My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
Hosted by Georgia Hardstark
Original podcast
This week, Karen and Georgia cover the Superbike murders.
9,900 words · 7 speakers
Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.
This is exactly right.
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Hello! And welcome!
To My Favorite Murder.
That's Georgia Hardstark.
That's Karen Kilgariff.
And we're here to podcast into your ear hole.
Right there. You've been waiting with it open and ready.
Slut.
How's your day?
I had therapy. I cried.
What?
I think the hormone replacement therapy that I've been on has been helping with the crying.
How'd it feel?
Good, definitely good. I just, I needed, uh, like, you know, eye mask under, afterwards, because we have to be on video for these now.
The demands are incredible these days.
Yeah.
We're like every Kardashian wrapped into one.
I mean, meanwhile, my fucking nails are chipping and gross, but god for it, it looks like I cried.
Yeah, and that we're a human being.
Right.
I think the podcasting on video is really bringing humanity back to the concept of video. Because most podcasters aren't ready for video.
Well, I keep saying, when someone's like, "How's the podcast?", and I'm like, "Oh, you know, we're videoing, which is exactly why I got into podcasting in the first place. Was to fucking be on video."
Yeah, it's a dream come true.
It truly is.
Look, just break it down. I did a double coat of mascara.
Ooh.
Always a mistake.
Oh, yeah.
You know what I mean?
Because when you put it on when it's dry, oh, it's just crunchy.
It's crunchy and then like, I'm trying to get those lashes like in the corner that...
After a while, they're just like, "Hey, don't come for us anymore. We don't, we're not showing up for you."
We're barely even lashes yet.
We're basically like embryos with lashes. Stop fucking covering us.
Just don't, yeah, you know? We can't help you, ma'am.
This isn't what's gonna make the fucking difference on the video.
Well, then maybe it's winged eyeliner.
Could it be? The ones that go into the creases of my eyes? Because I don't have, you know? It's really, it really has, and that's the thing I talked about to my therapist today, dinged my, like, self-esteem a little bit being on video.
I mean, there's always some real humility work taking place in showbiz, whatever kind.
You can't hide.
They'll come for you.
They'll hold up that mirror, and however warped it is.
So warped.
You gotta look.
So fucking warped.
Let me distract you with something fun.
Please do.
I put this over here the other day. This was a gift that I got from Lily Ludwig, who works in our development department. It's a candle that smells like Tom Hardy.
It says on the candle, "Smells like Tom Hardy."
Smells like Tom Hardy.
"Made with love." Okay, it smells a little like air freshener.
Yes.
But who gives a shit?
That's Tom, baby.
It's not for lighting.
You know, it's for thinking about Tom Hardy.
"Made with love," looks like the brand, right?
Oh, yeah, I think you're right. That's an excellent gift.
Isn't it?
You know what it is? What I think they were imagining is like, if Tom Hardy asked you on a date, and then showed up at your front door with like, all washed and cleaned and maybe with some...
Fabrezed a little?
He's fabrezed his t-shirt. It smells like half an effort.
It's like, oh my god, he showered for me, and that's where my self-esteem is right now, and that's all I can like, hope for.
It's all that matters, our co-star, Tom Hardy.
Tom Hardy, I love it.
That's what we call him.
How are you? How's your day?
It was good. It was kind of long. I mean, this is the Friday before our Christmas vacation starts.
So it has felt a lot like crawling through the desert.
It has. I can't believe it's over. I just want to go and say, and I shouldn't be saying this, but if I die in a car accident on the way home, I'm gonna be so angry. That's where my brain goes, like, yay, it's vacation!
Then I'm gonna die.
Yes, of course.
Knock on wood. I shouldn't have said that.
Well, you're not going to.
Okay. All weekend, I'm just gonna fucking sit at home now and be like, why did you say that?
So, are you trying to say that you think saying it is somehow gonna call it out?
As someone who was just in a car accident, let me tell you, you'll be fine.
You were just in a car accident?
Yeah, I was in a car accident like a month ago.
How did I not know that?
You know, I like to keep stuff like that to myself.
Why was it, were you at fault?
No, I was not.
Really?
I was practically celebrating. I was so not at fault. Unlike our big epic car accident so many years ago.
Anyway, it was fine, and it was one of those kinds of things where I actually do the same thing. I always am kind of like, what could happen, and prepare and scan and whatever. And then it happened, and it was kind of shocking, and like, I was, you know, shaken or whatever. And I was just like, you can't prepare.
And you shouldn't waste your time trying to because when it happens, then you're just gonna have that bad feeling anyway.
So don't like.
Right. Don't borrow it from the future.
Yes. Did your therapist say that?
My therapist said, don't borrow anxiety from the future.
Smart.
