Duluth Clears Sexual Assault Kit Backlog

Nearly six hundred kits dating back to 1993 have now been submitted to the state for testing

DULUTH, Minn. – Duluth officials announced today that all of the city’s previously untested sexual assault kits have now been submitted to the state for testing.

Back in 2015, Duluth had the most untested sexual assault kits of any city in Minnesota.

After securing more than $2 million in federal grants to fund the project, local officials worked together to solve the problem.

Thanks to Duluth’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI), all 578 of the city’s backlogged kits have been submitted to the Bureau of Criminal Apprension (BCA). More than 400 of them have already been tested.

“The systems have failed survivors and victims in many ways,” said Candy Harshner, executive director of Duluth’s PAVSA organization. “The SAKI project has been here to help rectify that and to make sure that there are changes in the future and that none of this happens again.”

After evidence from those sexual assault kits was collected, nine suspects have been charged with criminal sexual conduct related offenses.

Two suspects have plead guilty and another suspect’s trial is expected to begin in July.

“These are cases that never would have been brought to justice,” said St. Louis County Attorney Mark Rubin. “So we’re really pleased and we only did it with the collaborative work of everybody that is part of this today.”

BCA officials tell us their new ‘Direct to DNA’ testing allowed them to accurately test Duluth’s kits about twice as fast as they could using their old method because they no longer have to go through a body fluid identification process.

“We simply screen for male DNA and by doing that we can avoid that entire first step of the process that, frankly, was a very time consuming process and go directly to this phase of our testing,” said BCA Superintendent Drew Evans.

Work for local officials is not over. 108 Duluth kits have yet to be tested and when that evidence is collected it’s often only the beginning of a long process.

“The work now is to reach out to each victim,” said Duluth Police Chief Mike Tusken. “The work now is to investigate these cases and ultimately offer healing to the victims and also accountability for the offenders.”

St. Louis County Attorney Mark Rubin tells us even if they’re able to solve a case, it’s still up to each sexual assault victim whether or not to proceed with prosecution.