A body found in the property where a missing woman was found "chained like a dog" was identified as her missing boyfriend, authorities told the Associated Press.
His body was found in the same property where Kala Brown, who had disappeared two months ago, was found Thursday morning, Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright told the AP.
Police investigators were walking through a rural corner of Woodruff, South Carolina, Thursday morning when they heard banging coming from inside a metal container.
The 30-foot container was padlocked. When police pried it open, they found a horrifying surprise: Brown who had been "chained like a dog" for two months, Wright said.
"She had a chain around her neck," Wright told reporters, adding that "it’s just by God’s grace that she’s alive, if you want to know the absolute truth."
Wright identified the woman as Kala Brown, who disappeared along with her boyfriend, Charlie Carver, at the end of August. Police didn't find Carver Thursday, but did arrest the owner of the property, a 45-year-old registered sex offender named Todd Kohlhepp.
On Saturday, Wright told the AP a body found in a shallow grave was identified as 32-year-old Carver.
The county coroner told the AP Carver died from multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, and that investigators were working to determine for how long his body had been buried.
Calls to the Spartanburg County Sheriff Department and Coroner's office were not returned to BuzzFeed News.
Friday, prosecutors told a judge that Brown saw Kohlhepp shoot and kill Carver in front of her. They also said investigators found multiple weapons and an "unbelievable" amount of ammo on Kohlhepp's property.
Wright said at a news conference Friday that investigators found the body "in a shallow grave" on the property where police located Brown. He did not provided details about the condition of the body, but added said at the time that police had "no way of knowing" how the person died, "whether it's male or female, or any of those kinds of things."
"We're not even close to identification," he said then.
Officials did not say how they were able to identify the body Saturday.
After discovering Brown Thursday, police also raised the possibility that there could be multiple victims.
“We’re trying to make sure, you know, that we don’t have a serial killer on our hands," Wright said. "That very possibly could be what we have.”
Friday, Wright added that investigators continued to comb over the property until they are "100% sure that we don't have any more evidence to go over."
The case began when Brown and Carver abruptly stopped communicating with anyone on Aug. 31. After several days with no contact, Carver's mother, Joanne Shiflet — who regularly spoke with her son — contacted the manager of the couple's apartment in Anderson, South Carolina, NBC News reported last month. The manager went inside and found that Brown's Pomeranian had been left unattended, without food or water, for days.
"That dog is her baby. She'd never leave him like that," said Kala's mother, Bobbie Newsom.
Brown's glasses and some medications were also found in the apartment and her car was in the parking lot, NBC reported. Carver's car was missing.
The case drew increased attention in October, when new messages and photos began appearing on Carver's Facebook page (which has since been taken down). Over 50 new posts reportedly appeared on the page, including one claiming that Brown and Carver had gotten married.
Some of the Facebook messages also included violent images and memes, the Washington Post reported last month. Other postings referenced the couple's disappearance. Family members wondered if someone had hacked the account.
Thursday — after investigators found Brown — Wright speculated that Kohlhepp, the man arrested at the scene, could have been behind the mysterious Facebook messages.
"It's super possible that he was doing that, you know, to try to get people off of his trail," Wright said. "But that's just a thought. I don't know that to be for sure."
Wright credited a sex crime investigator with helping police zero in on the property where they eventually found Brown, though he provided few other details about the case. Prosecutors said Friday in court that investigators also tracked Brown's cellphone to Kohlhepp's property.
According to Wright, Brown appeared to have been fed while in captivity and was in good physical health, though she was receiving medical treatment Thursday and Friday. Wright would not say more about Brown's time in captivity, including whether she might have been sexually assaulted.
"She’s alive and well," Wright said. "She's obviously traumatized."
Wright said that the kidnapping appeared not to be "a random act."
A spokesperson for the Carver family told WBTV that Kohlhepp met Brown and Carver online and that they were casual friends. Prosecutors said in court Friday that Brown's last known communication was with Kohlhepp.
Police learned from Brown that there could be four bodies hidden on the property, though Wright said that "when you’re locked in a container for two months your mind can play tricks on you."
"It’s metal, it’s totally enclosed," he said of the container. "I don’t want to be in there. I don’t want to be in there for a whole day."
According to South Carolina's sex offender registry, Kohlhepp was convicted of kidnapping in 1987. Prosecutors said Friday in court that he abducted a 14-year-old girl, restrainrf her with duct tape, and threatened to kill her family. According to WBTV, he also raped the girl, though a sexual assault charge was dropped as part of a plea deal. He was released from prison in 2001.
Kohlhepp appeared in court Friday after being charged with kidnapping Brown. He faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted, and prosecutors told the judge they expect to file a murder charge in the future. They also called Kohlhepp "a very, very dangerous individual."