You know what she calls that? When you're constantly worried and thinking the bad things could happen and what's gonna happen here and let me plan for this? She calls that turning the good milk into bad milk. So this being our last thing before we go on vacation is the good milk that I should be celebrating.
But I am so afraid of like happiness and excitement and good things that I am only able to swallow the good milk by putting the bad milk of a car accident on top of it. Only then can I allow myself to enjoy the vacation. And it sounds disgusting and I hate the term. I told her that. But when you think about it.
You're actually, you're trying to swallow the good milk of her good advice with the bad milk of, hey, shut the fuck up.
That sounds gross.
Your metaphor is disgusting me.
But I, but I get it.
So let's not, let's take the good milk.
Let's drink as much milk as we can on this vacation.
Ew.
Let's try every type of milk except raw milk.
Right, no raw milk.
It's too dangerous. Let's talk about a positive that cropped up kind of unexpectedly. We thought we'd have some fun here at Exactly Right and do a little commercial for our merch. And that commercial featuring Nicole from our merch department is like the new Avengers movie. It's, it's just a hit. It's a hit stem to stem.
It's a hit with the fans. It's a hit with the critics. It's a hit with, you know, the influencers.
I mean.
She's an influencer now.
She is. Nicole is going to be a monster. You can tell. She's going to go full diva.
She's a merch influencer.
She is. Should we read some of these responses?
Okay.
People's.
So if you haven't seen it yet, it's up on our Instagram and up on our TikTok, the video that Nicole made for our hot dog merch. She made a commercial, it's incredible. And so here are some comments you guys made about it.
The first one is from Jacqueline Moody and it says, all this time I thought it was a Karen, turns out I'm a Nicole. Genius.
I love it.
Jacqueline.
The skulls and stars on Instagram said, Nicole, you are the star we didn't know we needed. You are fantastic. Keep up the good work. I know many of us were trying to figure out what to get that rando. We just met online and now we have the answer.
This is Stacy B dot art and it says, we need more ads from Nicole. It's giving local TV commercial and I am here for it.
We'll do that.
That was the idea.
Definitely.
In fact, we're gonna do it right now.
Did you guys make another one?
Are you ready?
These are, I love, okay, wait, I'm not ready, I'm not ready. Okay, go.
Hi, it's Nicole from the merch department and I'd like to ask you a question. Where are you spending your holidays?
Because it could be inside this sweatshirt. That's right, it's my favorite murders, favorite murder of holiday crows. These birds love the holidays and now you will too. So flock, don't walk, to the website. Oh, sorry, our website is ExactlyRightStore.com and order your holiday crow sweatshirt today. Order soon because once these puppies are gone, they'll be back never more.
It's like a real commercial at the end.
Flock, don't walk.
That's my favorite.
That was excellent.
We're having some real fun making stuff in that video studio that we have.
I'm impressed by all of it. I love it. They're just a surprise to me. I don't have to even think about it.
Surprise video, right?
So good.
Yeah, just so you know, and I think Nicole may have just said that in her ad.
But December 12th, which is today for you guys, if you're listening on the day it comes out, this is the last day to order anything from the ERM store to get it in time for Christmas in a way that we can guarantee it. So go to ExactlyRightStore.com. You can go see that sweatshirt, hot dog sweatshirt, all kinds. There's a Mothman sweatshirt. People like.
Yeah, have you done your Christmas shopping yet? No, then today is the day.
Get over there, place those orders so you can make sure you have little gifties under the tree.
Sure.
Or just buy them for your.
Yourself too.
Absolutely.
Hey you guys, we have a podcast network. It's called Exactly Right Media. Here are some highlights.
We have exciting news to celebrate the release of our latest Rewind episode, which is episode 23. We're gonna relaunch the very first day out of the forest design by the amazing artist and our friend Kat Solin. They're limited edition. Don't wait. Go over to myfavoritemurder.com and get yours before they're gone.
And while you're there, you can check out all of the promo codes from our advertisers. So whenever we do those ads, you guys, and we have the discount codes, you can find them all at myfavoritemurder.com/promos. You'll get the discounts and it kind of hooks us up a little bit too in that the advertisers know that it's working. Keep advertising with us.
It's the old tell them we sent you.
Tell them we sent you.
That's how you tell them we sent you.
Right, and you get a discount.
Also, remember as always that when you rate and review and follow all of our podcasts, it makes a huge difference in the business, but also in our hearts.
Oh, yeah, totally.
This season, something, something?
Yeah, this season, this holiday season.
And then, this is really exciting. It's silly and fun. So, our ninth anniversary of this fucking podcast is coming up in January.
