Todd Kohlhepp a.k.a. The Amazon Review Killer

On November 6, 2003, 30-year-old Scott Ponder opened up his motorcycle shop/dealership, Superbike Motorsports, in Chesnee, South Carolina like he did on any other day since 2001.  Scott and his best friend, Brian Lucas, who shared Scott’s love of two-wheeled vehicles, opened the dealership together.  Brian became the service manager while Scott ran the business.  Scott’s mom, Beverly Guy, spent time at the shop as well and often ran errands for the men when she could.  She enjoyed spending time there with her son and helping however she could.  The shop was very successful and by 2003, Scott hired a mechanic to help out with business.  Chris Sherbert was 26 years old and had started at the shop not too long before the events of November 6th took place. 

Before learning about what happened at Superbike Motorsports, let’s learn about who the victims were.  Scott Dean Ponder was born on February 7, 1973 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina to William and Beverly.  He was a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints of Boiling Springs where he was in the SS Presidency.  He had a stepbrother named Kristian, who was the son of his mom’s second husband, Terry.  Scott had a wife named Melissa who was pregnant with their first child at the time of his death. 

Beverly Elaine Rogers Guy was born on September 11, 1951 also in Spartanburg County, South Carolina to Hardy and Reola.  She, too, was a member of the Church of Latter Day Saints of Boiling Springs where she was the secretary of the Relief Society.  She was had three sisters, Carolyn, Gale, and Doris.  She was married to Terry Guy and had two children, Scott, and her stepson, Kristian.

Christopher Michael “Shubie” Sherbert was born on January 19, 1977 in Spartanburg County, South Carolina to Michael and Deborah.  However, he was raised by his Aunt Becky.  Brian Thomas Lucas was born on May 1, 1974 in Columbus, Ohio to Thomas and Lorraine.  He had a sister named Katie and was a member of the First Baptist Church as well as being a member of the young adult Sunday school at the same church.  He had a wife named Robin and the couple had two sons together, Aaron and Zachary.

On the morning of November 6th, one of Scott’s friends, Noel Lee, called the shop and asked if he could come by and hang out for a while.  According to an article by Tim Huber, this was a common occurrence.  Less than ten minutes after making the call and getting the okay to stop out, Noel arrived at Superbike Motorsports and walked into a nightmare.

When Noel walked up to the entrance of the shop, he found Scott and Brian lying on the ground in a pool of blood.  He initially thought that his friends were playing a prank on him and nudged them to get up.  When neither of the men moved, he quickly realized it wasn’t a prank.  He entered the dealership to call 911 and was met with another disturbing scene.  Beverly was on the floor near the bathrooms and Chris was slumped over a bike in a way that suggested he had been working on it at the time he was killed.

Within minutes of Noel dialing 911, police arrived on scene.  They discovered that all four victims had been shot in the head.  As they looked through the dealership, they found that nothing had been taken from the scene and there was an envelope of cash that was left out in plain sight that hadn’t been taken.  

The investigation into the murders began right away and the police were looking into every lead that came their way.  There was a man and a woman that had been seen near the dealership on the day of the murders who were known addicts and considered to be shady characters.  The police looked into the possibility that they had committed the murders but quickly ruled them out based on the fact that nothing was taken and that envelope of cash had been left out in the open. 

Police looked into the victims backgrounds and learned that none of them had any known enemies who would want to harm them.  Despite small town rumors about Chris Sherbert’s involvement with the drug world, investigators quickly ruled out the possibility of a drug connection.

As it typically goes, significant others are looked into early on in investigations and Scott’s wife, Melissa, was no different.  She was called into the police station several times in the months following what became known as the Superbike Murders.  Melissa gave birth to her son, Scott Jr., or Scotty, and even then was still being questioned by police.  During one visit to the station, with Scotty in tow, Melissa changed his diaper during an interview and unbeknownst to her, investigators collected his diaper for DNA testing.  

