Superbike break gives hope to others with unsolved case

Just 174 days before four people were shot and killed at Superbike Motorsports in Chesnee in 2003, a crime for which Todd Kohlhepp was charged Sunday, three people were found shot and killed at Blue Ridge Savings Bank in Greer.

Though police have drawn no connection between the cases, they continue to investigate Kohlhepp’s potential involvement in unsolved murders and missing persons, and the break in the Superbike case has given those still grieving the Blue Ridge Savings killings new hope.

“That’s all you can hang on to, hope,” said David Holtzclaw, son of Sylvia Holtzclaw, a bank teller killed at midday on Friday, May 16, 2003, alongside customers Eb and Maggie Barnes. “We’ve had hope for 13 years, and we’ll have hope until the end.”

For families of the Superbike victims – Scott Ponder, Beverly Guy, Brian Lucas and Chris Sherbert – answers have come. Police say Kohlhepp has confessed to shooting them in broad daylight on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2003.

Kohlhepp was taken into custody when investigators discovered a 30-year-old Anderson woman chained inside a metal storage shed on a fenced 95-acre property near Woodruff. He’s confessed to killing her boyfriend as well as the Superbike victims, according to Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright, and at least two more unknown bodies are believed buried on the site in Woodruff. One was discovered Sunday.

Like the Superbike victims, the Blue Ridge Savings Bank victims were discovered at the scene soon after the crime without any witness to provide investigative leads.

Holtzclaw called Greer police investigators Sunday to see if anything new had developed.

“Right now there’s nothing new,” he said. “As far as we’re concerned, there’s nothing different about our case today as there was yesterday, the day before or last week. What comes up in the next few days, months and years, we’ll deal with then. For us, we don’t ride the rollercoaster anymore. We let go. When we get a phone call or something from an investigator who we trust and know is continuing to work, we’ll go from there.”

Second body recovered from Woodruff property, search continues Monday

Families of Superbike Motorsports victims still seeking answers

Greer Police Chief Dan Reynolds said Sunday that lead agencies in the Kohlhepp case have not brought Greer police into their investigation. Lt. Jim Holcombe said Greer police have not found any connection.

“It’s still an open investigation, and our detectives will check on any connection,” Holcombe said.

While motives and details of the various killiings have not been discovered or disclosed to this point, the bank slayings are believed to be related to a robbery,  unlike the Superbike murders or the death of Charles Carver, the boyfriend of Kala Brown, the woman Kohlhepp is charged with kidnapping.

To Holtzclaw, the “who” is bigger than the “why” in unsolved crime. He and his brother, Kevin, are pleased that police believe they have some answers in one of the Upstate’s most notorious cases. They hope to have answers in their mother’s at some point in time.

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“We’re so happy for the families and everyone associated with that whole Superbike tragedy that they’re now able to get a little bit of closure,” Holtzclaw said. “I think what people don’t understand, speaking as someone with an unsolved one, still, there will never be full closure. That’s just the way it is. You’re not going to bring those people back. But I think it always helps and kind of eases your mind a little bit when you know you’ve got somebody that is responsible and going to pay for that.

“You try to move on every day, but when you can get a little bit of closure and put somebody responsible for that, that goes a long way.”

From 2 p.m. until 4 p.m. on Nov. 13 at The Clock in Greer, as David and Kevin Holtzclaw will collect new, unwrapped toys for kids of all ages to be distributed by the Greer Cops for Tots and Country Santa programs. It's something they have done annually in their mother’s honor.

- Nathaniel Cary contributed to this report.

- Follow Michael Burns on Twitter @MikeAtGvlNwz