That's right. It's January 13th. So, when it's someone's first anniversary, you give them paper. When it's their 20th, you give them china. Well, we looked it up, and we're all just working toward the 60th where you get diamonds. But, we looked it up, and your ninth anniversary, you get pottery, ceramics.
Ceramics.
So, we're not telling you guys what to get us, but, you know, because it is a traditional gift, if you are so inclined and you're a pottery ceramic murderino, you know.
A ceramorino.
Ceramorino, MFM maker, then, you know, we want that. We want to see your art.
Yes. You can take a picture of it and post it, or you can actually mail it to us snail mail style. Send them to myfavoritemurderinc@pobox3951.
585-LACA90039.
Boom. Make sure you hashtag it. #MFM9th.
So that we know. And we're gonna like repost them. We're gonna make, maybe make some fun videos. Show them off. So like, get creative, which you already are.
And don't be afraid if you're the kind of pottery ceramicist that just rolls out a snake and coils it into an ashtray. That's great.
We love it. It doesn't have to be like our fucking logo.
Good or logo. It's your interpretation of what the ninth anniversary of My Favorite Murder would mean to you.
If you were to make art about it.
Also, you know what they could do?
Is if they have a piece of ceramic or ceramics or pottery that they like, they could just be like, "Here's some ceramics and send a picture."
Yeah. I mean, just hashtag your art, #MFM9th.
And like.
And help us celebrate. We're just kinda trying to like, it feels weird when we sit here and we have to be like, "It's our ninth anniversary."
But where it's just the two of us staring at each other like we have for nine years. So it helps when we can get you guys to party with us.
Exactly. And it like brings us joy and like excitement. Just like the other day, we discovered this trophy that someone sent us. This trophy is by Jenny Earl, or Early, J-E-N-N-I-E-A-R-L-E, sent us these trophies. Like, there's a girl doing cheerleading and it says, "This is terrible. Keep going."
And all these other trophies when we just found them. And we got so excited when we saw them. So, thank you, Jenny.
So, also, if you're not a maker and you are not creative in any way, and none of that idea resonates with you.
Get a tattoo.
We would love to hear about, I don't know, how your life has changed in the almost decade since we started the show. Or if you have a specific story, anything really from the last nine years. Write in and tell us and we'll be reading people's emails.
Did you get a new suspicious mole that you're, you know?
Or did you go to graduate school?
Could be like, I met Rachel last night outside of Don Cucco's. It was her birthday. And she told me that she, since listening, left an abusive marriage, became a lawyer, and it was her birthday. And so she's like, I can't believe I'm seeing you. Can I get a hug? And I was like, yes, you can. And congratulations.
Oh, my God.
On your new life. That's so cool.
That's incredible.
And that's like, that's nine years.
Nine years. It's, yeah, it goes by.
People have really, there's some good story arcs out there.
Yeah, you could do a lot with nine years.
Or you can do nothing.
We'd love to hear if you've done nothing.
You've done nothing. Only got that suspicious mole looked at. We're proud of you. That's a big step.
Did you get a real good indentation going on one couch cushion? We'd like to see it.
Yeah, hashtag MFM9. Um, okay. Let's see, is that it?
That's that.
And so.
Piece of news. And one last thing. It is week two of this December holiday tradition that we still have not named, where we make donations to incredible charities to help those in need.
So today, we're donating $10,000 to the Center for Reproductive Rights. You know them, you love them, they're so fucking necessary.
We need them, we don't really have them. Many of you won't be having them.
Yep, they come, they go, what the fuck?
We gotta fight, fight, fight.
And so the Center for Reproductive Rights is a global organization working to ensure that reproductive rights are protected. Imagine that.
They've worked across five continents to secure access to legal and safe abortion, contraception, and more. And they're reshaping how courts and governments safeguard these essential freedoms.
So at a time like this, they're obviously a very incredibly important organization. So if you'd like to join us in giving, go to their website, reproductiverights.org.
And let's keep fighting for fairness and human dignity as we step into this new year.
Amen.
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Goodbye.
You guys know how we do it on our vacation. We just have pre-recorded a bunch of episodes where only one of us does a story. It just kind of helps us not go fucking crazy. So this week is Karen's story. Yes, I go by myself.
Are you ready to hear a story?
I cannot tell you how ready I am to sit back and do how great it's been today and not have to be like, multiple times today, I was like, fuck my story. Fuck my story.
And my story must suck because I don't know what it is, you know, and then I remember.
And then you're like, I remembered that I can forget that today is my day.
Always forget.
You're kind of technically already on vacation and I resent you for that.
I had to put makeup on. That's a whole fucking, that's not vacay.
I cherish you.
Thank you.
