WAYNE COUNTY (WWJ) - It's the fulfillment of a personal vow made by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy 13 years ago after a backlog of over 11,000 abandoned rape kits were discovered in Detroit.
And now all 11,341 rape kits have been successfully processed, Worthy said in a moving press release on Wednesday, reassuring victims of sexual assault that they were not forgotten.
“It takes a tremendous amount of strength and courage for survivors to revisit the events of a sexual assault,” said Worthy. “We understand their decision to come forward is not an easy one but want to reassure them that they are not forgotten and their cases still very much matter. We have now reached a point where we need to reach thousands of survivors to make certain they get answers.”
The kits, discovered unprocessed in 2009, stem from cases of survivors that had been assaulted between that year and stretching back to 1984.
As the cases were investigated over the years since, Worthy said hundreds of prosecutions have been made, but many thousands of cases have yet to be reviewed.
"Survivors assaulted between 1984 and 2009 now have an additional option to find out the results of their rape kit testing and the status of their case via a new confidential information line or by visiting www.MyRapeKit.com to receive results and provide information to be used for investigation," Worthy's office said in a press release.
According to the prosecutor, personnel for the "11,000 to Zero" campaign will be on standby at the Untested Rape Kits information line at 313-224-4111 Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Survivors who contact the line afterhours will be able to leave a confidential voicemail message.
Worthy's office said survivors can also receive information for counseling services through Wayne County’s community partner, Avalon Healing Center.
Avalon Healing Center remains the only organization in the region that provides free comprehensive medical services, traditional counseling, legal advocacy services, and alternative healing therapies for sexual assault survivors.
Worthy said more than 4,800 cases have already been investigated and closed since the rape kits were discovered in 2009. The investigations led to a whopping 239 convictions over 40 states and 841 suspected serial offenders identified.