Realtor accused of killing 7 (WaPo, Nov 6, 2016)

[cofw]

www.washingtonpost.com/news/true-crime/wp/2016/11/06/realtor-accused-of-chaining-woman-in-metal-container-was-a-potentially-explosive-teen-rapist/?tid=pm_pop_b

Quotes:

An extensive psychiatric evaluation of Kohlhepp, then 16, revealed a sometimes suicidal teenager who saw himself “as a loner, hostile toward other children and not wanting to be around people,” according to a report first obtained by Greenville Online.

Kohlhepp’s parents had divorced when he was a baby, the report said, and he was raised mostly by his mother and stepfather. After they separated in 1982, Kohlhepp began acting out, destroying his room and breaking mirrors so that his mother would send him to live with his biological father.

The report also detailed a litany of other alleged violent acts from Kohlhepp’s childhood. He destroyed his bedroom with a hammer, hit other classmates, was caught “Cloroxing” a goldfish, shot a dog with a BB gun and was dismissed from the Boy Scouts because he was too disruptive, the report said.

A teenage Kohlhepp described his father as “a lier [sic] and preoccupied with guns” who allegedly taught the boy how to “blow things up and make bombs,” according to the report. He had occasionally considered killing his father, whom he accused of physical abuse, but also “had this rage turned back at himself,” the report said.

In the 1987 report, Kohlhepp told the psychiatrist that when police were outside his home to arrest him after the rape of the 14-year-old girl he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, but it jammed. “At this point, he laughed somewhat inappropriately,” the report said. “He stated ‘Someone doesn’t want me to die yet.’ ”

Kohlhepp seemed conflicted about the rape, alternately describing it as something he was ashamed of but also something that he had done to “get back” at his father. The report went on to say that Kohlhepp did not appear to suffer from hallucinations, delusions or other cognitive deficits; in fact, he seemed to be in the “normal intellectual range” and “tended to minimize his problem and expressed hope that he would go back to school and get a GED.”

The psychiatrist said there was “convincing evidence” that Kohlhepp had borderline personality disorder. “Throughout the interview, one got the feeling that if he were pushed to any limits, he was potentially explosive,” the psychiatrist wrote. The psychiatrist also warned that Kohlhepp’s “severe underlying emotional issues … could result in emotional deterioration in the future or continued aggressive behavior toward others in the future.

At some point, Kohlhepp moved to South Carolina and built a real estate business (his real estate license is listed as valid through June 2017, according to the state’s Labor, Licensing and Regulation Department).

When Kohlhepp applied for his South Carolina real estate license in 2006, he explained his sex offender status in a two-page letter filled with details that contradicted court documents regarding the 1986 charges, according to the Independent Mail:

Kohlhepp wrote, in his 2006 letter about the 1986 incident, that he had been in a heated argument with his girlfriend, they were both 15 at the time, they ended their relationship and afterward chased his dog and returned to his house.

Police showed up at the home, after having been called by the girl’s parents, who were concerned they could not reach her by phone, Kohlhepp wrote.

He explained in the letter that the kidnapping charge stemmed from a firearm he was carrying and because “I had told her not to move while we talked this out.”

Kohlhepp said he had been carrying a gun because he was concerned about crime in the Phoenix area and chalked it up to a youthful mistake.

Kohlhepp was granted a real estate license about three weeks after he applied, the Independent Mail reported. “Our community has been deeply disturbed by this,” Nick Kremydas, chief executive of South Carolina Realtors, told the paper. “The alleged acts of this person are not representative of us.”

[Missing man’s Facebook account suddenly comes alive, terrifying family]

State records showed that Todd Kohlhepp & Associates had two offices, one in Moore and another in Greenville, and that Kohlhepp supervised nearly a dozen other agents. It is unclear if any were aware of his private life. On Saturday, a call to the phone number listed for the company went to an answering machine, where Kohlhepp’s voice promised, with a slight Southern drawl, to return calls as soon as possible.

Listings for all of the properties and agent bios on his company’s Web page redirected to server error messages. By Saturday afternoon, an agent profile page for Kohlhepp on the real estate site Zillow appeared to have been removed, and a slew of negative reviews had been posted to his company’s Facebook page.

Brown reportedly worked for Kohlhepp cleaning houses and had arrived at his Woodruff property with her boyfriend to help clean it up when Kohlhepp pulled a gun on them, according to CBS News.