DNA had been taken from all four victims after their bodies were discovered and after the DNA had been tested from Scotty’s diaper, the police learned something that they thought was a big piece to this puzzle.  The DNA test showed that Scott was not the father of Melissa’s baby, but that his best friend, Brian, was.  They confronted Melissa with their findings and she vehemently denied that Brian was the father and insisted that they run the test again.  The results of the second test again showed that Brian was Scotty’s father.  After this, Melissa opted to only speak to police with a lawyer present, and this only furthered their suspicions. 

Eighteen months passed without much movement in the investigation, but the detectives were still suspicious of Melissa.  They decided to run Beverly’s DNA against Scott’s and when the results of that test came back, it was found that it wasn’t a match.  After further examination, investigators realized that Scott’s and Brian’s DNA had been mixed up.  Beverly was Scott’s mother and Scott was, in fact, Scott Jr.’s father.  Melissa was cleared of any suspicion after this discover.  

Police also interviewed the last person to see all four victims alive, which was customer who had been in the dealership that morning.  He said that a man with little knowledge of motorcycles was in the shop and inquiring about a specific bike.  He told police that the man’s behavior was off-putting, but that man was not identified and the Superbike Murders remained unsolved for thirteen years.  In 2016, Todd Kohlhepp confessed to the Superbike Murders after being arrested for the kidnapping of Kala Brown and the murders of three other people.

Todd Christopher Sampsell was born on March 7, 1971 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Regina and William.  When Todd was two-years-old, Regina and William divorced and Regina gained full custody.  He grew up in South Carolina and Georgia with his mom and a year and half after the divorce, Regina was remarried.  When Todd was about five-years-old, his stepfather adopted him and Todd was given his last name of Kohlhepp. 

Todd was known to be a troublesome child from an early age.  According to his mother, his behavioral problems began when he was just 15 months old.  When he was in nursery school, Todd was known to be aggressive toward other children and would often destroy their property.  At the age of nine, he began counseling and he was described as being “explosive” and said to be preoccupied with sexual content.  

As a young child, Kohlhepp was also cruel to animals.  Trigger warning for animal abuse here, so skip ahead a bit if you don’t want to hear this.  He killed a goldfish by adding bleach to its tank and he also shot a dog with a BB gun. 

Kohlhepp was kicked out of the Boy Scouts at a young age for bad behavior as well.  While living in Georgia, he spent 3 ½ months in a psychiatric hospital as an inpatient because of his inability to get along with other kids. 

By the time he was 12 in the summer of 1983, Regina sent her son to live with his father in Arizona.  After moving in with his father, Todd began going by the last name Sampsell again and got a couple of different jobs.  He worked as a landscaper, got a job at Burger King, and also worked at his father’s restaurant.  

But then, according to Kohlhepp, his father began spending a lot of time out of the home with different girlfriends.  Because of this, Kohlhepp wanted to go home to live with his mother, but reportedly, she continued to find reasons for him to stay with his father.  Regina felt like Todd wanted her all to himself.  According to William, he didn’t spend time away from the house and his son was lying. 

Kohlhepp’s first crime took place while he was living in Arizona with his father.  William was out of town in Nebraska for work on November 26, 1986, when 15-year-old Todd walked to the door 3 houses down where a 14-year-old girl lived.  He lured her out of her home by saying that her boyfriend was outside and he wanted to speak with her.  When she finally agreed to come outside, Kohlhepp put a .22 caliber revolver to her head and led her back to his house where he tied her up, taped her mouth shut, and then raped her.

He then walked her home and told her that he would kill her younger siblings if she told anyone about what had happened.  It is unclear if there was a witness who had seen Kohlhepp and the young girl walking with the gun or if she reported the incident to the police, but either way, the police were called.  When the police arrived to the house, they found Kohlhepp inside with a rifle pointed and the ceiling.  The first question he asked them was how much time he was going to get and when they asked him why he had done this, he said that it was both an act of rebellion toward his father and an act out of anger.  

Kohlhepp was charged with kidnapping, sexual assault, and committing a dangerous crime against children.  In 1987, he pleaded guilty to the kidnapping charge, but the other two charges were dropped.  Later, one of his probation officers went on to say that this was a travesty of justice. 

