(COLUMBUS, Ohio) -- In an effort to keep the public up-to-date on the progress of the Sexual Assault Kit (SAK) Testing Initiative, Attorney General DeWine released the following status update today:
As of December 2, 2013:
- Forensic scientists with the Attorney General's Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) have received 4,956 previously untested rape kits from 110 law enforcement agencies in Ohio.
- BCI has completed DNA testing on 2,369 of those rape kits.
- The DNA testing has led to 766 hits in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).
"In the past month we've received more than 400 additional kits for testing, and we continue to urge law enforcement agencies to send us any previously untested rape kits so that they too can be tested for DNA," said Attorney General DeWine.
Attorney General DeWine announced the SAK Testing Initiative in December 2011 by offering free DNA testing to any law enforcement agency with untested rape kits in which a crime was believed to have been committed. Many of the kits submitted as part of the initiative are between one and two decades old.
Currently, four of BCI's forensic scientists focus primarily on the testing of the previously untested kits, and six additional scientists are now training to assist with the forensic biology and DNA analyses.
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Media Contacts:
Dan Tierney: 614-466-3840
Jill Del Greco: 614-466-3840