Thousands of rape kits nationwide never sent to crime labs

WASHINGTON (SBG) - The discovery of 11,000 untested rape kits in a Detroit storage facility a decade ago made national headlines. It was just the tip of the iceberg.

"I don't remember anything after walking to the restroom," said Coni Williams

Williams claimed she was drugged and raped while visiting Oklahoma City in 2011. She underwent a rape exam in her hometown of Tulsa and was told by an officer her rape kit would be sent to Oklahoma City. For several years she was assured her case was being investigated. But then in 2017 came the bombshell.

"The assistant DA of 2012 closed the case due to lack of evidence," said Williams.

There'd been no investigation. Williams was told her rape kit was lost inside the Tulsa police evidence room.

To try and understand how often this happens, we submitted open records requests to more than 100 law enforcement agencies. What we discovered was troubling: thousands of rape kits nationwide never sent to a crime lab.

"Even if there's a case that's decades-old with very little evidence remaining, it's still worth testing because we need very little material to obtain a DNA profile now," said Erin Sweeney, the lab director at Bode Technology.

"So, these instruments you see here are DNA extraction robots," said Sweeney.

It's the most significant private forensic DNA lab in America, and we were given a rare look inside. Bode has processed more than 100,000 rape kits for agencies across the U.S.

"People oftentimes think DNA is just used for conviction, but it's also a very powerful tool for exonerating the innocent and also to link different DNA cases from different crime scenes together to create investigative leads," said Sweeney.

Investigative leads that are lost to police departments when DNA is not analyzed.

The numbers explain why this is critical. Rapists are often serial felons: half of those charged with rape have at least one prior felony conviction. And 20 percent were convicted five or more times.

We discovered many departments across the U.S. with backlogs hundreds or even thousands.

Others, like Oklahoma City and Washington, DC claimed they had no untested kits. But we found those cities received federal grants in just the last two years totaling more than $1 million. The Justice Department told us the grants were specifically designated to reduce rape kit backlogs. Over 400-thousand dollars in Oklahoma City and nearly 800-thousand in D.C. Oklahoma City said they earmarked the money for "property crimes not sexual assaults." D.C. did not respond to our request for comment.

A rape kit can be as crucial to solving a crime as a murder weapon. And for people like Coni Williams, it took seven long years before they finally found hers. It was tested just weeks ago, and she was told the DNA evidence is inconclusive, and now she's pursuing more private testing. Coni is speaking up to call attention to a system she believes is broken.

"I really cannot think of how many are there like me because it breaks my heart. I'm not the only one. I am not special. I'm just being loud," said Williams.

Nearly a quarter-of-a-million untested rape kits are estimated to be sitting in police evidence rooms today. But even that number is merely a guess.