Court records show that Kohlhepp was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder around the time of these events and that he had an above average IQ of 118.  According to the website verywellmind, the average IQ range is between 85-100.  The judge for this case said that Kohlhepp was very bright and should be advanced academically, but also noted that he was both behaviorally and emotionally dangerous, and doubted that he could be rehabilitated.  However, Kohlhepp’s defense attorney believed that he would not go on to hurt others in the future.  Despite this, Kohlhepp was deemed too dangerous to go to juvenile detention and was sentenced to fifteen years in adult prison.  His name was also added to the sex offender’s register.  

While her son was in prison, Regina made conflicting statements.  She said that he was misunderstood and as a court reporter herself, she had never seen something like this being done to a 15-year-old boy.  She said that they didn’t think about the fact that he walked her home and someone who does that doesn’t sound like a dangerous criminal.  She also claimed that her son had no remorse.  Kohlhepp wrote several letters to his mother during his incarceration expressing regret, however, she told his probation officers that she didn’t believe him and that she believed he was saying these things in order to get a more lenient sentence and return to normal life.  While incarcerated, his parents – mom, dad, and stepdad – all stated that they did not want responsibility for Kohlhepp and it was stated that he did not have a strong support system. 

Despite all of this, Regina still pled for leniency for her son with claims that he put his father on a pedestal and stated that everything Kohlhepp had said about his father was true.  She blamed William for their son’s actions.  While serving his sentence, Kohlhepp and his mother’s relationship only grew. 

A psychiatrist that saw Kohlhepp during his incarceration said that he was deeply disturbed and displayed signs of an inflated ego and extreme rebellion against authority.  After only two months of being incarcerated, Kohlhepp was cited for disobeying orders, fighting, destroying property, and striking a person.  However, around the age of twenty, he settled down and his behavior improved.

In August of 2001, at the age of 30, Todd Kohlhepp was released from prison after serving about fifteen years.  His mother was living in South Carolina and he decided to move there and began looking for work.  While he was in prison, Kohlhepp graduated from Central Arizona College with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and had also been a part of Arizona’s Correctional Industries.  This is a prison program that was designed to give vocational training to inmates while they created products to sell.  

In January of 2002, Kohlhepp began working for a small sports apparel company in Spartanburg named Seven Sons and Co.  Then in 2003, he began studying at Greenville Technical College before transferring to the University of South Carolina upstate the following year.  In 2003, he graduated with a bachelor of science degree in business administration and marketing.  In November of that year, he quit his job at Seven Sons and decided he wanted to go into real estate. 

Despite being on the sex offenders register, Kohlhepp was able to get his real estate license and started a firm with ten employees.  When getting his license, he explained away his kidnapping charge by claiming that it was the result of a breakup with a girlfriend after a heated argument.  He said that the two stayed friends and when searching for his lost dog, her parents became worried and called the police.  He said he only had the gun for protection. 

Kohlhepp quickly became recognized as a top selling agent in the Carolina region and also acquired a private pilot license.  He bought several properties that he managed and rented out.  In June of 2007, he bought his own home in Windsong way in the Moore area of Spartanburg County and ran his business from there.  Mortgage lenders that worked with Kohlhepp said that he was an effective communicator and a pleasure to talk to.  A builder that he worked with stated that he was incredibly personable.  However, clients of Kohlhepp’s have said that he was domineering and arrogant and said that he enjoyed bragging about his flashy cars and shooting skulls. 

An assistant pastor named Michael Foster rented a property from Kohlhepp and stated that he was a “creepy dude” and was someone who made everything about himself and money.  Foster sensed that he needed to stay close to Kohlhepp in order to manage his presence around him. 

A customer who had sold Kohlhepp a house said that he was pleasant, but often talked about weapons and would slip sexual innuendo into conversations.  He was also described as angry and condescending, and according to a coworker, he often watched porn at work.  

Kohlhepp had a favorite Waffle House that he frequented and the female servers who worked there ended up having the male cook take his orders for them because of his behavior.  Though, he did have an okay relationship with one server Meagan, who we will talk about later.  