Okay. This is a story we have talked about conversationally at the beginning of, it was episode 42, actually, late 2016. Wow. The first of the nine years we're gonna be celebrating next year. Recently, and this is the beginning of every sentence I seem to say these days, I saw this TikTok where, the TikTok was the account @IReddit, and they're talking about this case, but it was a repost from a Reddit user named Jenny010137. And so, thank you for those guys making that good true crime content on TikTok.
And I didn't know these things, I didn't know about this, and it's one of those, like, how did I not know? Yes. We say it all the time, but in a big way, that I'm afraid to give something away, so I'll just read. So, we begin on November 6, 2003, in the small town of Chesney, South Carolina, where there's a popular local business called Superbike Motorsports. Oh. So, Superbike sells things like motorcycles, ATVs, dirt bikes, and it has a warm, familiar, family-oriented atmosphere. And that's because 30-year-old Scott Ponder, who's the owner, has built this business to be a space where friends and family and customers all kind of mix together and feel like the same thing. Oh, God.
Scott's adoring mother, 52-year-old Beverly Guy, works alongside him as the office manager, and Beverly's husband, Terry, Scott's stepfather, will later tell reporters about how Beverly had once worked three jobs so that she could buy Scott the bike that he wanted as a kid. I mean, what's more like foundational than a bike you get as a kid? Totally. Yeah. So, she was the kind of mom who gave everything to help her son achieve his dreams. Terry says, quote, "Scott was her whole life." So, now Scott and his wife Melissa are celebrating because they just announced that Melissa's pregnant. The couple heard their baby's heartbeat for the first time just two days before.
In the store today at Superbike, the joy is palpable among the very tight-knit crew that works there. Twenty-nine-year-old service manager Brian Lucas is a devoted family man himself, and his passion for motorcycles comes second only to his love for his sons. His wife, Robin, will later say, quote, "Brian loved his kids. They were first and foremost in his life." And then in the back of the shop is Superbike's in-house mechanic, twenty-six-year-old Chris Schubert. His nickname is Schubie. He lives and breathes motorcycles. His brother, Joel, will later say, quote, "Chris was doing what he loved and what he was best at." So around 3:00 PM, a man named Noah Lee pulls into the parking lot, and he is here
to pick up tickets for a motocross race that's in town that night. He's good friends with Scott and Brian. They're all going to this race together. And he'll later say, quote, "They're definitely my closest friends. I leave there some days and say, 'Love you guys.'"
I just hate this because sometimes you tell these stories and you're like, "Oh, are they going to be the good guy or the bad guy? I don't know, but I fucking know."
Yep. So Noel calls thirty minutes earlier to tell Scott and Brian he's going to stop by to pick up those tickets. But now, as he steps out of his car, he realizes that something is horribly wrong. He sees Brian sprawled at the entrance and Scott lying on the sidewalk, and they're both in pools of blood. At first, Noel doesn't understand what's going on, as you would not. He's shocked. Then, when he kind of realizes, he rushes inside to call 911 on the store's landline. When he does that, he then sees Beverly on the floor near the bathroom. Noel dials 911. He makes a very frantic three-minute call in which he tells the dispatcher, quote, "I thought they were playing a prank on me,
but everyone's laying down in a pool of blood. I don't see anybody breathing. I thought they were playing a joke because they're real prone to doing that to me, but I don't see anybody breathing."
So painful.
He's like having this realization as he's trying to talk to this dispatcher.
I can't imagine. I bet that listening to that is probably horrific.
Horrific. So it's only when the police arrive minutes later that they find Chris Schubert in the back of the shop, lying near the black Suzuki bike that he's been working on. Every employee who was at Superbike Motorsports that day, Scott, Brian, Beverly, and Chris, they've all been shot to death. These are the first moments in what would become known as the Superbike Murders, one of the most confounding cold cases ever to take place in South Carolina. So the main sources used in today's research are various articles from the Greenville newspaper, reporting by WSPA 7 News, and the Investigation Discovery mini-series Serial Killer Devil Unchained.
Is this like a hometown that we had? Because I know we've talked about it.
Well, it came out in the news.
While we were recording?
And so we've definitely talked about it. And
I, actually, when we first started talking about it, I was like, I think, I think we've done it.
Because it feels familiar.
But the rest of it, we haven't covered, for sure.
Right. Right. And the rest of those sources are in our show notes. So we're back to the Superbike shop. The crime scene is confusing. Nothing, no bikes, no parts, no money from the large amount of cash on site is missing. So investigators believe robbery is not the motive in this quadruple homicide. They have no idea what the motive could be. There just isn't much evidence to work with. Investigators can't pull any useful DNA or fingerprints from the scene. What they do have are 18 shell casings scattered around the shop, all fired from a handgun. And there's a partially filled out bill of sale for a black Suzuki motorcycle on the counter. They note that Chris Schubert's body was found
near a black Suzuki bike at the back of the building, suggesting a customer had picked out this bike and was in the process of buying it. And Chris was presumably getting the motorcycle prepped to leave the showroom. Unfortunately, that customer ...name is not listed on the form. So, local police, they've never seen a crime like this before. Officer Steve Cooper with the Spartansburg County Sheriff's Department later says, quote, "Was one of the victims the actual target and the other people, were they just casualties? Was the business the actual target? It really tore our resources in many different directions." Then investigators do get a lead, and it's a witness named Kelly Sisk who comes forward.
