Background Checks can help prevent crime in the workplace, which is often someone’s home.

Suzanne Fairman was 53 years old when she was abducted, raped, and murdered by a contractor in her home in South Richmond, Virginia. Following unanswered texts and a welfare check, she was found dead, submerged in her bathtub in May 2019 “after she failed to arrive in Florida for a planned trip to visit her mom over Mother’s Day weekend.” Her assailant, Thomas Clark, 61, is a Henrico County, Virginia resident, “had a lengthy criminal record,” which wasn’t fully considered before he started work at the family home. In November 2021, Clark was found guilty of first-degree murder, and other offenses.  Among other offenses, “Clark was sentenced to 15 years in prison in 1988 for forcibly raping a woman in Alexandria, [Virginia]…He also pleaded guilty in 2005 to attempted robbery and received a 10-year sentence.”

This tragic story is a reminder that criminal background checks can help prevent tragedies.

Sources: Jill Sederstrom, Contractor Convicted Of Raping And Murdering College Administrator Who Complained About His Work On Her Deck, Yahoo! News, Nov. 18, 2021, https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/contractor-convicted-raping-murdering-college-122300454.html; Jury finds Henrico man guilty of killing VCU employee, Suzanne Fairman, NBC-12 (Richmond), Nov. 16, 2021,https://www.nbc12.com/2021/11/17/jury-finds-henrico-man-guilty-killing-vcu-employee-suzanne-fairman/.