The Latest: Cookout gives officers a respite from search
By Associated Press
Nov 5, 2016 12:52 PM CDT
Todd Kohlhepp is escorted into a Spartanburg County magistrate courtroom, Friday, Nov. 4, 2016, in Spartanburg, S.C.. Kohlhepp, a 45-year-old registered sex offender with a previous kidnapping conviction, appeared at a bond hearing Friday on a kidnapping charge in connection to a woman being found chained...   (Associated Press)

SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) — The Latest on the investigation after a missing woman was found chained inside a storage container (all times local):

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1:30 p.m.

A church is holding a cookout to thank law enforcement officers who are searching property where a woman was found chained in a storage container.

Members of a Baptist church near the 95-acre property towed in a grill to cook and serve hamburgers to dozens of officers and reporters. Officers drove out from behind the property's chain link fence for the lunch break.

Investigators were told several bodies may be buried on the site.

Spartanburg County Sgt. Brandon Letterman says the ability to relax for even a little bit "makes our job a lot easier." He says the search resumed about 8 a.m. Saturday, and the community's support "makes us feel great."

Todd Christopher Kohlhepp is charged with kidnapping after authorities found a woman Thursday chained at her neck and ankle inside the container.

The coroner is working to identify a body found Friday.

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11:15 a.m.

A coroner is working to identify the body found on property in rural South Carolina where a woman was found chained in a storage container.

Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger says the body was exhumed Friday night and taken to the morgue. It remained unclear Saturday when the body would be identified.

Teams continued Saturday morning to search the 95-acre property near Woodruff.

Police vehicles could be seen going back and forth across the property. An Anderson police officer put two bouquets of flowers in the fence Saturday.

Todd Christopher Kohlhepp is charged with kidnapping after authorities found a woman Thursday chained at her neck and ankle in a storage container. Prosecutor Barry Barnette says the woman saw her captor shoot and kill her boyfriend, who went with her for a cleaning job on the suspect's property.

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2 a.m.

The man accused of chaining a woman in a storage container for weeks had a violent past and was "preoccupied with sexual content" from a young age.

That's according to details emerging as investigators search his rural property for bodies.

Teams digging on the property found one body Friday and feared there could be more.

Prosecutor Barry Barnette says the woman saw her captor shoot and kill her boyfriend, who went with her for a cleaning job on the suspect's property. The body discovered Friday was not immediately identified.

Todd Christopher Kohlhepp is charged with kidnapping. The 45-year-old registered sex offender has a previous kidnapping conviction in Arizona. More charges are expected.

Barnette said that in the Arizona case, Kohlhepp kidnapped a 14-year-old girl, bound her and raped her in 1986. Online prison records show he served about 14 years for the felony. He was released in 2001.

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