for two months before authorities located her. Brown’s cellphone indicated she might have been in the area where she was discovered when she vanished.
Carver’s body was later found in a shallow grave on Kohlhepp’s vast property. Authorities recovered other human remains from the premises.
Three bodies were found by authorities, including one identified as Carver, on Kohlhepp’s property. After Kohlhepp was charged for kidnapping Brown, police say he also confessed to killing four people at a motorcycle shop in a South Carolina town in 2003.
On May 26, Kohlhepp pleaded guilty in connection with the deaths of seven people, as well as kidnapping and raping Brown. His guilty plea was in exchange for serving seven consecutive life sentences with no chance of parole. The solicitor agreed not to seek the death penalty as part of the deal.
ABC News typically doesn’t identify sexual assault victims; however, Brown has spoken publicly about her ordeal.
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