Todd Kohlhepp was an avid Amazon reviewer who wrote more than 140 recomendations for guns, knives, and gear between 2014 and 2016. He lauded a folding shovel for its usefulness “when you have to hide the bodies and left your full size shovel at home.” Kohlhepp was serving seven consecutive life sentences without parole when he told investigators they would find two more people buried near Interstate 26 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina. He had already pled guilty to seven murders. In Investigation Discovery’s upcoming Serial Killers: Devil Unchained, filmmaker and investigative journalist Maria Awes sets out on a “dark journey to uncover the truth behind his crimes.” The three-part limited series premieres Monday, July 22 from 9 to 11 p.m.
Awes is joined by former FBI profiler John Douglas and Kohlhepp’s biographer Gary Garrett. The series features interviews with Kohlhepp’s family, as well as his victims and their families, uncovering early warning signs that might have helped stop a killer in his tracks.
“With unique access to this convicted murderer and rapist, Serial Killer: Devil Unchained reveals the disturbing truth behind the depraved mentality of a monster,” Henry Schleiff, Group President of Investigation Discovery, Travel Channel, American Heroes Channel and Destination America, said in a statment. “This limited series slowly unveils the shocking extent of this serial murderers’ crimes, exposing the depth of his evil, while revealing instances where early warning signs might have prevented multiple gruesome and tragic deaths.”
“As a troubled young teenager, Todd Kohlhepp was described as a ‘devil on a chain’ by those who knew him best, but no one could anticipate what would happen when that chain was let loose,” according to ID’s press statement.
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Kala Brown was found alive on Kohlhepp’s property after being held captive for two months in a shipping container. After she was rescued, on November 3, 2016, he told Spartanburg County Sheriff’s investigators that her captor was Todd Kohlhepp. She also said the former real estate broker was responsible for “more crimes than local police ever knew possible.”
Kohlhepp would plead guilty to seven murders and ultimately close one of South Carolina’s most baffling cold cases in the process – the murder of four people at the Superbike Motor Shop. But if he is to be believed, his reign of terror didn’t end there.
With weekly, two-hour installments beginning Monday, July 22, the six-hour episode rundown for Serial Killer: Devil Unchained is as follows:
“When investigative journalist Maria Awes gets on a call from serial killer Todd Kohlhepp, he claims he has murdered more than his seven known victims,” reads the official synopsis of Serial Killers: Devil Unchained. “Awes teams up with former FBI profiler John Douglas, and Kohlhepp’s former colleague and now biographer, Gary Garrett, to unravel the truth. Digging into Kohlhepp’s troubled youth, Awes secures an exclusive interview with his first known rape victim in Tempe, Arizona and raises questions about another Arizona rape case that has never been solved.
“Meanwhile, doubts emerge whether Kohlhepp is really the Superbike Killer – a murderer who escaped detection in what became Upstate South Carolina’s biggest cold case. Although he confessed to the crime, can his story be trusted, or is he taking credit for crimes he didn’t commit just to be remembered as a more prolific serial killer?
In Part 2, which premieres Monday, July 29, “ballistic evidence doesn’t match Todd Kohlhepp’s own confession, and Maria Awes visits the scene of the Superbike murders. She hears from one victim’s family that alleges investigators missed the chance to question and apprehend Kohlhepp for the crime, something that could have prevented at least three additional murders. Awes investigates Kohlhepp’s shocking life after the Superbike murders, starting his own real estate company, amassing an arsenal of high-powered guns, murdering one young couple and the boyfriend of a young woman he held captive in a shipping container, and allegedly killing others. She also learns intimate details from a former lover and investigates whether he had an accomplice.
In the finale, which premieres Monday, August 5, Awes tries to “identify an accomplice and accompanies Todd Kohlhepp’s biographer, Gary Garrett on an emotional tour of Kohlhepp’s property, where investigators had previously found the bodies of three of his victims, and where Kala Brown spent two months imprisoned in a shipping container. Soon after, Maria gets an unexpected confession straight from Kohlhepp himself about two other men he claims to have killed. Awes interviews Spartanburg Sheriff Chuck Wright about the case and he agrees to organize a search for the bodies of the additional victims. As John Douglas and Maria Awes go along with the team searching for more victims, the national media gets wind of the story which comes to a chilling conclusion.
The digital companion series Kohlhepp Uncut: The Devil Speaks, will air Immediately following each episode on IDGO on Mondays at 11 p.m., beginning on July 22. This digital series takes a deep dive into some of the biggest moments in the investigation exploring Todd Kohlhepp’s violent history, with Kohlhepp himself providing chilling details about crimes spanning 30 years.
Serial Killers: Devil Unchained premieres Monday, July 22 from 9-11 p.m. on Investigation Discovery.
Culture Editor Tony Sokol cut his teeth on the wire services and also wrote and produced New York City’s Vampyr Theatre and the rock opera AssassiNation: We Killed JFK. Read more of his work here or find him on Twitter @tsokol.