rockin'robin
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More than 70,000 sexual assault kits containing forensic evidence from rape, sexual battery and other crimes have never been sent to crime labs for testing.
The woman was sitting in her car early one morning when a masked man approached and pointed a gun at her. The man took $3, raped her and left.
The victim did everything she should have: She called the police and allowed a sexual assault kit to be taken.
That kit, often referred to as a "rape kit," never saw the light of day until five years later, when it was found in a police storage facility along with about 11,000 others.
After the victim's kit was tested, Joshua Brooks was identified as the rapist.
In the five years it took to get the kit tested, Brooks had been arrested on a number of charges and was already serving a lengthy prison sentence.
This is not an isolated instance.
Across more than 800 law enforcement agencies nationwide, records obtained by USA TODAY and its TEGNA news partners show more than 70,000 sexual assault kits containing forensic evidence from rape, sexual battery and other crimes have never been sent to crime labs for testing.
Those figures, drawn from a small sample of 18,000 U.S. police agencies, indicate the nation's count of untested sexual assault kits likely reaches well into the hundreds of thousands.
The exact number isn't known. In most states, local law enforcement agencies are not required to inventory untested evidence kits in their custody to determine the scope of the problem, and many haven't done so on their own.
When tested, the DNA evidence inside the rape kits has proven to be an effective method to solve and prevent crimes. So why aren't they being tested?
In 1989, Debbie Smith and her police officer husband Rob were raising their two children in Williamsburg, Va.
"If there was the ideal family, I guess we had that life," Debbie told WVEC-TV. "There were no problems that we couldn't handle as a family."
That would be tested on March 3. Rob, who had just gotten off the midnight shift, was asleep upstairs. Debbie was busy checking off items on her to-do list. She ran out the door, leaving it unlocked for just a minute.
That decision would change her life forever. Within five minutes, a masked man dragged her out of her home and into the woods behind it. He raped her repeatedly for an hour, then let her go. She ran back home and woke up her husband.
"I just said, 'He got me, Rob. He got me,'" she recalled.
Rob called the police as she headed for the shower to try, like many victims do, to wash away what had happened to her— but her husband, the Williamsburg cop, knew they had to go to the hospital for a rape kit.
"He said, 'Honey you have to, you just have to. That's the only way we're going to find him. You need to do this,'" Debbie said.
It is a four-to-six-hour long exam, which Debbie says destroys what you have left of your self-esteem.
"But you do it because you know it will give you hope, that there's hope in them taking that evidence from your body," Debbie said.
For six long years, the Williamsburg mom said she lived in fear and always looked over her shoulder. But on July 26, 1995, the Smiths were told Debbie's kit had a cold hit.
Norman Jimmerson's DNA was collected when he was arrested for a different crime. A cross-check matched the sample to Debbie's rape kit. It was only the fourth cold hit in the entire nation.
"That was the day that I took a deliberate breath," Debbie remembered. "I really wanted to live again."
She says DNA gave her her life back.
Jimmerson will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/longf...7/10/testthekits-untested-rape-kits/29216539/
The woman was sitting in her car early one morning when a masked man approached and pointed a gun at her. The man took $3, raped her and left.
The victim did everything she should have: She called the police and allowed a sexual assault kit to be taken.
That kit, often referred to as a "rape kit," never saw the light of day until five years later, when it was found in a police storage facility along with about 11,000 others.
After the victim's kit was tested, Joshua Brooks was identified as the rapist.
In the five years it took to get the kit tested, Brooks had been arrested on a number of charges and was already serving a lengthy prison sentence.
This is not an isolated instance.
Across more than 800 law enforcement agencies nationwide, records obtained by USA TODAY and its TEGNA news partners show more than 70,000 sexual assault kits containing forensic evidence from rape, sexual battery and other crimes have never been sent to crime labs for testing.
Those figures, drawn from a small sample of 18,000 U.S. police agencies, indicate the nation's count of untested sexual assault kits likely reaches well into the hundreds of thousands.
The exact number isn't known. In most states, local law enforcement agencies are not required to inventory untested evidence kits in their custody to determine the scope of the problem, and many haven't done so on their own.
When tested, the DNA evidence inside the rape kits has proven to be an effective method to solve and prevent crimes. So why aren't they being tested?
In 1989, Debbie Smith and her police officer husband Rob were raising their two children in Williamsburg, Va.
"If there was the ideal family, I guess we had that life," Debbie told WVEC-TV. "There were no problems that we couldn't handle as a family."
That would be tested on March 3. Rob, who had just gotten off the midnight shift, was asleep upstairs. Debbie was busy checking off items on her to-do list. She ran out the door, leaving it unlocked for just a minute.
That decision would change her life forever. Within five minutes, a masked man dragged her out of her home and into the woods behind it. He raped her repeatedly for an hour, then let her go. She ran back home and woke up her husband.
"I just said, 'He got me, Rob. He got me,'" she recalled.
Rob called the police as she headed for the shower to try, like many victims do, to wash away what had happened to her— but her husband, the Williamsburg cop, knew they had to go to the hospital for a rape kit.
"He said, 'Honey you have to, you just have to. That's the only way we're going to find him. You need to do this,'" Debbie said.
It is a four-to-six-hour long exam, which Debbie says destroys what you have left of your self-esteem.
"But you do it because you know it will give you hope, that there's hope in them taking that evidence from your body," Debbie said.
For six long years, the Williamsburg mom said she lived in fear and always looked over her shoulder. But on July 26, 1995, the Smiths were told Debbie's kit had a cold hit.
Norman Jimmerson's DNA was collected when he was arrested for a different crime. A cross-check matched the sample to Debbie's rape kit. It was only the fourth cold hit in the entire nation.
"That was the day that I took a deliberate breath," Debbie remembered. "I really wanted to live again."
She says DNA gave her her life back.
Jimmerson will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
http://www.firstcoastnews.com/longf...7/10/testthekits-untested-rape-kits/29216539/
So the rapists were allowed to get away with raping as many women as they wanted to.
