Todd Kohlhepp, also known as The Amazon Review Killer, murdered seven people between 2003 and 2016.
Kohlhepp seemingly had it all going for him. He had a Real Estate firm, owned almost 100 acres of land, had a private pilot's license, and even had 2 degrees along with a career as a graphic designer.
Todd Kohlhepp was born on March 7, 1971, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His parents divorced when he was two, and he took his step-father's last name of Kohlhepp at that time. He was originally born Todd Christopher Sampsell.
Kohlhepp was abused at home and bullied others at school. He had an anger that seemingly had no bounds, and he was eventually sent to a mental hospital at the young age of nine. His disturbing behavior included killing a goldfish with bleach, ripping up classmate's assignments, and shooting a dog with a BB gun. He was also kicked out of the Boy Scouts due to his behavior.
In 1983 Kohlhepp was eventually sent to live with his father in Tempe, Arizona. His mother was going through her second divorce, and Kohlhepp desperately wanted to be with his biological father. Unfortunately, his father spent so much of his time on dates that it angered Kohlhepp.
In 1986 at just 15 years old, Kohlhepp lured a girl out of her house, forced her into his home with a gun, and he proceeded to do unspeakable things to her. When he let her go, he told her he would kill her family if she told anyone. Just hours later, he was arrested. He was sentenced to 15 years without probation and the judge said this at his trial:
“At less than the age of nine, this juvenile was impulsive, explosive, ad preoccupied with sexual content. He has not changed. He has been unabatedly aggressive to others and destructive of property since nursery school.”
While in prison, he had a few issues in his early twenties, but nothing was a red flag. He attended Central Arizona College and graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science all while in prison.
Kohlhepp was released from prison at 30 years old when he decided to move to Spartanburg, SC. He lied about prior work history to get a job, a real estate license, and he eventually got another degree. He graduated from USC with bachelor's degree in business administration marketing in 2008.
All of this seems impressive, but while he was supposedly bettering himself, he had also started murdering people. In 2003, 4 people were found shot to death in Chesnee at Superbike Motorsports. The murders went unsolved until 2016 when Kohlhepp, who was arrested for other charges, admitted to the killings and had information about them that wasn't released to the public.
When Kohlhepp's property was searched in the disappearance of Kala Brown and Charles David Carter, 2 other bodies were discovered. Brown was found alive and told authorities that Kohlhepp shot Carter in front of her. He also raped her repeatedly and showed her the graves of the other 2 bodies: Johnny Joe Coxie and Meagan Leigh McCraw-Coxie.
Following his arrest, an Amazon account by the name of "me" was found to have made strange and disturbing product reviews. The wishlist for this account was under the name "Todd Kohlhepp". The reviews were for padlocks, chainsaws, knives, shovels....you name it.
One review for a folding shovel read, "keep in car for when you have to hide the bodies and you left the full size shovel at home.... does not come with a midget, which would have been nice."
Kohlhepp said in another review, "“Works excellent … getting the neighbor to stand still while you chase him with it is hard enough without having a easy to use chainsaw …”
And yet another review stated, "solid locks.. have 5 on a shipping container.. wont stop them.. but sure will slow them down til they are too old to care."
Written By: Jennifer
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