More Than 5,000 Rape Kits Untested By Texas Department

SAN ANTONIO --

Sitting in the San Antonio police department's evidence storage room are nearly 11,000 rape kits. Almost half have never been tested.

While a number of those cases involve known assailants, an alarmingly high number involve unknown suspects.

"We were not aware that there were stranger cases that hadn't been tested," said Rape Crisis Center CEO Lynn Blanco.

Following a recent meeting with police chief William McManus, that policy is changing.

"We will test those types of unknown samples," said Chief Mcmanus.

That includes all the cases in which the victims have not yet decided whether to pursue criminal charges.

"We don't want to let a person who's out there sexually assaulting people," said Chief McManus. "We want to raise the potential that that person's going to be caught by putting that person into the database."

"I think just to be proactive is a wonderful step," added Blanco.

Some of the cases date as far back as 1987. Oftentimes, it's not a lack of evidence that's kept investigations on hold.

"After a traumatic incident such as sexual assault, a victim could take years, months, days to be able to participate fully in the process," said Blanco.

"We'll hold onto the evidence until the victim decides they want to pursue," said Chief McManus.

The official numbers announced by McManus are 10,970 total kits. 5,779 have been tested and 5,191 have not.

He said the cost per analysis is $450 and that each kit could require multiple analyses but cost would not be an issue in getting the kits tested.

He did not give a timeline on when he expected them to finish testing the remaining kits.

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