As the years went on, Kohlhepp continued working as a real estate agent and seemed just like any other businessman in the community.  In May of 2014, he purchased a 95-acre property, seemingly out of the blue and put a fence around it.  Neighbors thought it was odd, but not concerning.  Kohlhepp hired one of this neighbors to manage the property for him.  This neighbor noticed a large, metal storage container of the property that contained canned goods and bottled water inside.  He also said that while he was putting up no trespassing signs and cutting down trees for Kohlhepp, Kohlhepp was setting up deer camera and bear traps throughout the property. 

Around the time that Kohlhepp bought the property, an Amazon account associated with his name showed purchases of all kinds of different items.  These items included padlocks, tactical gear, targets, knives, gun accessories, and books about snipers and emergency war surgery.  The user began writing reviews about some items and always signed them, “Me.”  The language and style of his reviews were very similar to the way he posted on his personal Facebook page. 

One review was for a folding shovel and it read, “Keep in car for when you have to hide the bodies and you left the full size shovel at home… does not come with a midget which would have been nice.”  Another for a stun gun read, “Seriously trying to find a reason to zap one of my agents for being lazy… it’s going to be the new office motivational tool.”  The review for a chainsaw said, “Works excellent… getting the neighbors to stand still while you chase him with it is hard enough without having [an] easy to use chainsaw.”  He also purchased items such as perfume, plush toys, and The Walking Dead boxset.  

In August of 2015, Kohlhepp made a Facebook post stating that he wanted an Ebola virus snowstorm to hit the world of humans.  He also posted about bad drivers, his work, and rounding up illegal aliens and deporting them. 

On August 29, 2016, the mother of 32-year-old Charles David Carver received a one word text from her son – and it was the last time she ever heard from him again.  He had recently left with his 30-year-old girlfriend, Kala Brown, to do some work for a man who owned some property in Woodruff.  Neither Charles nor Kala returned.  

The following day, Leah Miller, a friend of Kala’s spoke with her on the phone and Kala told her that she was in Greenville and was on her way home.  However, the next day, she received a text from Kala asking if she was awake at 6:06 am.  Leah replied a few hours later, but received no further communication from Kala after that.  

Six days after Charles was last heard from, on September 3, 2016, his mother filed a missing persons report.  When filing, she noted to police that she also not heard from Charles’ girlfriend, Kala.  Two days after the report for Charles was filed, Leah filed a missing persons report for Kala.  She noted to the police that Kala’s car, a black Chevy Cobalt, was in the parking lot of her apartment complex.  When police spoke with the manager of the apartments where Charles lived, they stated that his apartment had been empty for several days.  When police went to Kala’s apartment, they found that her dog hadn’t been fed or taken care of for several days.  

Some time between September and October of 2016, a post appeared on Charles’s Facebook page.  It stated that he and Kala were fine and had gotten married.  However, friends and family did not believe the post and were suspicious.  The police were also suspicious and didn’t buy that shit for a second and traced both Charles’ and Kala’s phone signals in November.  This led them to the 95-acre property owned by Todd Kohlhepp.

The police began searching the property and on November 3rd, they found a metal storage container and heard banging coming from inside.  When the opened the container, they found Kala Brown inside with her hands and ankles shackled and a chain around her neck.  She told the police that she had been locked in the container for two months and Kohlhepp occasionally had her clean and clear out properties he was planning to rent out.  She was raped repeatedly and only fed once a day.  When investigators aske her what happened to her boyfriend, she said that Kohlhepp shot him upon their arrival.  Two days later on November 5th, Charles’s body was found and he died from multiple gunshot wounds.  His body was found without feet.

In the days following, Kohlhepp’s property was searched and Charles’s car was found in a ravine covered in brush.  During this search of the property, two other bodies were found in graves on Kohlhepp’s property.   They were identified as 29-year-old Johnny Joe Coxie and his wife, 26-year-old Meagan, who was a waitress at the Waffle House that Kohlhepp frequented.  The couple were residents of Spartanburg and had been missing since December 22, 2015.  They were allegedly hired by Kohlhepp to work on his property, but instead, he killed them.  Kohlhepp first killed Johnny and about a week later, around Christmas, he killed Meagan.  Johnny had been shot in the torso and Meagan had been put in the same container that Kala was found in.  

