- 1
- 2
- next
- | single page
FAST FACTS:
keli.rabon@wreg.com
Facebook - WREG On Your Side Investigators
Twitter - @nc3investigates
(Memphis - 2/15/2010) She's been waiting for justice for five years, after being robbed and raped by a stranger outside her Memphis apartment.
"He told me, 'If you say something or call the police, I'll come back and kill you and I'll kill your family,'" the victim said.
She did what authorities say every victim should do and immediately called police. They took her to the Memphis Sexual Assault Resource Center, to be examined by nurses.
At MSARC, nurses inspect a victim's body like a crime scene, using a 15-step procedure called a rape kit.
"There's usually swabs that are taken, as well as the exam would look for bruises or tears," Betty Winter, the former director of MSARC, said.
Winter says it's a painful process that can feel like a second assault, but most victims submit to a rape kit's swabs and samples, hoping the evidence will pinpoint a suspect.
"It is extremely important, to prove not only who did it, but who didn't do it," Winter said.
The collected rape kit is then put in the hands of Memphis Police.
At this point, Deputy Chief Joe Scott says, a decision must be made to either send the kit to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for testing, or not.
"We'll test anything we deem necessary. If we think it's necessary, if it's necessary to find a perpetrator, a predator in our community we'll do it. But there are times where we don't," Scott said.
Some of the cases that aren't submitted for DNA testing include instances where a victim decides not to press charges, date rapes, domestic sexual assaults, and many times when the victim does not know the attacker.
"What needs to be submitted is submitted," Scott says.
- Our NC3 Investigation reveals thousands of rape kits in Memphis have never been DNA tested
- DNA from rape kits can help solve local sexual assault cases and other crimes from across the country
- The untested rape kits can leave victims waiting on "Untested Justice"
keli.rabon@wreg.com
Facebook - WREG On Your Side Investigators
Twitter - @nc3investigates
(Memphis - 2/15/2010) She's been waiting for justice for five years, after being robbed and raped by a stranger outside her Memphis apartment.
"He told me, 'If you say something or call the police, I'll come back and kill you and I'll kill your family,'" the victim said.
She did what authorities say every victim should do and immediately called police. They took her to the Memphis Sexual Assault Resource Center, to be examined by nurses.
At MSARC, nurses inspect a victim's body like a crime scene, using a 15-step procedure called a rape kit.
"There's usually swabs that are taken, as well as the exam would look for bruises or tears," Betty Winter, the former director of MSARC, said.
Winter says it's a painful process that can feel like a second assault, but most victims submit to a rape kit's swabs and samples, hoping the evidence will pinpoint a suspect.
"It is extremely important, to prove not only who did it, but who didn't do it," Winter said.
The collected rape kit is then put in the hands of Memphis Police.
At this point, Deputy Chief Joe Scott says, a decision must be made to either send the kit to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation for testing, or not.
"We'll test anything we deem necessary. If we think it's necessary, if it's necessary to find a perpetrator, a predator in our community we'll do it. But there are times where we don't," Scott said.
Some of the cases that aren't submitted for DNA testing include instances where a victim decides not to press charges, date rapes, domestic sexual assaults, and many times when the victim does not know the attacker.
"What needs to be submitted is submitted," Scott says.