Brown and Carver were reported missing after the Anderson, S.C., couple didn’t show up to dinner with a friend on Aug. 31. No one heard from them after that. In mid-October, The Washington Post reported that the couple’s family members were disturbed by messages that began appearing on Carver’s Facebook account.

The family suspected his account had been taken over by someone sinister. As The Post reported:

Suddenly, the page exploded with content, as if it had been hacked. It would appear to be flooded with spam, but a closer inspection revealed many of the posts to be related to the couple.

News stories about the missing couple appeared in rapid-fire succession, along with other stories about missing people. Strange, violent images and memes began being posted on the Facebook page.

“If I weren’t crazy, I’d be insane,” read one. Another read, “Sometimes late at night I dig a hole in the back yard to keep the nosy neighbor’s guessing.”

. . . On Oct. 1, one user commented on the marriage announcement, “Where the hell is Kala Brown???” to which Charlie’s Facebook account responded, “kala is with her husband charlie.”

On another post, a user asked where Kala was, to which Charlie’s account responded “who the f––– are you to question me about my girlfriend?”

Carver’s Facebook account has since been deleted.

Kohlhepp’s next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 19, according to court records.

[Mr Hood]

That is seriously weird.

[cofw]

www.cbsnews.com/news/chilling-amazon-product-reviews-south-carolina-todd-kohlhepp/

This is why I think we should pay attention to all types of online postings, from suspect members on forums to Amazon reviews to Facebook. EAR could have a similar MO with respect to finding publicity for his past. It looks like with Todd K no one searched for his online presence until after he was arrested.

"the investigation has revealed he may have bought and later reviewed various products off Amazon that helped with his crimes.

an Amazon user named “me” with a wish list linked to “Todd Kohlhepp” began leaving reviews in 2014, right around the same time the actual Kohlhepp purchased the property on which he is alleged to have committed some of his crimes.

For a shovel with a folding handle, the user posted a review suggesting, “keep in car for when you have to hide the bodies and you left the full size shovel at home.”

The user reportedly left a review for a knife that read: “havnet (sic) stabbed anyone yet...... yet.... but I am keeping the dream alive and when I do, it will be with a quality tool like this...”

In a review about a padlock, the Greenville News reports the user wrote: “solid locks.. have 5 on a shipping container.. wont stop them.. but sure will slow them down til they are too old to care. (sic)”

The Greenville News reports there are 140 reviews linked to the “me” user with the “Todd Kohlhepp” wish list. They cover “tactical vests, carabiners, gun magazine pouches, weapon mounts and emergency medical kits as well as books about rapelling, snipers and emergency war surgery. Other reviews were for electronics, dog toys, music and DVDs of The Walking Dead.”

[Mr Hood]

I can't understand why the site owners didn't flag up the strange reviews and report them to Amazon, unless they did and Amazon did nothing about it.

[cofw]

www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime/the-psychology-of-a-serial-killer/ar-AAk3iVf?li=BBnb7Kz&ocid=BHEA000

COLUMBIA, S.C. — Could a serial killer have operated undetected in South Carolina for more than a decade?

With the arrest of Todd Christopher Kohlhepp on murder charges stemming from the deaths of four people at Superbike Motorsports 13 years ago and the discovery of three bodies on his Spartanburg County, S.C., property, some wonder how a killer could elude capture for years.

The answer, experts say, is that it is not uncommon for serial killers to go undetected, in part because they blend so well into their communities and sometimes take pauses from their crimes that can last months or years.

In fact, these “cooling off” periods used to be part of the definition of serial killers to distinguish them from mass murderers, which the FBI defines as the murder of at least four people in a single incident. Serial killers are those who kill at least two people in separate incidents, according to the agency.

One of the bodies discovered on Kohlhepp's 95-acre property near Woodruff was that of Charles Carver, missing since late August. Authorities have not identified the other two bodies or said when they might have been killed.

Experts said it is highly unusual for a serial killer to begin with a mass murder.

“This is one of a kind, extremely rare,” said Dr. Eric Hickey, who has studied serial killers for 35 years and assisted law enforcement and the FBI.
Enzo Yaksic, who runs Northeastern University’s Murder Accountability Project and has built a database on serial killers for use by law enforcement, described that pattern as "incredibly uncommon.”

“I don’t think I’ve seen that in any other case before," he said.