Johnny Joe Coxie was born on May 20, 1987 in Greenville, South Carolina to parents Cindy and Johnny Sr.  He had three sisters, Crystal, Julia, and Sarah.  He married Meagan Leigh McGraw-Coxie, born in 1991, on February 14, 2012.  Johnny had two children, Jonathan and Madeline, and a stepson named Andrew.  

Todd Kohlhepp was arrested shortly after Kala Brown was discovered on his property.  Kala had told police that Kohlhepp had confessed to her that he was the killer behind the Superbike Murders in 2003 saying that he had bragged about it.  He also told her about killing Meagan and Johnny Coxie.  

Once in custody, Kohlhepp admitted to the Superbike murders as well as the murders of Johnny, Meagan, and Charles.  With his confession in place, Kohlhepp was allowed to speak with his mother.  He gave her a photo and transferred money from his bank account to the college fund of a friend’s child.  When speaking with Regina, he allegedly told her everything and said that he had shot each Superbike victim once in the forehead.  He also told Regina that there were many other victims and that she didn’t have enough fingers to count them.  He told her that he shot another person in Arizona as well.

Police also searched the home of Todd Kohlhepp and found several weapons, including nine-millimeter pistols with suppressors, semi-automatic rifles, and an abundance of ammunition.  There was no record of any background check being performed under his name, so it was determined that he likely obtained these weapons illegally.  This is also the time they discovered his chilling Amazon reviews. 

On November 18th, it was reported that the police in Tempe, Arizona began an investigation into Kohlhepp’s claim of killing another person there and began looking into cases from the past thirty years focusing on 1983-1986 and also between August 2001 and November 2011.  Then on November 25th, police in Greer, South Carolina announced that they named Kohlhepp as a person of interest in an unsolved bank robbery from 2003 that resulted in a triple homicide.  This had taken place about six months after the Superbike Murders.  However, this case is still open and there has been no firm link to Kohlhepp. 

Todd Kohlhepp was charged with four counts of murder for the Superbike murders, one count of kidnapping for Kala Brown, then later three counts of murder for Johnny and Meagan Coxie and Charles Carver.  He was also charged with one further count of kidnapping and three counts of possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a violent crime. 

Kohlhepp pleaded guilty to seven counts of murder, three counts of kidnapping, and one count of first degree criminal sexual assault.  In 2017, he was sentenced to seven consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole, plus sixty years.  His pleading guilty was part of a plea bargain that allowed him to avoid the death penalty. 

Before we discuss the aftermath of the case, I’d like to tell you about Charles David Carver.  He was born on November 19, 1983 in Anderson, South Carolina.  He worked as a press operator at First Quality Tissue.  He was a former member of the Army National Guard and was a former Explorer Cadet with the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office  He was an avid pool player and enjoyed authoring books.  At the time of his death, he was in the process of completing his fifth mystery.  

In the wake of Kohlhepp’s arrest and conviction, Chuck Carver, Charles’s dad, and Tom Lucas, Brian’s dad, have been traveling the state of South Carolina together to speak with legislators and prison officials about several topics.  They discuss the death penalty, victims’ rights, and the South Carolina Department of Corrections struggle to closely monitor their prisoners.  They do this in the hopes of making the next person circumstances easier. 

In August of 2018, Kala Brown was awarded $6 million from Kohlhepp’s estate after filing a lawsuit against him for damages.  A psychiatrist testified on her behalf stating that Kala would need therapy and medication for years to come to cope with the trauma she experienced after being locked up and assaulted for 65 days. 

In the years since, Kala has lost a boyfriend to suicide and was charged along with a new boyfriend with third degree criminal domestic violence.  This incident occured after the couple had an altercation.  Eminem released an album in 2018 called Kamikaze with a song called “The Ringer.”  In it he says, “I’m off the chain like Kala Brown.”  A spokesperson for Kala said that it “was a clever line that rhymed and we’d like to leave it at that.”

Cindy Coxie, the mother of Johnny Coxie, also sued Kohlhepp and was awarded $2.7 million in damages.  In 2020, some of Kohlhepp’s belongings were auctioned of and the proceeds were donated to the families of his victims. 

Regina, Kohlhepp’s mother, stated that she is a victim, too, and that her son is not a monster, he only did what he did because he was mad.