Detroit police abandoned 11,000 rape kits, letting rapists get away free
On Februaury 19th, 2003 in Detroit, DeShawn Starks, 32 pretended to be having stomach pains. According to prosecutors, he approached a woman who was returning to her home. When he reached her he pulled out a gun and robbed her.
Then, he drove her to a wooded area and raped her.
10 years later, on November 19th, 2013, Starks did it again – he raped two friends as they walked home from a family gathering.
The rape kit from the victim in the first incident might have prevented the second one from happening – had it been processed.
It was only after 10 years that the kit was processed and the DNA linked Starks to the first case. He has just been sentenced to 45 to 90 years in prison.
The shocking fact that has just come to light is that over 11,000 sexual assault kits – some dating all the way back to the 1980′s – were found abandoned in a Detroit Police storage facility in 2009.
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