Rape Victims Waiting for Evidence Tests

When it comes to solving a rape case, police, prosecutors and support advocates all agree that one of the most important steps a victim can take is to immediately have a rape kit done.

If these kits are considered the key to solving many of these cases, then why aren't they always being used?

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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

VIDEO: Rape Victims Waiting for Evidence Tests

EXPERT: IL Attorney General Lisa Madigan

LINK: www.ywcachicago.org

YWCA rape crisis hotline: 1-888-293-2080

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One Chicago woman told Fox Chicago News she was raped in her own home six years ago. She says "it was a painful experience" and something she'll never forget.

The man who did it has never been caught.

To put an attacker away, women are advised to go to the hospital after they are raped to undergo what's called a rape kit. That's when bodily tissue and fluid samples are taken from the victim and are supposed to be sent to the state crime lab to identify an attacker's DNA.

The rape survivor we spoke to said it was "difficult" to under go the rape kit immediately following her assault, to have more strangers "going over her personal areas."

Fox Chicago News has learned thousands of untested kits are sitting in police department storage rooms or evidence lockers throughout the state.

The reason, according to Pat O'Connor, President of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, is while some police departments have made it their policy to send in all kits, others have not. O'Connor explains, "All departments have their own processes on how they handle evidence." He adds, "I think when uh, uh, a police dept executive or an investigative commander makes a decision to send evidence down, its based on his feeling of the strength of the case. Can he prove this case?"

Which is why Attorney General Lisa Madigan has submitted a bill (SB 3269) which would make Illinois the first state to require all rape kits be tested. She says the bill is very simple in that it requires all sexual assault evidence that is collected be sent to the state police crime lab with in ten days.

Testing all rape kits means an offender's DNA will be kept in a police computer database.

Shauna Boliker is the Cook Co State's Attorney's Criminal Prosecutions Bureau Chief. She says storing more DNA will allow prosecutors to solve all types of cases. Everything from sexual assault to burglary to murder.

In 2007, Cook County authorities raided the Harvey police department for another case.

While there, they found 85 rape kits. Since then, 50 of those kits have been tested,

12 cases have been solved and one serial rapist has been identified.

According to Madigan, police in Illinois are not the only ones who are not sending in every rape kit that is collected. She says, "Its not happening routinely across the country and it is sending a terrible message to the children and to the women who are victims of sexual assault."

But while the bill looks good on paper, it would require funding from a state already in the red - for a lab already backed up by seven hundred cases. Sott Giles is the deputy director of forensic services for Illinois State Police. He says, "We're going to need additional resources to do this because currently with what we have today, we could not handle this."

Jeanette Castellanos may be the biggest supporter of Madigan's bill. As director of sexual violence and support services for Chicago's YWCA, she's likes the idea it would require all kits to be tested within six months. That's because agencies like hers often get phone calls from victims trying to find out what is happening with their rape kit and that they haven't heard back from police.

Castellanos says, "I think we've gotten ourselves into a messy situation but you need to start somewhere in order to get yourself out. I don't think the answer is let's continue to ignore the kits that are there on the shelf."

Madigan estimates there are as many as 100,000 untested rape kits sitting on police department shelves across the U. S.

Her bill has already been introduced to the state legislature. Its passed out of the senate and is now waiting for approval by state representatives.

April is Sexual Assault Awareness month.