State investigating hundreds of untested rape kits linked to children

ATLANTA — State investigators want to know why hundreds of evidence kits linked to suspected sexual assaults on children stayed locked up in hospitals instead of being sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation crime lab for DNA testing.

The chief medical officer at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta says the facility recently contacted the GBI because more than 200 evidence kits, or so called rape kits, had not been picked up by local law enforcement agencies for processing.

Some of packets containing DNA and other evidence linked to suspected assaults on children date back 10 years, but only arrived at the GBI in May.

“We were definitely shocked to find kits were linked to children as young as age one to 18,” said Nelly Miles, with the GBI. “Our first question is how did this happen and how do we fix it.”

Labels on the kits linked them to dozens of law enforcement agencies, including Atlanta, DeKalb and Gwinnett.

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Gwinnett police told Channel 2's Tom Regan they had been notified by CHOA that evidence kits were ready for pickup and processing by the GBI, but DeKalb and Atlanta both said they weren't made aware of evidence kits turned over to the state.

“We have the highest duty of all to protect children,” Dr. Dan Salinas, CHOA’s chief medical officer, said.

Salinas told Regan the hospital has a strict evidentiary procedure in every case involving suspected sexual abuse of a child.

“We collect (and) we contact law enforcement to pick up the evidence on a weekly basis. We have always reviewed everyone one of these cases,” Salinas said.

He told Regan that in many instances police don’t retrieve an evidence kit because the case, for whatever reason, is no longer going forward.

“If law enforcement tells us you can get rid of that kit, we keep it. We feel it's the right thing to do: it's part of our policy and procedure,” Salinas said.

Both CHOA and the GBI are pleased with a new law that sets timely deadlines on when rape and evidence must be sent to the state crime lab.

Gov. Nathan Deal signed the rape kit Bill into law in April. Part of the new law requires law enforcement to hunt down and collect evidence from old cases.

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Cox Media Group