Not all sexual assault kits go to lab; Muncie police have about 250 in property room

About 250 of those kits, collected between 2000 and this year, are preserved in a refrigerator in the Muncie Police Department’s property room.

USA TODAY recently obtained records for more than 800 police departments reflecting at least 70,000 sexual assault kits that had not been sent to labs. Across the nation, there are 18,000 police agencies.

The Muncie Police Department’s sexual assault investigators said this week they have frequently only requested DNA analysis of the kits needed to be used in a prosecution.

“A lot of these cases don’t warrant going to the lab,” said Jami Brown, who has investigated local sex crimes for the past 16 years. “We have a lot of victims that go to the hospital to be examined and then for whatever reason aren’t able to be contacted again to further the investigation. ...

“Or they’ll call and say they just don’t want to go forward with the case. That’s what we run into.”