North Carolina rape kit backlog ended, Attorney General says

RALEIGH, NC (WWAY) — North Carolina has ended the backlog of untested older sexual assault kits, Attorney General Josh Stein announced Tuesday.

“I am incredibly proud of the bipartisan and collaborative effort that produced this achievement – Republican and Democratic legislators, district attorneys, and law enforcement officers all played a critical role in ending the backlog. I also want to thank the scientists at the State Crime Lab who have worked countless hours to get these kits tested,” Josh Stein said in a statement.

Working with the legislature and local law enforcement, the Department of Justice conducted a statewide inventory and determined that more than 16,000 untested kits sat on the shelves of local law enforcement agencies in 2019. A statewide effort of stakeholders determined under the process set out by the Survivor Act that 11,858 of these kits needed to be tested.

As of April 2024, 11,841 kits have been tested or are in the process of being tested. From those kits, 5,075 samples have been entered in the CODIS DNA database, and CODIS has matched the samples to 2,702 hits. 2,024 of those samples had hits to offenders whose DNA is in the database because of previous convictions or arrests.

Chelsea Croom is the program manager of Coastal Horizon’s Rape Crisis Center.

She said she appreciated the efforts Stein and other people have given to support survivors.

“It is such a positive move in the right direction,” Croom said. “For me, I feel like it shows the dedication to survivors, not only through law enforcement but district attorneys and even at the state that they are really starting to listen and they hear survivors’ voices and they’re lifting up their stories.”

“I am tremendously proud of the achievements of our state’s Crime Lab,” said Ms. Linda, a sexual assault survivor and advocate. “I truly believe the Crime Lab employees and scientists wanted the backlog depleted as much as I did.”

Law enforcement has made 114 arrests based on these hits. The remaining 17 kits are in process for testing. The U.S. Department of Justice and the North Carolina legislature all provided funding to test these kits.

Croom said its extra special this announcement was made in April because its Sexual Assault Awareness Month.