Woman found chained by neck inside container, more than two months after going missing

A woman who had been reported missing along with her boyfriend in late August was found “chained up like a dog” inside a storage container, a South Carolina sheriff said Thursday.

Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright told news outlets that deputies acting on a tip found Kala Brown, 30, after hearing her banging on the container from the inside on Thursday in the town of Woodruff, 130km northwest of the state capital of Columbia.

Brown told police that she had been held captive for two months in the storage container and that there might be up to four dead bodies on the property, Wright said.

“I want to thank God for allowing us to find a missing person from Anderson city who was in a container chained up like a dog,” Wright said. “We found her alive and she’s being treated at a medical facility right now. It’s tragic that this person was being treated like that.”

Wright said Brown had a chain around her neck. He says she told deputies she had been fed regularly.

The sheriff said the container measured 10 metres by 5 metres by 3 metres high. It too was chained and locked. A message seeking additional comment from the sheriff’s office wasn’t immediately returned Thursday.