A South Carolina man arrested after a woman was found chained inside a large storage container on his rural property went before a judge Friday.
WARNING: Graphic.
New details have emerged about the terrifying ordeal of the American woman who was kidnapped and found "chained up like a dog" inside a storage container.
Kala Brown, 30, was rescued by police earlier this month after spending two months locked up with her boyfriend, Charlie Carver, on a rural property in South Carolina.
Todd Kohlhepp, who owned the property, has been charged with kidnapping and murder. The 45-year-old local real estate agent is a registered sex offender. Investigators say he has admitted to seven killings.
Todd Kohlhepp's enters the courtroom of Judge Jimmy Henson for a bond hearing at the Spartanburg Detention Facility. Photo / AP
During a 48 Hours special that aired on CBS, news correspondent David Begnaud spoke to friends, relatives and police investigators about the unsettling case.
It was revealed that Ms Brown was kept in a cage inside the container, bound by her neck and feet and received just one meal a day.
The container was dark most of the time, but Mr Kohlhepp would let her out occasionally to walk around.
She told her family that he once dragged her to graves on his property and threatened that she would end up in one of them if she tried to escape, CBS News reports.
After Ms Brown's rescue, authorities found the body of Mr Carver, 32, and another missing couple on the property.
Spartanburg Sheriff Chuck Wright described the shipping container as a "shark cage that you would put underwater", saying Ms Brown was "distraught, panicked" when police found her.
The shipping container that an abducted woman was held in for two months is removed from Todd Kohlhepp's property in Woodruff. Photo / AP
"She was banging very hard on the container," Sheriff Wright told CBS. "She was bound. There was a chain from the top of the cage to something else that went around her neck. She was distraught, panicked."
Sheriff Wright said Ms Brown witnessed her boyfriend, Mr Carver, being shot.
Kohlhepp's mother, Regina Tague, spoke about what she and her son discussed after he was taken into custody.
"Todd was not a monster," Ms Tague told Begnaud during the CBS report.
"He's not even close to it ... He wasn't doing it for enjoyment. He was doing it because he was mad and he was hurt," she added.
"Given what your son has admitted, your son is the definition of what's known as a serial killer," Begnaud commented.
Investigators use heavy equipment to work the crime scene on property ownb y Todd Kohlhepp in Woodruff. Photo / AP
"I hate that," Ms Tague said. "I know that's what they say ... he was very misunderstood."
Begnaud asked why he chained Ms Brown up.
"Because he didn't know what to do at that point," Ms Tague said.
"She saw, evidently, him kill her boyfriend, and he didn't know what to do with her, he couldn't turn her loose. She'd go get the police."
Ms Tague said her son told her he killed Mr Carver "because he got nasty and was smart-mouthed".
Kala Brown and Charlie Carver's missing posters from Facebook page Finding Kala and Charlie. Photo / Facebook
Ms Brown was found after police were tipped off to the sound of banging on the container from the inside, in the town of Woodruff 128km northwest of the state capital of Columbia.
The tip reportedly came from a sex crimes investigator. When officers got close to the container they could hear Ms Brown banging frantically on the metal.
The metal container she was captive in was 9m long, 4.5m and 3.6m high.
Mr Kohlhepp has also admitted shooting dead four people outside a motorcycle shop in 2003.
