Accused killer’s arrest results in law on background checks

(Courtesy: Spartanburg Co Sheriff’s office)

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – People who sell or manage property in South Carolina will have to pass a background check to renew their license under a new law prompted by last November’s arrest of a then-real-estate agent accused of killing seven people.

The law signed Friday requires real estate agents, brokers and property managers to undergo a fingerprint-based check every third license renewal, or every six years. But the law doesn’t take effect until 2020.

Todd Kohlhepp was arrested after authorities found a woman chained in a storage container on his Spartanburg County property. He’s accused of killing her boyfriend, another couple who disappeared in December and four people killed in a motorcycle shop in 2003.

A 2014 state law required first-time applicants to pass a background check. Kohlhepp received his license in 2006.