♪
[saw whirring]
♪
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
- In the 21st century, we leave behind
the digital story of our lives,
the chronicle of our greatest triumphs
but also our darkest nightmares.
♪
- Oh. [laughs]
- You know, you have to be careful around me, kid.
I'll get you.
- I'm not doing no toga moon for you.
- Look out now.
Give us something. Tell us something.
Talk to us.
- I love that guy right there.
And I'm going to marry that guy right there
in a couple months.
He gave me this big rock.
And I think he's a handsome guy.
And I want to have six babies.
- Whoa! - Whoa!
- [laughs] - God!
Whoa.
- All at once. - Hold on there.
- Melissa, thank you so much for talking with me today.
If it's okay, I'm just going to jump right in.
- Sure.
- So tell me about Scott. How did you two meet?
I was sent to Indianapolis one weekend
to a motorcycle convention
because I worked in the industry at the time.
That weekend, Scott and I literally bumped elbows.
I could hear a very, very thick Southern accent
that was a little bit hard for me to understand.
But, truly, that is how we met.
I thought he was adorable. [chuckles]
[computer chimes]
He became a good friend from the moment I met him.
[gentle music]
♪
- Scott Dean Ponder,
do you take Melissa Player
as your lawfully wedded wife
and that you will love, honor, and cherish her
as long as you both shall live? - I do.
♪
- Brian became a very integral part
of what was going on there.
They were like brothers.
They loved each other like brothers.
They fought like brothers.
Scott was an only child. I think he liked that.
He and Beverly were very close.
I love that she was able to be down there
at the motorcycle dealership, working with him,
because, ultimately, they were able to spend
more time together.
She doted on him, and she was very proud of him.
We're going to find out what this big ball is!
Yay!
I started crying when they told me.
- She's really excited.
- Here's the-- It's a boy.
Yep, we got a little Scotty now.
Here's the nursery.
I had motorcycle border put up for Scotty's daddy.
- Talk to me about that last time that you saw Scott.
- I usually woke up before him and headed to work.
I worked for the Chamber of Commerce
at the time.
But I was experiencing pretty heavy morning sickness.
And so he actually got up before me, headed to work.
Then I got up and started getting ready.
And I passed the motorcycle dealership on the way to work.
I honked at him.
He blew a kiss, and he waved at me as I drove by.
We had a conversation about 2:00.
And I told him, I'll probably head that way
in the next hour or so.
[line clicking, beeping, trills]
[siren wailing]
While I was driving to the dealership,
there was a Y in the road blocked,
and nobody could get through.
I pulled up to that blockade,
and it was just a sea of law enforcement.
I knew that something had happened.
I got out of my car and then ran past, like, ten cops
and said, I have to get down there.
That's my husband's business.
And they came running after me and stopped me.
They did not give me a ton of information right away.
They were instead instructed to drive me home
and keep me there and not to turn on the TV
and not to turn on the radio, and they had my phone.
They didn't want me to have information
from anybody until they were ready to give it to me.
I had a good 2 to 2 1/2 hours
of sitting there waiting.
And I was just staring out the front door.
And I saw a Spartanburg County coroner drive up my driveway.
And even at that point, it didn't hit me
that the coroner is coming to my home.
[somber music]
But they came in.
They asked me to sit down.
And then they delivered the news.
They told me that an unfortunate event
had occurred down at Scott's business that day
and that he had been shot and killed.
I then asked for Scott's mom.
And that's when they told me
that she had also been killed
and that Brian Lucas had been killed,
and the fourth victim they were still trying to identify,
but in my heart, I knew it was Chris Sherbert.
It was terrible.
It was...
it was shocking.
♪
- Four people murdered here
at the Superbike Motorsports in Chesnee.
In the days and weeks that followed
came a sketch of a possible witness
and descriptions of a truck and a car spotted in the area.
- Asking for the public's help in identifying this individual.
This is a sketch of an individual
that we know was in the motorcycle shop.
- He's described as a white man, 25 to 35 years of age,
175 to 200 pounds, with dark brown hair.
He may have been last seen
wearing a black leather jacket and blue jeans.
- I know there's somebody out there that knows something.
They don't have to get up and live this hell that we do.
[dramatic music]
[soft music]
♪
May your spirit surround us with your love.
♪
- Family members of the victims
killed in a quadruple homicide
are asking for your help tonight
as they grieve and cope with the deaths.
They hope someone will give investigators
the answers they need.
- It wasn't a robbery, or what was it?
People don't ride down the street and just say,
I'm going to stop here and kill everybody.
- I found myself sitting here asking them, who?
Tell me what. Tell me why.
You know, give me some kind of closure.
- For the life of me, I can't think
of one thing that would cause somebody to come in
and do such a horrific thing.
- There is still no one behind bars for the murders.
- Don't make us sit at home another day
wondering how someone could have done this to us.
- I can't believe a year has passed.
I have a baby to take care of.
