'Down to earth' real estate agent sex offender 'kidnapped his woman employee and kept her chained like a dog inside a container at his home for two months' before she was saved by cops

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Kala Brown, 30, was found chained up in a metal container on a South Carolina property after being missing since August

A woman who was found chained up in a large, locked metal storage container after being missing for more than two months worked for her suspected kidnapper. 

Kala Brown, 30, was discovered on Thursday after deputies acting on a tip heard her banging from the inside of a container located on a property in Woodruff, South Carolina.

The man who owns the property, Todd Kohlhepp, 45, is a registered sex offender, and has been arrested in connection with the incident, the sheriff said.

He is also a real estate agent, and Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said Brown worked for suspect.

Brown's close friend, Leah Miller, confirmed the 30-year-old started working for Kohlhepp only weeks before she vanished.

She said Brown helped Kohlhepp clear and clean properties before he put them on the market, according to Greenville Online. 

'I was supposed to be helping Kala, but I recently had neck surgery,' Miller said.

'I'm just in shock, wondering if she tried to reach me to help her before she disappeared.' 

Another friend, Lindsey Mayson, told WSPA the suspected kidnapper did not seem like a bad person when she met him.

'We went by his house to get a key before we went by his house to clean. Didn’t seem like a person who would do anything to anybody. He seemed down to earth,' Mayson said.  

Earlier, Wright said Brown was 'chained inside the container like a dog' when police found her.

He said she told deputies she had been kept in the container - which measured 30 feet by 15 feet by 10 or 12 feet - for two months and had been fed regularly. 

The man who owns the property, Todd Kohlhepp (left), is a registered sex offender. Brown went missing with her 32-year-old boyfriend Charlie Carver (right) on August 30. He is still missing

Brown was found on a property in Woodruff, South Carolina, police announced on Thursday evening

'It's all by God's grace that we found that little girl alive,' Wright told NBC News.

She went missing with her boyfriend, Charlie Carver, 32, on August 30 this year. Authorities are still searching for Carver.

They found his car on the property on Thursday night.  

A massive investigation is now underway on the 100-acre property, according to WYFF4. 

A massive investigation is now underway on the 100-acre property owned by Kohlhepp. Authorities search a field on the property above

A deputy is seen leaving out of Kohlhepp's home carrying a computer on Thursday

Brown has since been taken to local hospital for treatment and Wright said she was 'obviously traumatized' but 'alive and well,' according to The State. 

She reportedly told police as many as four bodies may have been burned on the property.

Wright also said deputies have found several weapons and ammunition.

'We're trying to make sure we don't have a serial killer on our hands,' Wright told WYFF. 

'(It) very possibly could be what we have.'

Another deputy is seen leaving the home carrying  a brown paper bag filled with evidence form Kohlhepp's home

Authorities said Brown (pictured left and right) had a chain around her neck when she was found on Thursday. She told deputies she had been kept in the container for two months and had been fed regularly

Brown has told investigators that there may be other victims.

Kohlhepp will be charged with kidnapping and there is a possibility more charges are to come, Wright said.

'We're trying to get all this sorted out and figure out what were going to charge him with,' Wright told WYFF.

'One of the charges will be kidnapping, it could be murder. It could be a number of things.'

Anderson Police Chief Jim Stewart said his department's investigation into the disappearance of Brown and Carver led authorities to the property near Woodruff, 80 miles northwest of the state capital of Columbia, where the woman was found.

Kohlhepp, pictured in a Facebook photo right and in a mugshot in March, right, was added to the sex offender registry in 1987 when he was convicted and sentenced to prison for kidnapping and dangerous crimes against children in Arizona

Kohlhepp, pictured left as a pilot and right in a photo for his real estate work, is due to appear for an initial hearing on Friday afternoon

Authorities removed the cars from Kohlhepp's garage include his BMW

Stewart said more than a dozen search warrants were issued.

'We got computer and cellphone records that ultimately led us to the area in Woodruff,' Stewart said. 

'We knew that was the last place that a cellphone tied to this case pinged.'  

Kohlhepp was added to the sex offender registry in 1987 when he was convicted and sentenced to prison for kidnapping and dangerous crimes against children in Arizona.

Records indicate Kohlhepp, orginally from Arizona, is a licensed real estate agent as well as a licensed pilot.

Brown (left) and Carver (right) had been dating for a few months before they vanished on August 30

He is listed as a self-employed and as the owner/broker in charge at Todd Kohlhepp and Associates LLC located in Greenville on his Facebook page.

Carver and Brown were last seen together leaving a friend's home on August 30. 

The next day, surveillance footage caught Carver leaving his work. That day marked the last the couple's friends or family heard from them.

Carver and Brown had been dating just a few months, and had moved in together over the summer as Carver was going through a divorce.

After failing to answer calls or messages from their loved ones, the couple's parents searched their apartment a few days later and found Brown's Pomeranian inside without any food or water.

As the search for the missing couple started, Carver's Facebook - which he does not typically use - started becoming more and more active. Above shows an exchange on his Facebook page on September 6

Medications and Brown's glasses were also left behind in the abandoned apartment.

Neighbor Nicholas Arocho told Greenville Online that Carver's family took Pomeranian and paid the couple's rent for a couple of months after they disappeared.

The family later packed up the couple's belongings, he said.

As the search for the missing couple started, Carver's Facebook - which he does not typically use - started becoming more active.

Relatives believe that the account has been hacked. Above, a message that someone received from Carver saying he was 'fine'

On September 1, the account posted an update that the two had gotten married and then on September 6 his profile picture was changed. 

Other posts include links to stories and GoFundMe fundraisers for the missing couple.

There are also several bizarre posts unrelated to the couple's disappearance, such as memes and comic book illustrations.

The most recent post from October 2 reads: 'What color ribbon supports the cure for people who can't keep their nose out of other people's business?'

When one concerned family member reached out to Carver on the account, they received a private message saying 'yes I'm fine'.

But family members believe the account was hacked since the posts are not in Carver's style. 

Meanwhile, Brown's Facebook - which she used more than her boyfriend - has been completely silent. 

A friend of Brown and Carver's mother told police that someone the couple knows has 'given them problems before'.

Brown's car was found in her apartment complex and her cellphone had not been used in the 48 hours before she vanished. 

Kohlhepp is scheduled for an initial hearing at 2 pm at the Spartanburg County Jail. 

Pictures of the couple and 'MISSING' posters were shared on Facebook after their disappearance in August

Carver's car, a 2002 white Pontiac Grand Prix with a South Carolina license plate number HWY124, was found on the property on Thursday