"It's mind-boggling how far this problem goes." – Sexual assault center director
Three months ago, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation received a disturbing call from Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. Children's three hospitals – Scottish Rite, Egleston and Hughes Spalding – were in possession of a startling number of "rape kits," or the results of examinations of children who were suspected victims of sexual abuse.
The kits had never been picked up by law enforcement, nor had they ever been analyzed by the State Crime Lab for potential DNA matches. Children's told the AJC that it had regularly contacted police departments to remind them of the kits, but the police tell a somewhat different story.
The episode recalls a scandal uncovered last year by the AJC, which found that Grady Memorial Hospital had about 1,500 rape kits in storage that were never turned over to police.
This time, however, all the victims were children.
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