The Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office will soon add a new investigator to review untested sexual assault kits. Some of the kits are part of cases that have already been closed.
The Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office will soon add a new investigator to review 122 untested sexual assault kits.
County prosecutor Carol Siemon says these kits were not used during cases prior to 2015.
“Some of them [the cases] have been closed, people were convicted without the kits, that happens," said Siemon. "Some cases, the victim may have chosen not to prosecute.”
Siemon says the information gathered will be shared, possibly helping find serial rapists.
“So law enforcement all across the nation will be available to track and make matches with an unknown perpetrator say in the state of Washington and match it with a known perpetrator here in Michigan. So it allows you to solve a lot more cases.”
Funding for the new sexual assault investigator comes from a mix of state and federal grants.
Since October 2015, all sexual assault kits are automatically tested.
In recent years, Wayne County prosecutor Kym Worthy found thousands of kits abandoned, untested and deteriorating in a warehouse.
Siemon said Ingham county does not have a similar backlog.
