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Body found on property where woman was chained up 'like a dog' is her boyfriend

A body discovered in a shallow grave the day after a missing woman was found chained up in a container on a sprawling property in Woodruff, South Carolina, is the woman's boyfriend, police said.
Police identified the body as Charles Carver, 32, and said he died of multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body. Investigators are still working to determine how long he had been buried. Carver and his girlfriend, who has not been identified, went missing Aug. 31.

WOODRUFF, S.C. — The more than 100-acre property is owned by Todd Kohlhepp, who is a registered sex offender.

WSOC-TV was in Spartanburg County Friday during the search and discovery of the body.

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Neighbors who live across the street from the search area have been able to sit on their front porches and watch police search the property.

Neighbors said they saw Kohlhepp there all the time. They thought he was just working the land.

"He just comes every evening, works over there, cleaning up, cutting trees,” Johnny Ravan said.

Ravan spoke to Kohlhepp several times. Then on Thursday, as dozens of police cars blocked his driveway, he learned that a missing Anderson woman had been held there, a prisoner who was kept in chains in a metal box.

“I feel sorry for the woman. It's shocking and unsettling to know that we are right here in our home, and across the street this woman's been over there for two months,” Ravan said.

Ravan was also disturbed that he couldn't do anything to help her all that time.

By midday Friday, Channel 9 learned that investigators had found a body there, too. It also had been reported that their car was found on the property.

The woman told investigators she saw Kohlhepp shoot and kill her boyfriend, a prosecutor said.

"It’s just really unbelievable,” Angie Rhodes said.

For Rhodes, there's a sigh of relief. A friend set her up on a date with Kohlhepp not long ago. She had met him and thought about a date but turned him down.

“What made you say no?” Suskin asked.

"It was just an instinct. I guess God was watching over me,” Rhodes said.

Suskin went by Kohlhepp's home, in the town of Moore. A Spartanburg sheriff's deputy was stationed out front with his patrol cruiser running.

In Woodruff, search teams called in a backhoe and were using all-terrain vehicles and riding horses to get around the wooded terrain.

The investigation there could last for days.

One neighbor told Suskin that when Kohlhepp bought the property two years ago and put up a fence one year ago, they thought he was going to put farm animals out there. Now, they don't know what to think.