Less than 24 hours after serial killer Todd Kohlhepp's belongings were picked up by winning bidders from a short-sale auction, items began showing up for sale again.
A camouflage gun carrying case, two sets of plastic hand restraints and a skull face mask were listed on eBay.com for $250.
A yellow TKA Real Estate yard sign, one Kohlhepp used for his real estate career, was also listed at $250 on the murder memorabilia website supernaught.com. A smaller "rider" real estate sign that states Kohlhepp's name and phone number was listed at $275 on the site.
Both listings state that the items were obtained through an online auction led by Pelzer-based Meares Land and Auction Company at Kohlhepp's Woodruff property last week.
As Kohlhepp's items begin to make their way back into the market for those seeking murder memorabilia, some family members of Kohlhepp's victims are frustrated by the trend.
The more than 550 items were sold to prepare the property to be sold to a private land buyer or through a foreclosure auction.
Reid Sherard, the court-appointed receiver of Kohlhepp's assets, said he hopes to sell the land to a private buyer before the property goes to foreclosure.
Proceeds from that sale will first go toward paying off the debts owned to the property's prior owners, according to court documents.
All items in the online auction sold between Aug. 25 and Wednesday, and winning bidders were allowed to pick-up their items Thursday and Friday at the property.
Proceeds from those sales went toward the judgments of the family members of Kohlhepp's victims who have filed civil lawsuits against the serial killer.
Some of those who picked up their winning items Thursday said they planned to sell them for a higher value since there is "a market for things like this," said Brandi Wroten, who purchased some of Kohlhepp's books, a stool and some dental tools.
Many of those buyers also said they were primarily participating in the auction to support the victims.
Alex Norris, of Greer, said he was the one who purchased the gun case that he is now listing on eBay. He said Saturday that he plans to donate half of his proceeds to the victims and victims' families if the listing sells.
From Kohlhepp's auction, he also bought a shelf of various items including vases and candles. He said a coffee mug that was among the items had a woman's necklace inside it that he suspected may have come from a victim. He said he doesn't plan to sell the necklace.
"I don't believe that one will be sold since I believe that could be tied to one of his victims," Norris said. "It definitely is creepy knowing who it all belonged to and what could have gone on in the same room that this stuff came out of. It hits home that this is right here in our hometown."
Kohlhepp is the South Carolina serial killer and former real estate agent convicted of killing seven people since 2003. His arrest came in November 2016 when missing Anderson woman Kala Brown was found chained up in a shipping container within his expansive property off Wofford Road in Woodruff. She had been missing for two months.
Three bodies were found buried on Kohlhepp's property including the body of Charlie David Carver, 32, who was Brown's boyfriend at the time. Authorities have said Kohlhepp hired Kala to do some cleaning at his property but when she showed up with Carver, Kohlhepp shot Carver and held Brown captive.
Brown disclosed on the Dr. Phil show in February 2017 that Kohlhepp raped her "every day, twice a day" while she spent about 65 days in captivity.
Chuck Carver, Charlie Carver's father, said he doesn't understand people wanting to have something for the sake of it being tied to a gruesome series of killings.
He knows people had talked of supporting victims through the sale, but believes many of their intentions were to profit from the items.
"They’re going to say what they’re going to say to justify what they're doing," Carver said Saturday. "We kind of expected to find it all over the internet for sale. We figured they were people buying it purely for that reason."
Carver and his family made their own purchase from the short-sale auction and were among the last winning bidders to arrived on the property Friday. He said they wanted a way to get back onto the property before it is sold.
"Mr. (Darron) Meares was extremely nice to us," he said. "When he found out who we were he said, 'Take your time. As long as you want, the place is yours.'"
The Carver family bought a fireplace insert and logs to build a fire pit at their home as a way to gather around and talk about their loved one, said Julie Carver, Charlie's stepmother.
The Carvers said they saw a shovel for sale for $70 and a saw for about twice the normal retail price and believed the items were priced higher merely because of how they were believed to be used.
"What sane person would buy something like that knowing where it came from?" she said.
Interest in Kohlhepp's possessions was also evident through a burglary reported at the Woodruff property just before the sold items were picked up from winning bidders Thursday.
A trailer and other items from a food storage building were determined to have been stolen between Aug. 25 and Thursday, according to an incident report from the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office.
A deputy said he had gone to the property to work extra-duty there while the company leading the auction coordinated pick-up times for winning bidders, the report states.
The auctioneer determined that someone had cut a lock off the chained gate and entered the property, according to the report. Neighbors in the area said they had not seen or heard anything suspicious, according to the report.
