As Philly police completed testing on backlogged rape kits, new leads emerged, DA says

Investigators discovered new leads in dozens of Philadelphia rape cases previously considered unsolved after the Police Department belatedly completed testing on a long-standing backlog of untested rape kits, city officials said Thursday.

District Attorney Larry Krasner said at a news conference that about 65 cases that had been unsolved since 2007 may be impacted by the DNA evidence discovered in more than 1,500 untested rape kits — some of which were collected in the 1980s and 1990s. The Police Department recently eliminated the backlog, which three years ago had been the biggest in the state.

Although developing enough information to arrest a suspect is more complicated than finding a DNA match, Krasner’s office said one man was arrested this year for a rape committed in 2000, and another man was arrested for a 2001 rape. Krasner did not specify how many other arrests may have come from the pool of kits that for years sat untested, but said that besides potentially providing justice in old cases, “now that the backlog is gone, we will be able to significantly decrease the amount of time it will take the lab to process new cases."

Krasner said DNA can be useful to solve cold cases and instances of “stranger rape” — where a victim does not know his or her attacker — but also said he hopes to continue employing DNA evidence in cases moving forward.

"It points a giant arrow in the direction of where we all need to go in law enforcement, which is in the direction of being able to use the most scientific methods, and being able to use them wherever possible,” Krasner said.

For years, cities and states, including Philadelphia, have struggled to develop protocols for how to handle the kits that contain physical evidence collected during sexual-assault investigations.

After a sexual assault, a victim can choose to participate in a thorough forensic exam, during which a medical practitioner will collect evidence including DNA swabs from the victim’s body or clothes that can help identify potential attackers.

End the Backlog, an advocacy group, blamed the backlog of untested kits on factors including disparities among law enforcement agencies about whether and when to test kits; a lack of knowledge and training about how useful the kits can be; and underfunded crime labs, or police departments that couldn’t afford the tests or devoted funding to other priorities.

In 2015, USA Today surveyed more than 1,000 police agencies across the country and reported that at least 70,000 rape kits had been neglected. The Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network called the backlog “overwhelming.”

In recent years, as scrutiny on law enforcement agencies over the backlog has increased, officials have sought to highlight how proper testing can lead to results, including arrests, even years after the kits were initially collected.

Last month, for example, the New York Times reported that grants to test rape kits, distributed to agencies across the country by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, had led to 165 prosecutions and 64 convictions.

In Pennsylvania, Auditor General Eugene DePasquale in 2016 issued a report saying that at least 3,044 kits statewide were awaiting testing. The report also said that more than 1,800 of those had been awaiting testing for at least 12 months.

About 85 percent of the oldest untested kits resided in the Philadelphia Police Department’s Office of Forensic Science, DePasquale’s report said — some that dated to the 1990s. It blamed the problem in Philadelphia on “long-term underfunding” of the department’s crime lab.

Last month, DePasquale said the number of kits awaiting testing statewide had decreased to 339, about a third of which were from the Allegheny County Office of the Medical Examiner. Philadelphia eliminated its backlog in December 2018, DePasquale said.

Krasner credited the Police Department, which worked for about three years to eliminate the backlog while testing new rape kits as they came in. He said the work to uncover enough information for an arrest is lengthy and can involve finding and speaking with victims who may have been attacked years ago, locating suspects, or identifying other evidence to build a case prosecutors can take to court.

Monique Howard, executive director of the Philadelphia group Women Organized Against Rape, said Thursday’s announcement was encouraging for sexual assault survivors.

“It affirms the victim,” she said. “It discredits the suspects.”