And he tells investigators that he was in the shop around 2 o'clock. He stopped by with his four-year-old son to make a payment on a go-kart. The two ended up spending about a half an hour in the store, just looking at all the bikes and checking everything out. And Kelly and his son left Superbike seemingly just minutes before these murders took place.
Thank God.
Which is, God. So Kelly tells investigators that there was one other customer in the store while he and his son were there. He was a white man, around six feet tall, around 175 to 200 pounds, with dark brown feathered hair, thin lips, and small eyes. And Kelly says this man was checking out a black Suzuki motorcycle.
Oh, shit.
But he seemed a bit out of his element, like he didn't really know bikes that well. And Scott, Superbike's owner, was chatting with this man. And Kelly says, quote, "I overheard Scott say, 'Oh, this is a good beginner's bike.'" And I was thinking, "Who, that's a pretty big bike for a beginner." But Scott knows his bikes, end quote. So, to investigators, this mystery man seems like the linchpin of maybe solving this case. If he isn't the gunman himself, then he could be the last customer who was in Superbike before the killings took place.
Essentially, just the police need to find him.
Person of interest.
Yeah. So, a sketch is drawn, and it's circulated based on Kelly Sisk's description. But when Kelly sees it, he doesn't think the sketch looks like the guy that was there that afternoon. Somehow, though, nothing is done to improve the image and match Kelly's memory more closely. The public interest around this case is, of course, intense. Before long, investigators are in over their heads. They have very little evidence to go on, but there's enormous publicity. So then they're immediately swamped with tips. They go chase those tips down, and most of them turn out to be dead ends. And so, of course, precious time and manpower is wasted.
But they also make some pretty bad errors in judgment. For example, Scott's wife Melissa gives birth to a baby boy she names Scotty. A year after the murders, police get a tip claiming that Scott was actually sterile, and Scotty is not his child. The police get their hands on, so basically, they go and they, like, take a used diaper.
Ah, for the widow.
From, yes, from the widow, from the now-six-month-old baby, and they run a DNA test. And the results show that Brian Lucas, Scott's coworker and close friend, is the father of Melissa's baby. So when investigators question Melissa about this, she's enraged. She is, she's just like, "You are out of your minds." She later says, quote, "I became irate, and I said, 'I'm going to bring Scotty back, and we're going to swab his mouth in front of me, and I'm going to watch you put it in that envelope, and I'm going to watch you seal it, and I'm going to watch you mail it.'" And that's exactly what we did.
Whoa.
But when that second DNA test comes back, the results are the same.
It says Brian is the baby's father. An officer suggests that Melissa, who is still grieving her husband's death, was having an affair that somehow played a part in these murders. She will later say, quote, "Their focus was so intent on me." But she knows it isn't true. Anyone who knows her knows Scott knows it isn't true. She demands the investigators recheck their tests. And then when they do, they realize somehow Scott and Brian's blood samples were mislabeled.
Holy fucking shit. What a disgusting fucking nightmare. Like, I'm horrified for her.
Horrifying.
I mean, and the time she had to spend with them thinking that and her knowing, I never, you know?
And it's not a big town, so it's not just her, it's not just the cops, it gets around.
I mean, no one would have believed her if they hadn't then checked it again.
And if she hadn't faced up and just been like, no, I will fight you on this.
Yeah. Oh, my God, that makes me sick.
It's really a horrible mistake. When they retest, it's confirmed, of course, Scott is Scotty's father. So that affair theory falls apart, but even more valuable time has now been wasted. And worse, Melissa, the now single mother and grieving widow, is subjected to small-town gossip and worse. She says, quote, "The rumors ran rampant. I cannot tell you the things that have been said about me. I know that Scott's grandmother, who I thought I was close to, died believing that Scotty was not her own grandson."
Just tragedy upon tragedy, horrible. So Melissa decides to leave South Carolina for Phoenix, Arizona. Scott's stepfather, Terry, who lost his wife Beverly in these murders, says, quote, "I only get to see my grandson once a year rather than weekly. The police robbed me of a better relationship with him. They tormented Melissa and accused her of all this. They didn't even have the guts to apologize for what they put her through."
What? And I mean, any faith that these investigators are going to solve this when they can't even get the victim's DNA straight, it's just like out the window.
