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Todd Kohlhepp: Search for More Victims Ends with Nothing Found

Investigators were searching a heavily wooded area off Interstate 26 in southern Spartanburg County after they received a tip that serial killer Todd Kohlhepp may have buried two additional victims there.

The search for possible additional victims of South Carolina serial killer Todd Kohlhepp ended Wednesday afternoon. Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said nothing was found during the search.

Investigators were searching a heavily wooded area off Interstate 26 in southern Spartanburg County after they received a tip that serial killer Todd Kohlhepp may have buried two additional victims there.

"They're grid-searching," Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said about noon Wednesday.

New information suggested Kohlhepp's alleged additional victims may be "pizza delivery people," Wright said. Their identities were unknown, he said.

Kohlhepp, through a tipster, gave investigators new information regarding the location of the two victims, prompting a search with about 20 deputies and cadaver dogs on Summer Road near Ridge Road in Enoree.

"We're going to give it our best effort. I don't want it really to be a show," Wright said. "It's hot today. We're already having to switch out team members. It's slow and methodical."

Wright said Tuesday that the information was credible enough to activate a search, although Wednesday morning he characterized the chances of finding something as "low."

Investigators arrived in the wooded areas near Summer and Ridge roads about 8:50 a.m. Wednesday. Nothing had been found by noon.

PHOTOS: Search for Bodies of Todd Kohlhepp's Alleged Victims

"I don't know how good the information is," Wright said on scene Wednesday. "I can tell you we have not been able to corroborate some of the things he said."

The Spartanburg County Sheriff's Office was made aware of the new information from a tipster who was allegedly communicating with Kohlhepp, Wright said.

The tipster is with a film crew that is shooting a documentary on Kohlhepp, Wright said. The crew was on scene with investigators Wednesday morning.

"I'm here in SC now and actively covering developments in the case," said Maria Awes with Committee Films, a Minneapolis-based production company.

Wright described the information as a "second- or third-hand tip" and added that he's "not sure who she's speaking to," referring to Awes.

Wright said Kohlhepp would not be at the scene, although Tuesday he had said authorities were trying to make arrangements to bring him to the Upstate. He did say Kohlhepp gave out specifics on signs and locations as well as a timeline, stating that these unfounded killings took place in or around 2003.

"We went back years even before that to make sure he didn't mistake the times. We just haven't been able to corroborate a lot," Wright said. "The expectations are low, but we're going to give it 110 percent."

Wright said investigators will be at the scene "as long as it takes." He said he does believe there are more victims tied to Kohlhepp but is unsure how willing he is to help close another case.

"This will be the last time this happens until he gives me something specific that I can corroborate," the sheriff said. "I don't want this to be something where he wants to stay relevant."

Joanne Shiflet, the mother of Charles David Carver, said she has long believed Kohlhepp has more victims.

"We said all along there were more bodies," Shiflet said Wednesday. "You don't do what he did and then take a vacation from it for years and then restart," she said. "He started doing wrong things when he was a teenager. I don't think it's a switch that you just flip off and on and that it stays off for years. There are probably more people."

Scarlett Hinton, 18, lives on Summer Road just a short distance from where the search unfoled Wednesday.

"It's crazy. Just living around people that you don't even know what they're up to. It's such a small town too you don't hear about things going on like this," she said. "There's things that happen here or there but never anything this major, especially being brought up after all this time."

Murray Glenn, a spokesman for 7th Judicial Circuit Solicitor's Office, said any potential discoveries of additional victims would lead to entirely new court cases.

That new case would have no impact on Kohlhepp's existing plea deal, which has him serving seven consecutive life sentences, one for each identified victim, without the possibility of parole.

"I do think he is an attention seeker," Glenn said. "He has made multiple efforts to be a pen pal with some members of the media and with a production company. I hope the day comes that he doesn't get another ounce of attention and that he rots away in prison for the rest of his life."

Enoree, a small, unincorporated place of southern Spartanburg County about 15 miles southeast of where Kohlhepp had owned his 96-acre compound in Woodruff.

There, missing woman Kala Brown, of Anderson, was found chained up in a shipping container. Three bodies were also found there buried in shallow graves. After Kohlhepp's arrest Nov. 3, 2016, he walked investigators through his property, pointing out where the bodies were buried.

At the site of the search Wednesday, investigators planned to use cadaver dogs and a specialized X-ray machine that can detect findings five to six feet below ground, Wright said.

Enoree's population at the 2010 U.S. Census was about 660 people. The area is heavily wooded with single-family homes scattered between trees, a few ponds and a few private driveways.

Wright had no knowledge of possible victim descriptions, he said.

There are roughly 85,000 active missing person cases in the U.S., said Monica Caison, the founder of CUE Center for Missing Persons based in North Carolina.

She said she's been following the Kohlhepp case through news articles and had wondered about other cases.

"Maybe they could be from another area and they were brought there," she said. "I'm not really sure who it could be in the area."

Sheriff Wright says at this time they're not sure who the victims tha may have been buried in Enoree could possibly be.

"He mentioned the fact that it could be some people who may be some pizza delivery people but we haven't be able to confirm any of that. We even checked surrounding counties to make sure that it was a different county out here," said Wright.

While the Spartanburg County Sheriff's Department hasn't found anything at this time, Sheriff Wright says they owe this search to the family of the victims.

"We could try and satisfy folks and go, 'Alright, we tried,' but no we are really trying. We want to make sure that we're giving our best effort because if somebody's down there, and who's to say that he missed the place where he'd done that by a couple of 100 yards and we just didn't go there. Just got to give it our best effort," explained Wright.

Kohlhepp is serving out life sentences in the state Department of Corrections. He is convicted of killing seven people, the three found buried in Woodruff and four others who were shot at a motorcycle shop in Chesnee in 2003.

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