“We had a backlog of sexual assault test kits that were taken but never tested,” said Knudsen.īut the darkness remains for some victims, because some 341 remain untested, according to the Montana Department of Justice, and 2,348 kits are partially tested, as identified by law enforcement agencies, coroner’s offices and medical facilities. That work put a major dent in a dark period of time for victims seeking justice. But through the work of the state’s sexual assault task force, started in 2015, 1,252 untested rape kits were collected from jurisdictions across Montana. In Montana, sexual assault kits sat on the shelves of evidence facilities for years. “The idea here is we can get into these kits that didn’t go anywhere, we can reopen them, we can get some justice in these cold cases, hopefully get them hot again and bring some perpetrators to justice,” said Knudsen. The $2.1 million grant will help Attorney General Austin Knudsen crack down on violent crime, something he says continues to rise. BILLINGS- A major federal grant will help Montana get all untested rape kits tested after a robust mission several years ago by the Montana Department of Justice to create a sex assault task force.
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