They didn't apologize for that mistake. How do you do that?
Unthinkable. So, obviously, the case goes cold. So then, three years after the murders, 2006, Brian Lucas's parents, Lorraine and Tom, ask their friend, who's a private investigator, to review this case. So that friend puts together a long list of superbike customers from the past year, and then goes through and highlights the ones with criminal records. The detectives on the case had only focused on customers from the past 90 days from the murder.
That's it. They're like, "Let's just do 90."
We'll do 90.
It's too hard to do more than that.
Or just like, "This is what we thought of first, so this is what we're gonna do, no matter the non-recents from that plan."
Exactly. When you don't find them in the 90 days, then you go back further. That's what investigation is.
You would think. Well, it would just continue.
When the Lucases hand that list over to the police, nothing comes of it. And Lorraine later says, quote, "I feel like they had taken this list and plunked it into the trash." So from here, an entire decade passes.
And then investigators release a new sketch of that mystery superbike customer that Kelly Sisk finally approves of, but there are no new leads. The quadruple murder cold case becomes even colder. Then, 13 years after the murders, on Labor Day weekend 2016, about 70 miles from where Superbike Motorsports is located, a couple living in Anderson, South Carolina, go missing. They're 30-year-old Kayla Brown and 32-year-old Charlie Carver. Investigators get a search warrant for Kayla's Facebook account, and when they scan through her messages, they find that she'd been in touch with a local realtor. This man had offered Kayla cleaning work at his various listings, as well as at a
property that he owns in nearby Woodruff, South Carolina. So Kayla agrees. Charlie plans to join her, and they go out to this property.
And then no one hears from them and they go missing. So, once the police are involved, Kayla's phone is pinged and it's near that same property. So, they made it there. But for some reason, it takes two months from when the couple are first reported missing, that the investigators finally secure a search warrant for this property.
Why?
So, the property has a house and then there's like almost 100 acres of mostly woods. The realtor is not on site at the time. He's at his main residence in another part of town. So, investigators arrive at this secluded home in the woods and they find a creepy scene. There are guns stashed just about everywhere, between pantry shelving, above doorways, in the bathrooms.
Jesus.
Everywhere. And it gets creepier. They go outside and start to walk this property and that's when they hear a woman screaming for help. Her voice is coming from inside a huge shipping container sitting in a field. And when officers break it open, they find that the screaming woman is Kayla Brown chained to a corner of the container in a makeshift prison cell.
Police immediately arrest the real estate agent who owns that property, who hired Kayla, a man named Todd Colup. At the same time, Kayla is basically tended to, you know, freed, obviously, put into an ambulance, is being looked after, and detectives start asking her questions. And they get her story, basically. So, she tells them, "Two months ago, she and Charlie showed up to this property to do landscaping work. But shortly after they arrived, with no provocation and completely out of the blue, Todd Colup pulled a gun out on them and shoots Charlie to death."
Jesus Christ. I've always just, I've always imagined, like, what, at that, what do you, I'd lose my mind at that moment.
Right, because you're out in the middle of nowhere. Like, you're already on a remote property anyway. You're witnessing the murder of the person you love the most in the world.
Totally.
And who is this person?
You're, you couldn't be in more danger.
No.
Kayla will later say, quote, "I was in shock. He pulled me to go and told me to go with him or I could join Charlie. I was numb. I couldn't think. I still hadn't comprehended what had happened." So Todd buries Charlie's body somewhere on the property. And then for the next two months, he holds Kayla captive in a shipping container where he sexually assaults her regularly. Kayla knows that if she doesn't cooperate with him in every way, she'll be killed.
She's fucking seen it.
She's seen it.
It's, I mean.
But Kayla Brown is a fighter. Much later, when asked what she'd like to say to Todd's face, she says, quote, "I would just tell him that no matter what he did to me, he did not break me. He cannot destroy who I am, and I won."
Fuck yeah.
Fuck yeah. And this is how she wins. She realizes when she's being held there and she has to deal with this lunatic man, that he's infatuated with her. So in a very courageous and like kind of unfathomable move, she manipulates him into believing that she cares for him too.
Wow.
And it saves her life. So her survival is crucial, obviously not just for her and the people that care about her, but in a shocking twist, for decades-long cold murder cases. As Kayla is being taken to safety, a detective in the ambulance asks her if Todd Collop ever talked about killing any other people. And Kayla says, quote, "He told me that a few years back, he walked into a bike shop and shot four people and left, and that they never found out who did it."
Oh my God, chills.
And just like that, the Superbike cold case is back open.
I didn't know these two things were connected.
Like nowadays?
I didn't, when I saw that TikTok.