And every little milestone that I reach with him,
it just brings back the realization
that Scott's not here.
Part of me wonders if Scott was pleading
because there was a baby coming,
And he knew that. [sniffles]
And what was the last thing on his mind
as he hit the pavement?
[siren wailing]
- I got this new poster that we released today
on the quadruple murders
up here on Parris Bridge Road.
- More than 80 law enforcers delivered
new posters to businesses and homes throughout the county...
- The leads come and go, leads come and go,
just nothing solid.
- Hoping to catch a killer.
- Then we had this sketch. Now we have this one.
- This is my man that I need to talk to.
- The sheriff says this is the face
of a man seen acting like a customer
just before the murders.
- Here's the big trailers that are going
to be moving us to Arizona.
Scott always said he was going to grow old and write a book
looking out this window.
Now we're going to walk into my bedroom,
where Scotty is sleeping.
And he's laying right in the middle
of Scott and my bedroom.
He's had it. We've been moving all day, and he's out.
We put him through the wringer.
It's hard to leave this place.
Scott built it for our family,
and it's really hard that he's not here.
- 647--that's how many days have passed
since four people were killed.
- There have been nearly 800 leads.
- The only thing cold about this case
is the heart of the mass murderer
who's still on the loose.
[dramatic music]
♪
- So I'd really like to get to know a little bit more
about your brother.
Tell me about him.
- You would think that with two kids
who were eight years apart that, you know,
we'd probably hate each other's guts.
But we were the best of friends.
We played video games together.
We made up stories.
We watched movies.
We were each other's favorite person, really.
When we were little, we didn't have a whole lot.
So on Friday nights, if we had all
our chores done and everything, we got
to sit down and watch a movie.
So we both became, like, huge cinephiles.
And when we discovered Gene Wilder,
I feel like Gene Wilder
was just, like, this larger-than-life person,
that we kind of looked up to him.
David had a job over in Greenville.
And a person that he worked with--her name was Bobbie.
And Bobbie's daughter is Kala.
And they met.
And at the time, Kala was dating somebody else.
A few years go by. David meets Nikkie.
They get married,
and David told me that Nikkie wanted to open the marriage.
Kala was the third party, so to speak.
He's telling me all his deepest, darkest secrets.
He felt an emotional connection to Kala
because she was going through some stuff,
and he wanted to help.
Every Thursday, he would post a new, like, dad joke
or a knock-knock joke or something on his Facebook
because he didn't want anyone to have a bad day.
- Well, the world has lost one of its great talents.
Actor Gene Wilder
has died of complications from Alzheimer's.
For many, one of his best loved roles was the title character
in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory."
- So, when Gene Wilder passed away,
we knew that David would want to know.
David loved Gene Wilder.
So he would have had something more
to say about it than that.
I was like, that's definitely weird.
Something's up.
- David used to text my mom or me every day.
So Mom was obviously very worried by this time.
Just to make her feel better,
I told her that I would, you know, text my friend Sean
who worked with him.
It kind of threw me off the deep end, you know?
- On September 3, 2016, a concerned mother
reported her son, Charles David Carver, missing.
Two days later, a concerned friend also arrived
on Anderson Police's steps
to report Kala Brown, Charlie's girlfriend,
also missing.
- This is just so out of character of him.
So, if anybody knows anything,
please call and leave a tip.
I'm begging you, please.
- That plea echoed by Kala's mom...
- My daughter lives in the apartment right over here.
- Who's passing out flyers in Anderson Crossing,
where the couple lives.
Kala and Charlie's faces became a normal sight.
- Never heard him get upset or angry or--
He was just a really good guy.
So he's not going to jump on there
and say, why are you asking about my girlfriend?
- And that Facebook message is awfully interesting.
Do police have any other leads that would tell them
there's foul play involved here?
- Police right now, they really say
they haven't gotten a whole lot to go on,
but they really just don't know where both of them could be.
- I was actually getting direct messages.
They used a nickname that David used to call me.
And that's exactly when I knew that it wasn't him
because it was also misspelled.
[chuckles]
And if he was going somewhere, he would have told us.
- Anderson Police checked their apartment.
Kala's dog and car were left behind.
- That's her baby.
She would have not left him without food and water.
- The police interrogated Nikkie,
and she didn't help much.
- Investigators' notes show that Nichole told them
several stories, including that Kala
and Charlie had called her.
They were in Florida, then Myrtle Beach,
that Charlie's car, the white Pontiac, was at GSP Airport
and even in her own garage-- leads that were never true.
And strange comments came pouring
out of Nichole Carver's mouth.
- Nikkie posted on Facebook, "RIP to my husband"...
very suspicious.
We started suspecting someone was using David's account.
Nikkie was asking people for money, pretending to be David.
- I also want to note, through this investigation,
we talked a little bit
about Charlie's weird Facebook messages.
- Mm-hmm. - They traced that IP address
back to where those postings were coming from.
And it was from Nichole Carver's home.
