Brian Haas

bhaas@tennessean.com

More than 9,000 rape kits have gone untested across Tennessee, some dating back nearly 30 years.

That's according to a report released Tuesday by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in response to a law passed earlier this year requiring all police agencies to account for all untested rape kits. Rape kit backlogs have exploded as a national problem over the past year. Thousands of evidence kits have gone untested across the country, raising serious questions about whether police are leaving violent crimes unsolved. Memphis stood out as one of the most egregious examples, with an estimated 12,000 untested rape kits.

While Memphis appears to have whittled that backlog down to just under 7,000 untested kits, 2,120 additional rape kits across the state remain untested. Some of the kits go back to 1985.

"I'm disappointed if there's one rape kit that's not tested," said Tennessee Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, who has made rape kits a priority. "But my initial thoughts are any improvement is good for everyone."

The discovery of Memphis' rape kit problem led to several efforts to fund backlog reduction efforts. Instead, the Tennessee legislature ordered every agency in the state to inventory their rape kits to determine the scope of the problem.

A kit not tested

Meaghan Ybos, 28, was among the victims whose rape kit was never tested.

She was raped in 2003 by a masked man with a knife in her Memphis-area home. She was only 16 at the time, but went to police. She underwent an invasive rape examination, during which nurses try and extract any potential DNA evidence.

Later, when a serial rapist began assaulting women in the area, she found out that police had never tested that rape kit.

Once they finally did, it hit on Anthony Alliano, a serial rapist now serving 178 years in prison for the rape of Ybos and six other women.

She and two other victims have sued the city of Memphis, Shelby County and other officials for not testing those rape kits.

On Tuesday, Ybos said she was impressed by the improvement statewide but wasn't sure Memphis had made much progress.

"It's encouraging that the rest of the state has been able to not find itself in the disastrous state that Memphis finds itself in," she said. "I'm not quite as anxious to look at 7,000 untested rape kits in Memphis as a sign of progress. We need to wait to see what's done with the evidence to know if any progress is being made."

Declining numbers

Initial estimates at the time were that some 20,000 rape kits may have gone untested over the years. But those estimates, as shown by Tuesday's report, may have proved overly pessimistic.

Despite its gains, Memphis police had far more untested rape kits than any other agency in the state. The Knoxville Police Department had the second-highest total, with 394. The third-highest number came from Jackson Police, which reported 249.

Nashville, which had acknowledged it had 338 rape kits that went untested due to victim recantations or refusal to prosecute, has gotten that number down to 200, according to the report, making it the fourth highest.

The earliest Nashville kit was collected in 1996.

Don Aaron, spokesman for Metro police, said the 1996 case was typical of the other untested kits in that it involved a woman who didn't want to pursue charges. But he said the 200 remaining — including the 1996 case — are set to be sent to a private lab for analysis this week, essentially eliminating any sort of backlog.

Josh Devine, a spokesman for the TBI, said the agency's job was simply to collect the information and hand it over to the legislature.

"How each specific agency interprets the information or contextualizes it would be solely up to them," he said.

Parkinson said that action is needed next.

"We can't stop here," he said. "We've got to keep the pressure on and keep reducing these."

Reach Brian Haas at 615-726-8968 and on Twitter @brianhaas.