Report: Half of Indy rape kits untested

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - A CBS News investigation is raising questions about how many rapists are actually being brought to justice. The report says 20,000 rape kits across the country have never been processed.

Authorities in 12 major US cities have no idea how many rape kits in storage are untested. Indianapolis is one of them. Over 1,300 rape kits are in storage but police don't know how many have been tested.

IMPD spokesman Lieutenant Jeff Duhamell said IMPD would decide not to test a rape kit if an alleged victim recants or drastically changes their story or if the victim doesn’t want to prosecute.

Police and prosecutors acknowledge they ask a critical question before submitting a kit for testing.

"Do we have enough evidence, information, to be presented in a trial situation that we think this case is winnable?" said Lt. Duhamell.

CBS News found that is a very subjective question. Valerie Neumann, a young woman from Cincinnati, Ohio, told CBS News reporter Armen Keteyian she'd been drinking in Kentucky with friends on her 21st birthday when she got sick and passed out.

"When I woke up the next morning, my panties and sweatpants were down around my ankles and my bra was undone," said Neumann.

Kentucky prosecutors didn't pursue the case because they said it was unwinnable. It's tough to discern whether that happens in Indianapolis.

Mike Medlor, director of the Indianapolis Crime Lab, said there were 406 rape kits done at area hospitals January through October of this year. About half (205) were processed or are being processed through the crime lab. The other half weren't processed because the victim, police or prosecutor determined the investigation should not move forward.