The story coming across all of our screens recently is the story of Todd Kohlhepp. Not only is he the man who chained missing woman Kala Brown in a metal container, but he is also the man who has confessed to killing the four people in the SuperBike Motorsports murder from 13 years ago. Although confessing to these four  killings, police officers have been searching his almost 100-acres in Woodruff, South Carolina, for more victims, and have since found three other bodies buried on Kohlhepp’s compound.

According to police, Kala Brown was found “chained like a dog” and supposedly had to watch the murder of her boyfriend, Charlie David Carver. According to CNN, Brown was kept captive for two months. The day Brown was found, Kohlhepp was charged with kidnapping and police also reported finding the body of Charlie David Carter. Although most think this is the first time Kohlhepp went afoul of the law, according to The Washington Post, when he was fifteen, he was charged with kidnapping, and received fifteen years in prison. Upon his release, Kohlhepp was added to the Sex Offender Registry.

Since Kohlhepp has been in custody, he has confessed to the previously unsolved SuperBike Motorsports murders of 2003, where four people were killed execution style. According to CNN, they’ve since found two bodies on his nearly 100-acre estate. Kohlhepp has not been charged with any murders other than the SuperBike murders, and is still awaiting trial, with his next court date not being until January. Once court resumes, Kohlhepp will find out whether or not he will face the death penalty as a possible sentence.

Although Kohlhepp was listed as a Registered Sex Offender and was charged with kidnapping when he was fifteen, he still was able to get his real estate license in 2006. According to CNN, “Kohlhepp offered an explanation of his criminal history, telling officials that the Arizona case was his only conviction and that he’d made significant strides to follow the law and give back to the community since then.” When Kohlhepp received his real estate license, he went on to start his own successful real estate company, Todd Kohlhepp and Associates Real Estate, that has been permanently closed due to his recent confessions of murder.

Kohlhepp ran a very successful business, meeting many different people and families while searching for homes. Most had no idea what Kohlhepp had done, and definitely had no idea of what Kohlhepp was capable of. Many of the people he was trying to sell homes to went alone, completely unaware of what the person they were with could have done to them. They could have been yet another buried body added to the list on his compound.

I asked many people if this murder had changed their mindset of who they chose when they searched for services. Did they research the background of who they were going to? Did they ask around to see if anyone had any “dirt” on them? Or does it completely not affect them?

“Yeah, of course. It makes sense in the first place, people should’ve researched who they went to before all this even came about for precautions,” explained Sabrina Bellew, senior.

Carlos Leiva, a junior, disagreed and stated, “No,  whoever gets the job done. Unless they just have a known bad reputation, I wouldn’t research their background.”

GHS history teacher Jill Hanna said, “I definitely think I would. If my family didn’t already have a friend that was a realtor, I would definitely take other people along with me and research more before I met the person.”

For more information about this case, I gathered information from CNN.com and The Washington Post.