Experts said many serial killers appear so normal they don’t raise suspicions and sometimes cultivate that appearance in what amounts to be dual lives.

“These offenders remain undetected for large expanses of time due to a mixture of diligence on their part, a carefully constructed façade, the types of victims that they select and lucky breaks,” said Yaksic, who served as a technical consultant for the upcoming A&E show, The Killing Season.
Dr. Helen Morrison, an expert on serial killers who said she has interviewed 115 of them, said serial killers often go undetected because of their apparent normalcy.

“In fact, most people are shocked when they find the person who is finally arrested because they will say he is a very nice person, he didn’t cause any trouble,” she said. “They are able to be chameleons. They can manage to live a life undetected.”

That also was the finding of a five-day symposium on serial killers hosted by the FBI in 2005 attended by 135 experts, including Hickey.
“The majority of serial killers are not reclusive social misfits who live alone. They are not monsters and may not appear strange. Many serial killers hide in plain sight within their communities," the FBI wrote in its summary of the discussions, which serves as a reference guide on serial killers.

As evidence, the agency pointed to several serial killers who eluded authorities for years:
The “Green River Killer,” Gary Ridgeway, confessed to killing 48 women over a 20-year time period in the Seattle area, according to the FBI. He had been married three times and was still married at the time of his arrest, the agency said.

The “BTK Killer,” Dennis Rader, killed 10 victims in and around Wichita, Kan., according to the FBI. He was married with two children, was a Boy Scout leader, served honorably in the U.S. Air Force, was employed as a local government official, and was president of his church.

Morrison said serial killers appear so “vanilla” that they do not stick out to law enforcement.

“Every time I go into one of these people, I find myself saying, ‘Oh, he couldn’t possibly be a serial murderer,’ ” she said. “They seem utterly normal.”

But if you talk to them for several hours, she said, that mask disappears.

Experts say there is no single profile that fits all serial killers, though there are common traits. Myths abound, they say, such as the popular misconception of a serial killer who is a highly intelligent white male motivated by sex.

While many are white males, Hickey said, about half the serial killers in this country are African American.

Morrison said that the majority are males, but many lack advanced education and many have no criminal record as an adult, though they may have had brushes with the law as juveniles. They often sport a middle-class lifestyle, she said, and have few close friends but are not recluses and are expert manipulators.

“They can talk their way out of or into anything,” she said.

Kohlhepp, a white male who sold real estate, lived a middle-class lifestyle and had no criminal record as an adult.

“Most serial killers are or have been married, frequently have arrest records and are often forthcoming upon capture, either out of pride or relief that their campaign can end,” Yaksic said.

According to the FBI, there is no single thing that motivates serial killers, and they are not driven solely by sex. Though Hickey believes about half of all serial killers are sexual predators.

Yaksic said many of the behaviors at the root of serial killers emerge when they are young, though they sometimes go undetected.
Kohlhepp’s mother talked of his behavior problems throughout his childhood, including outbursts of rage, according to court records. He was convicted at 16 of kidnapping in connection with the rape of a 14-year-old neighbor in Arizona.

“His parents understood Todd to have a great deal of anger, but the full breath of what he is capable of cannot be known until much later in life when his behavior is not consistently monitored by others,” Yaksic said.

Experts say one common trait of serial killers is lack of remorse. Morrison said they feel little empathy for others, including their victims.
“They would never, ever experience sadness or anything related to that,” she said.

The FBI says it is a myth that serial killers are geniuses who out-smart law enforcement or that they suffer from mental illness.

“As a group, serial killers suffer from a variety of personality disorders, including psychopathy, anti-social personality, and others,” the FBI wrote of the experts’ opinions. “Most, however, are not adjudicated as insane under the law.”

Kohlhepp was diagnosed as an adolescent with some anti-social personality traits but no mental illness, records show. Probation officers said that as a teenager Kohlhepp showed little remorse or empathy for the 14-year-old he was accused of raping.

Morrison said the killers generally do not plan. They may have the tools of their trade in their vehicle but they often don’t meticulously plan their crimes, she said, which are more the result of an urge than a thoughtful process.

They get caught, she said, by sloppiness. They are better than the average criminal at avoiding detection until “they make a stupid mistake and then they’re caught.”

“They may do something so ridiculously silly that you wonder what in the world were they thinking,” she said. “They don’t think.”