- On September 22nd, the police department
received Kala and Charlie's cell phone records
and worked to make sense of them.
They showed that Kala and Charlie's last phone ping
were close to each other.
- Henderson County couple Kala Brown and Charlie Carver,
last seen at Anderson Crossing Apartments.
- Anderson police don't know whether or not
something happened to them,
but their families just want them back home.
- We're worried about you.
This is unlike you, so if you do see this, call somebody.
It doesn't even have to be me, anybody.
You just let somebody know
so that we can stop worrying about you.
- I don't know what to say. [laughs]
- Whatever you want.
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
[dramatic music]
♪
- [sighs]
- These people have not been found.
These people have not been seen
since they were at your property.
- I'm not a narc.
Mm-hmm.
Okay. Okay.
Okay.
[saw whirring]
♪
- We can put you going to the property,
leaving, and coming back.
And we can put her at the property beyond that
and then leave.
Okay.
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
- Hey, Joey. Joey!
- Okay?
You essentially were the last person
to have any contact with them.
- Give me one second. - Yeah. I'll be right here.
- Okay.
Okay. - Get with dispatch.
Yeah.
- All right.
Bye.
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
- Okay.
[handcuffs clicking]
- I think I-13 is taking care of that.
- I got her right here.
- Hold up. Y'all slide back. - Hold on.
- We got to get pictures.
- Brandon, let me see the light, Brandon.
You're okay. We're here, okay?
- Yes, sir.
- We're getting bolt cutters, honey.
Don't--
- Yeah.
- Okay. - Okay.
- Bolt cutter.
Just hit the chain right there loose.
No, right there at her hand, Brandon.
We'll get it off. - We'll get it off here.
Put it right here.
- Yes.
- Okay.
- We're going to step you out. Because there's what?
- Tell the dog people that.
- Okay.
- The one in the driveway right here, bud.
- [clears throat]
- We're going on the passenger side.
All right? - Yes, sir.
- Okay.
- We do begin tonight
with breaking news in South Carolina,
where a shocking scene of death and incredible survival
is still unfolding at this hour.
30-year-old Kala Brown found
after deputies heard banging on a metal container.
- The owner of that property, Todd Kohlhepp,
is in custody and charged
with at least one count of kidnapping.
- It's pretty horrible.
We got deputies down there that came to do the search warrant
this morning and heard this lady banging on this container.
You know, the main thing is, we did find her alive.
Thank God.
I mean, I don't know what else to tell you, but thank God.
We are still looking for Charles David Carver.
- We are learning that Todd Kohlhepp
had been working as a real-estate agent
for TKA Real Estate.
- He was placed
on South Carolina's sex offender website in 2012.
He is listed as a juvenile tier-three offender,
which is the most severe category.
- We have a cadaver dog out here.
We don't have any leads on Mr. Carver at this time.
[ambulance beeping]
♪
- [sniffles]
♪
- Investigators later found the body of Brown's boyfriend
in a shallow grave on Kohlhepp's property.
- We're not done here.
We're not going to be done here.
- Sheriff in Spartanburg County
saying two bodies have now been found
on Kohlhepp's 100-acre property.
- There's supposed to be one more down here,
but we're going to keep searching
until we're positive that's it.
- Investigators say that one victim was shot in the head,
and the other victims shot multiple times in the torso.
According to the coroner,
the two were buried for at least 11 months.
- One of the decedents
is Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie.
She's a white female, 25 years of age.
And then the second decedent's name,
which is actually her husband, Johnny Joe Coxie.
- Miss McGraw's mother
had reported the couple as missing persons
to us back in December of last year.
- I just wish things had turned out differently.
I wish this had never happened.
And I really wish my son was still here.
- The bodies were found, police say,
near the metal container where victim Kala Brown
was found alive with a chain around her neck.
- We're trying to make sure
that we don't have a serial killer on our hands.
This very possibly could be what we have.
♪
[dramatic music]
- Apparently everybody's been shot up here.
- I started seeing more blood and more blood.
- Okay.
♪
- Melissa? - Yes.
- Hey. - Hey.
[Melissa crying softly]
- For 13 years, the family of a quadruple murder
prayed for answers.
Who shot their loved ones, and why?
- He felt like they were making fun of him,
such as this is too much motorcycle for you.
That appears to be what set him off.
- They dispensed with him lightning fast.
He pleaded guilty to killing seven people.
Todd Kohlhepp is now serving
seven consecutive life sentences,
one after the other.
For good measure, he's got another 30 years
tacked on for sexually assaulting Kala every day.
♪
- Melissa Brackman says she's waited 15 years
for this moment.
- [sniffles]
- I needed to be able to look at him
for my own peace.
It finally hit me that we have choices still,
every single day.
Todd does not.
We're still out here walking.
We're still going to keep making this
a good life for us.
And we have a bright future.
- I feel like we can finally move on, and it's over.
And he took a big chunk of our lives.
But we can still adapt and just keep living our lives
and just try to do better every day.