Page 24 - Rape Kit News Today

Here. because it is not unusual for sexual assault victim to pull out of the criminal process, to recant because of a lot of reasons. sometimes they cant deal with the probing that occurs. they dont want to submit to a rape kit. theyre embarrassed. they know that they will be scrutinized quite frankly. and so that in and of itself doesnt make this drunkyoung woman a liar. and you think if you look at the statistics and some are a bit squishy. but if you look at the fbi statistics only about 22% ...

>> i was. >> did you say to him, get off me? >> i just kept saying, please stop. please stop. >> reporter: paula says the man raped her repeatedly. then by some miracle agreed to let her go. shivering and alone, paula made her way here to henry ford hospital. she told a nurse she had been raped and agreed to an exam. doctors photographed and swabbed her, a humiliating experience. but necessary to collect evidence for a so-called rape kit. doctors collected dna evidence so the police could catch ...

She identified him in a lineup. thats when she learned her rape kit had never been tested. while his dna and paulas kit sat on a shelf, alondo steel was out there, lurking stalking, maybe even raping. >> this guy was out there continuing to assault people. >> yes. yes. >> and you had done a rape kit. >> yes. and they just said well just store it. >> went on a shelf. >> yep. just like the other kits. >> reporter: two and a half years after she was raped, paula finally met her attacker in court. a...

Kit had never been tested. while his dna in paulas kit sat on a shelf, alondo steel was out there, lurking, stalking, maybe even raping. >> this guy was out there, continuing to assault people. >> yes. yes. >> and you had done a rape kit. >> yes. and they just said, well just store it. >> went on a shelf. >> yep. just like the other kits. >> reporter: two and a half years after she was raped, paula finally met her attacker in court. and testified against him. he was sentenced to up to 15 years i...

Office. and she said, i just want to make sure that you dont talk to anyone about this. they protect perpetrators because they have a financial incentive to do so. >> the problem of sexual assault on campuses is enormous. >> i think its fair to say that they cover these crimes up. >> theres a lot of victim blaming. >> he lectured us about how we shouldnt go out in short skirts. >> they said despite the fact that i had a written admission of guilt, that that could only prove that he loved me. >> ...

There is this criminal out there and youre helpless do-to-do anything about it. >> reporter: until 2012. >> this man is now wanted by police memphis police. >> reporter: she felt a cold shudder of recognition. i wore a mask and at takdtacked with a knife. megan called the police and demanded they reopen her case. >> i found on my birthday june 21 2012 that his dna was found in my rape kit. >> reporter: anthony oliono a serial rapist now spending the rest of his life behind bars. megan was his fi...

Decade. >> to find out youre raped, you went through the grueling process of a rape kit and that the rape kit wasnt tested? every survivor of sexual assault feels like they have been revictimized. >> experts say there are hundreds of thousands of rape kits collecting dust across the u.s. >> many who rape rape again and they rape again elsewhere. >> manhattans district attorney cyrus vance jr. recently announced a $35 million program to tackle the nationwide problem. the money will give police de...

That some of these cold cases may finally be solved. >> i went to my building as i always do, except the difference on that evening is there was a man behind me with a gun. >> she was violently raped in new york city in 1993. she says she is a perfect example of how the system failed after her rape kit sat untouched in a police storage unit for nearly a decade. >> now to find out that were raped, that you went through this grueling process of a rape kit, and that the rape kit wasnt tested? every...

Tell you is there at least a moment of possibility open in all of the horror of the allegations for talking about and creating new pathways for reporting? because why dont you just go to the police? yeah, because everything we are seeing about police these days makes you feel like thats a really good idea. >> and thats a key point because we need to talk about the process of what happens when you report a sexual assault. for example, a rape kit is not a science experience. thats sort of very san...

Analysts were able to obtain dna from the stains and generate a profile. >> they could not exclude rebecca barney from being a contributor to that profile and only one in 12,000 individuals in the general population would match that profile. >> but was kidwells dna at the crime scene? the profile from saliva on rebeccas body was very weak, so analysts returned to the dna from rebeccas rape kit. because she was menstruating, the dna was predominantly female, but there were minute amounts of male ...