South Carolina Serial Killer: Feds Probing How He Got Guns

Spartanburg, SC —Federal agents want to know how a convicted kidnapper who became a serial killer in South Carolina managed to collect an arsenal of weapons.

Todd Kohlhepp was convicted as a teenager of raping his 14-year-old neighbor at gunpoint in Arizona. That made it illegal for him to buy guns after he got out of prison. He was arrested last fall after deputies rescued a missing woman chained up inside a shipping container on his rural property. In exchange for a life sentence, he ultimately pleaded guilty to killing seven people as well as kidnapping and raping the woman.

Now The Herald-Journal of Spartanburg is reporting, based on documents and video released by prosecutors, that agents with the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms are investigating a trove of weapons on his properties, including dozens of guns and pallets full of ammunition. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Spartanburg County Sheriff Chuck Wright said investigators think Kohlhepp illegally acquired most of the weapons through straw purchases.

Photo credit: South Carolina state via AP