51 untested rape kits found in Robbins
12:49PM Tuesday
February 19, 2013

(ROBBINS) Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart will meet with residents of Robbins on Tuesday night to discuss a discovery that police in the south suburb didn't submit evidence from dozens of sexual assaults for testing over nearly three decades.

Dart and Robbins Mayor Irene Brodie will host a town hall meeting at 6 p.m. at the Community Center to discuss the issue, the Sun-Times is reporting.

Recently, the sheriff's office found 51 sexual assaults kits went untested between 1986 and 2011, according to a release.

A law enforcement source said the sheriff's office is also concerned about guns in evidence that were not submitted to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to trace their original ownership.

In 2007, authorities made a similar discovery of untested evidence in nearby Harvey.

More than 200 untested rape kits — the evidence collected in sexual assaults — were found in a raid on the Harvey Police Department in 2007.

Authorities with the sheriff's office, Cook County State's Attorney's office and Illinois State Police conducted the Harvey raid to confiscate evidence in numerous unsolved murders.

Follow-up testing of the evidence from the murders and rapes led to numerous charges.

— Sun-Times
© Copyright 2013 Sun-Times Media, LLC

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