And I was like, I remember talking about her, and I remember the Superbike cold case.
I didn't know this is where they came together.
They must not have come together yet when we were talking about it, because I definitely knew that.
You remember that?
Yeah. Like, that's one that I've late-night, deep-dive read, like obsessively.
Maybe I did too, and I'm...
I mean, we've only done nine years of this, so if you can't remember every single fucking case that we've done or not, covered or not, then I don't know what to tell you.
Then you might need to try a little bit harder.
So some ginkgo biloba would be fucking great.
I just remember watching that TikTok and being like, wait, what?
I know.
Unbelievable. Okay.
Because I remember when we talked about Caleb being found and how creepy that was. It was that whole thing of, and this actually turned out to not be true, that he was doing
Amazon reviews.
Is that true? It's not true. That once they investigated it further.
I could have sworn I read some, though.
On the internet, where everything's true? So, once in custody, Kolup confesses to everything and then some. But first, he tries to claim that Charlie Carver attacked him, so the shooting was in self-defense. Not only does that completely contradict with Kayla's firsthand account, but it's entirely out of line with who Charlie is. Charlie's dad Chuck says, quote, "He never hurt anybody. He would give you the shirt off his back or the last $2 in his pocket. That was just the guy he was," end quote. And his mom, Joanne, adds, quote, "He could bring a smile to the saddest person. He loved to laugh."
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So Todd then admits to murdering two more people and burying them on his property a year before he killed Charlie and imprisoned Kayla.
I don't remember this.
These victims were 25-year-old Megan Coxey and her 29-year-old husband Johnny. They had recently welcomed a new baby.
Aye.
They had been going through hard times, but their loved ones described them as "creative, fun-loving people who were very much in love and very loved by their friends and family." And just like Kayla and Charlie, Todd lured Megan and Johnny to his property under the guise of offering cleaning work. In another similarity, Todd shot Johnny and then kept Megan imprisoned in that same storage container that Kayla was in.
It's so insidious to invite a couple over to work because as a woman, I'm going there with my partner, I feel safe.
Yep.
It's diabolical.
Yes, it is. Yeah. So the difference of those two stories is that a few days into her kidnapping, Megan stands up to Todd and he murders her.
Oh, my god.
So then Todd confesses to the superbike murders. Basically, he's starting to go and he's getting it all out.
Yeah. These guys want credit for it. They know they're caught and they're like, "Let me explain everything because I feel like a fucking smart person and I want you to know about it."
Maren left me a note on the top of the research and she was like, "I really am trying to not mention his name as much as possible because he's absolutely one of those people that wants to be talked about."
And wants to talk in the press.
Wants that attention.
Something to keep in mind. So basically, once he starts talking, he says the reason that he committed the superbike murders is because he bought a bike from that shop and it wound up getting stolen and he seemed to think that the superbike employees had something to do with it. Completely made up.
Obviously not.
To kill four people over a hunch. I mean...
Well, but then Todd claims the superbike employees humiliated him while he was in the shop for being a novice bike rider. He says, quote, "They laughed at me."
Oh, you fragile little bitch.
The worst thing you can do.
God forbid.
So this is something Scott's widow, Melissa, does not believe.
She says, quote, "I can see Scott and Brian laughing and joking, but not one time could I ever picture them belittling someone or making them feel less than they were. That right there tells me that he couldn't have been in his right mind."
So when the police review this case, they find that Todd's name was on the list of customers that the Lucas's private investigator friend sent to the police.
Shut the fuck up like, like seven or eight years earlier.
Right. At that point, yeah.
Two thousand and three, yeah.
He'd never been looked at or questioned during the investigation because he was outside of the three-month window.
You know, when you just stop wanting to kill someone after three months.
It's just, it's difficult to make mistakes in this life. It's difficult to be wrong. It's difficult to fuck up. All those things, everybody, every human being feels the same way when they're those, that person.
You don't want it, you reject it, you get away from it. But I would just think, like, investigators, that has to be something you can't, you can't be fragile about. You have to be able to go, "That didn't work, we're doing it this way." Adjust, adjust, adjust, until you get results.
Because it's about people's lives.
You can't just fucking be flippant about it. It's not fucking charts and graphs and shit.
Well, it also is just, it's people's lives. Your ego isn't more important than that.
Right, that's fine if you're an accountant, but not if you're a fucking investigator.
Well, and it turns out, these heinous acts fit into a lifelong pattern of violence that goes all the way back to Todd Kohlhepp's childhood. When he was 15 years old, he kidnapped and raped a 14-year-old girl in Arizona. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison, and he was released in 2001. He relocated to South Carolina, and only two years later, he murdered the four people at the superbike.
