INDEPENDENT MAIL and THE GREENVILLE NEWS

Half of a mystery that began in August in Anderson was solved Thursday morning in Spartanburg County when Kala Brown was found alive, chained in a large metal storage building, on land owned by a registered sex offender.

“She looked good for somebody who’d been chained up a like a dog for two months,” Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said at the scene Thursday evening.

The other half of the mystery, the fate of Brown’s boyfriend, Charles Carver, remained unsolved late Thursday night, but Wright pledged the search of the 95-acre property would continue for “two days, two weeks” until all evidence is found. Carver's vehicle was found on the property.

Wright said Brown told investigators there may be four other victims on the property, but “we haven’t found them, if they’re here.”

Investigators were told that there were bear traps and potentially other booby traps on the property, Wright said, and the search proceeded cautiously.

The Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office had bloodhounds on the scene and the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office provided cadaver dogs as part of a massive search and investigation. Anderson Police Department investigators were also there.

The property’s owner, Todd Christopher Kohlhepp, a 45-year-old Spartanburg County real estate broker, was arrested at the property Thursday morning. Wright said he could face charges, but none had been filed as of late Thursday. He is scheduled for a 2 p.m. initial hearing Friday at Spartanburg County Jail, according to Murray Glenn, 7th Judicial Circuit solicitor's office spokesman.

RELATED: Anderson couple's friends knew something was wrong long ago

Brown, 30, worked for Kohlhepp, cleaning houses before he offered them for sale or rent, Brown’s close friend Leah Miller told the Independent Mail.

“I was supposed to be helping Kala, but I recently had neck surgery,” Miller said. “I’m just in shock, wondering if she tried to reach me to help her before she disappeared. I’m happy that she is alive, but my heart is breaking because we don’t know what’s going on with Charlie.”

Brown and Carver, 32, were last seen at their Anderson Crossing apartment in the last days of August. They were reported missing by friends and family on Sept. 5 and Sept. 3, respectively.

Anderson Police Chief Jim Stewart said his department's investigation into the disappearance of Brown and Carver led authorities to the property.

Stewart said more than a dozen search warrants were issued. "We got computer and cellphone records that ultimately led us to the area in Woodruff," he said. "We knew that was the last place that a cellphone tied to this case pinged."

Stewart said he learned investigators from Spartanburg County were looking at the same land for a different case. Stewart said he couldn’t say what Spartanburg investigators were looking for, but they were on the property Thursday morning when they heard Brown banging in the container where she had been kept.

Stewart said Thursday night that Anderson police were still looking for other suspects who might be connected to the case.

On Thursday afternoon, investigators were removing items, including two BMWs, from Kohlhepp’s residence at 213 Windsong Way in Moore. The home is in a quiet, middle-class neighborhood, and on Thursday a child was riding a bicycle around the corner from where investigators were gathering evidence in the case.

A neighbor described Kohlhepp, who is 5-11 and weighs 300 pounds, as quiet, if sloppy, and someone who had occasional female visitors. She said she knew he was on the South Carolina sex offender registry.

“I did look it up when we came,” said Maurene Owen, Kohlhepp’s next door neighbor. “That was kind of disturbing to me … but we’ve never seen anything at all out of the way.”

According to Arizona court records, Kohlhepp was convicted of a kidnapping that occurred Nov. 25, 1986, when he was 15. He was admitted to the Arizona Department of Corrections on Oct. 16, 1987, to serve a 15-year sentence. It is that offense that is listed as the reason for him being on the South Carolina sex offender registry.

Manfred Lewis, an agent at Kohlhepp’s firm, said he did not know his boss was a registered sex offender until Thursday. He said Thursday’s events were frightening.

“This is a nightmare,” Lewis said.

Another agent who worked with Kohlhepp said he was in shock. “This is way out of character,” said Chris Wood. “At least what I knew.”

Kohlhepp’s Facebook account included a post in which he talked about people who had been reported missing. That post went up a few weeks after Brown went missing.

“This person missing, that person missing, another person missing.. oh wait.. that person just went to the beach with friend, other person found with her parole violation boyfriend,” the Sept. 15 post said.

Kohlhepp, who is also a licensed pilot, bought the Wofford Road property for $305,000 in May 2014.

Pamela Lyda, an agent who worked for Kohlhepp at his TKA Real Estate agency, said he was excited to get the property, and had said he was interested in farming.

Wilton Lawrence sold the property to Kohlhepp.

“After he bought the land, he didn’t want nothing to do with anybody,” Lawrence said. “He was a loner. He didn’t want no neighbors. He didn’t want no friends. He just wanted to be left alone.”

Lawrence and his daughter, Jennifer Weaver, said Kohlhepp would come to the property regularly during evenings. He cleared underbrush, planted trees, and added a shed to the land but not much else, Weaver said, other than a chain-link fence of about six feet surrounding the property.

People in the neighborhood thought the fence was weird, Lawrence said.

“That’s just not a fence you would see in this area,” Weaver said. “That looks like something that would be up around some kind of industrial facility or something. So everybody thought that was kind of strange.”

Lawrence added, “That’s an expensive fence to put around 100 acres.”

“Hundreds” of men are searching those acres, Sheriff Wright said, adding that they have found some evidence indicating continued searching is warranted. He also said investigators will be checking every property they can find that Kohlhepp has owned.

Reported by: Nikie Mayo of the Independent Mail, Romando Dixson of the Greenville News, Mike Ellis of the Independent Mail, Mike Burns of the Greenville News and Kirk Brown of the Independent Mail.