By Dan Whitcomb

(Reuters) - A South Carolina woman reported missing in August along with her live-in boyfriend was found on Thursday, "chained up like a dog" in a storage container, and a registered sex offender was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping, the county sheriff said.

Kala Brown, 30, was discovered after police searching a large property in Spartanburg County, northeast of Greenville, heard banging noises from inside the 15-foot by 30-foot container, Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright told a news conference.

Wright said deputies arrested Todd Kohlhepp, 45, who they found on the property when they arrived to serve a search warrant. Investigators went to the property to follow up on a lead related to the disappearance of Brown and her boyfriend, Charlie Carver, he said.

Wright said Brown and Kohlhepp knew each other, saying that her abduction was "not a random act."

Brown told police that she had been held captive for two months in the padlocked storage box 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."

Anderson, where Brown and Carver vanished from, is located about 60 miles southeast of Spartanburg County.

The sheriff said Carver, 32, remains missing. "We're praying for the best outcome," Wright said.

The sheriff said Kohlhepp, a registered sex offender, would face kidnapping and other charges.

Wright said investigators were pursuing further leads based on an interview with Brown, who was "obviously traumatized" and being treated at a local medical facility.

A search was still being conducted on the property on Thursday evening.

"We're trying to make sure we don't have a serial killer on our hands," Wright said. It "very possibly could be what we have."

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Dan Grebler and Leslie Adler)

 A South Carolina woman has been found alive after being held captive inside a metal storage container at a property in Woodruff, South Carolina, local authorities confirmed on Thursday.

Kala Brown, 30, of Anderson County was found over two months after she went missing on Aug. 31. Police found Brown “chained inside the container like a dog,” Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright told NBC-WYFF. The owner of the property, Todd Kohlhepp, a registered sex offender, was taken into custody and will be charged with kidnapping.

According to Wright, Brown said she had been held in the container for two months with a chain around her neck. It was “by the grace of God that she was found alive,” he told reporters, adding that there could be four bodies still on the property. “We’re trying to make sure we don’t have a serial killer on our hands.”

On Thursday morning, officers heard loud banging noises coming from the metal storage container while they were searching Kohlhepp’s property, after receiving a tip about a sex crime. Also on the 100-acre property were various weapons, ammunition and Brown’s car and cell phone in the parking lot.

Though Brown was found alive, her boyfriend Charlie Carver – who disappeared around the same time – remains missing.

Brown’s friend told police that she had dinner with her on Aug. 29 at her apartment, then spoke to Brown the next day before all form of communication stopped the day she disappeared.

Brown was taken to a medical facility after being found. The search for Carver is continuing.

Woodruff, SC (WLTX) - Authorities in the Upstate of South Carolina say a woman was held captive two months, chained 'like a dog' inside a metal container, and officers believe this may just be the beginning of the horrors to uncover as they continue to investigate the crime. Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said Thursday his team had found 30-year-old Kala Brown, a woman who'd been missing for two months. Her boyfriend, Charlie Carver, has not been located. Thursday morning, investigators were led to a rural location on Wofford Road. Dozens of police vehicles, investigators, and a chopper searched the area for hours.  Wright said they found Brown in a 30-by-15-foot metal container with ...