Thousands of Rape Kits Untested in US

In 1996, a pregnant teenager was home alone with her younger sister when someone knocked on her door.

In the past 15 years, the Phoenix Police Department has accumulated more than 1,700 sexual-assault kits that have remained untested.

On average, it costs $1,500 to test a rape kit. A Metro police spokeswoman said last week that all kits in Nashville have been sent for testing.

“That should have been investigated further, and I feel confident that it would be now”, Jackson Police Capt. Mike Holt said of the case, noting changes over the past decade in how law enforcement interacts with victims. He says kits in Anoka County are always tested in cases where the suspect is unknown or there’s a question about what happened. “We were first in the state to successfully do so”.

Between 144 and 151 sexual assault evidence kits collected between 2000 and 2014 remain in storage at law enforcement facilities in Tippecanoe County, without being sent to an Indiana State Police lab for DNA testing. DNA evidence from that crime tied him to the Copperas Cove woman’s rape kit, which linked him to at least four other sexual assaults.

The state attorney’s office also said it encourages agencies to forward rape kits to the FDLE for testing.

Why aren’t all kits tested? In 13 other cases since 1998, the records state there was “no suspect” or “no known suspect”.

“It’s really sad to think there are all of these kits that aren’t tested because it took a lot of courage to go through that exam”, Kuiper said.

He added that Wisconsin law requires law enforcement agencies to retain the evidence, tested or not, until the perpetrator has completed his or her sentence.

In an email to a USA TODAY reporter, Holt said the Jackson Police Department gives discretion to the victim’s wishes. She said that some nurses are hesitant when it comes to the kits.

“My office will continue working with DPS and the Texas Legislature on this important issue, and we are committed to identifying ways to provide more efficient and timely analysis of the sexual assault kits being submitted to labs”, said Gov. Abbott. “Some elements of the crime can be proven”.

A KING 5 investigation last November revealed the majority of rape kits collected in Washington are never sent to the state patrol crime lab for testing.

“We don’t have a backlog”, he said. “Sometimes they don’t”.

Meads said they have gotten some hits off of the old kits, and having all kits tested has stopped some offenders from striking again. “The victim should have a voice in whether they want their evidence processed or not”.

There’s no way to calculate how much it costs to process each kit, Fotia said.

In Adrianne Fields’ case, DNA helped catch the man who raped her. Days later, finger prints lead them to her rapist.

According to a TBI report released in September, more than 9,000 rape kits at law enforcement agencies statewide had gone untested. “We haven’t spent any time worrying about what other jurisdictions have done”. “I wanted to make sure we didn’t have any unsolved”.

DNA kits from roughly 370 sexual assault cases were submitted in 2014 to Iowa’s Division of Criminal Investigation Criminalistics Laboratory in Ankeny.

Some of the kits still at the sheriff’s department are held because the victim did not want to prosecute, he said.

“Officials said a federal medical privacy law blocked them from alerting police or providing them with evidence”, the Journal-Constitution reported. The Fort Myers Police Department declined to speak about the matter. That includes 2,624 pieces of evidence in cases still within the statute of limitations and 918 others that are not.

SANE nurses perform exams on both sexual assault victims and suspects.

The SAFER Act endeavored to address that issue by establishing national standards for sexual assault kit processing.

Des Moines police counted 112 cases of kits collected during the past 10 years but not submitted for testing because investigations led to the decisions that there would be no immediate prosecution.

Kentucky State Police Crime Lab Manager Laura Sudkamp estimated the current turnaround time at six to nine months, but said once several open biology positions are filled and the employees fully trained after a year, the turnaround time would be shortened.

The TBI now outsources to a private lab the department pays to alleviate that backlog.