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Despite an effort that began in 2012 to clear a backlog of hundreds of untested sexual assault kits, the New Orleans Police Department estimates it has 400 untested kits in its custody.

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Justice found that NOPD had more than 800 untested rape kits (some held from the '80s and '90s), which contain fragile DNA evidence collected from victims that, when uploaded to the FBI's*Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), can potentially match DNA profiles with other offenders across federal, state and local criminal justice agencies. NOPD ultimately made two dozen arrests from CODIS "hits" and made several convictions.

Last year, then-NOPD sex crimes cold case Det. Merrell Merricks told Gambit its backlog had been "virtually eliminated."? [ Read more ]

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