Yeah. So after his arrest, he brags about having many more victims. No one knows if anything he says is true, or if he's just desperate for notoriety, but this pathetic atti- Attention-seeking behavior has even made some people wonder if he's lying about being involved in the superbike murders at all. Really? Or if he's just trying to get clout. But most of the people that are attached to the case, the investigators and the victim's loved ones. Yeah. They don't doubt it was him. No. In fact, Kelly Sisk, the man who had seen the mystery customer the first time, is eventually shown a picture of Todd and he says, quote, "I know it's been 13 years
and I can't be 100% anymore, but I'm good 90% plus. God, it looks like the guy that was in there." Yeah, it all lines up. Right. And also, the bragging, it's like, you're a person who shot a person cold, like, in front of another person. Yeah. It's not like the kind of people that brag who would never do it. Right. And they're just trying to get, like, police attention and all that. No. He's a murderer. It fits. Yeah. It fits too well to not be true. Yeah. Todd is ultimately convicted of seven counts of murder, two counts of kidnapping, and one count of sexual assault. He is now serving seven consecutive life sentences plus 60 years without the possibility of parole.
After learning about his sentencing, Scott's son Scotty, who was 15 years old at the time, says, quote, "I never did want him to get the death penalty. There was already so much death in this situation that I didn't want to see more of it." Aye. A remarkable amount of grace. Yeah. For a boy who has, before he was even born, gone through so much loss. Yeah. So, obviously, there's so much trauma and/or around the victim's friends and family members for all of these cases that lead back to this one evil real estate agent. Yeah. And they've had to go through a lot, especially Noel Lee, the close friend who
discovered the victims at Superbike Motorsports that day. Oh, God, I bet. More than a decade later, he tells Investigation Discovery that, quote, "I dream about it all the time. It's just as plain a day as it was in 2003. It took about a year and a half to where I could get a full night's sleep." Oh, my God. "They would show up in my dreams and I would be like, what happened?" Yeah. "And right before they'd tell me, they would just fade away." Oh, wow.
And that is the story of the quadruple homicide at Superbike Motorsports in South Carolina. A cold case that was finally solved after 13 long years of waiting. And the survival of Kayla Brown, who made it all possible.
Wow. Fuck, I have like chills.
How do you feel?
Well, first of all, there's a bike shop in Petaluma that is when I was reading all this.
It's just what I kept picturing.
And it's, yeah, it's just that kind of like, you know, guys who like motorcycles all getting together and standing around in the shop and whatever, that kind of community.
Yeah, and the mom who supports it so much and the partners who are all in it. Like, it's just, these, one of these stories where you just remember how awful and senseless and...
It's devastating.
Devastating, and there's these, just these people who commit such horrendous accidents. And I think that's why we have this podcast, is we're so confounded by it that we need to talk it out.
Yeah, and we need to make sure that people like Kayla Brown aren't just like this blip in the news.
But it's like, that's a woman that survived two months of torture.
And fought her way out and basically was like, Anna, I have some information for you.
So incredible.
That piece is, there's all that tragedy, but then there really is that other side that I think, it's the kind of thing that I think for a long time, true crime media didn't focus on enough.
Of course.
Shit, well, great job.
That was an incredible one that we definitely needed.
I'm going on vacation. When we come back, we'll have our ninth anniversary and then we'll discuss what we're going to do from there.
That's right.
Is that a good plan?
And then we'll move forward from there.
And we'll just go, we'll do it one step at a time.
Their heads clear.
We'll have, we'll go on vacation, we'll focus on ceramics.
Can we please, for once, focus on ceramics?
Focus on ceramics. So guys, we're talking about vacation, you will have more episodes of this show coming up.
Don't worry.
It's why we need vacations so bad, is because we pre-recorded so much, so you wouldn't go without.
Yeah, because we want to be up in your noggin's when Santa arrives.
Mm-hmm. No repeats here, just rewind.
Just those rewinds. Nice plug, drop a plug.
Also, don't forget Nicole's trying to sell her sweatshirts. Go over there and see what she's up to.
Thanks for listening and for being with us. We appreciate you nine years, you guys. It's fucking wild.
It's truly wild. You're gonna love the pottery that I make for you.
Are we making each other a pottery?
Can you imagine?
I'll do it.
Like Ghost?
Do you make it at the same time, like Ghost?
Yeah. All right. Stay sexy.
And don't get murdered.
Elvis, do you want a cookie?
This has been an Exactly Right Production.
Our senior producer is Alejandra Keck.
Our managing producer is Hannah Kyle Creighton.
Our editor is Aristotle Acevedo.
This episode was mixed by Liana Scolacci.
Our researchers are Maren McClashern and Ally Elkin.
Email your hometowns to [email protected].
Follow the show on Instagram and Facebook at MyFavoriteMurder.
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