![]() ![]() Three days after that, police shelved the untested kit from his third victim. It next appeared after another rape four months later. His DNA first arrived there more than 18 years ago, after he raped a woman waiting for a bus on December 26, 2000. Yet Wilkes’s DNA was in boxes scattered throughout the warehouse, even as he walked free. And in all likelihood, some microscopic part of her assailant-his DNA, his identity-sat in that kit as well.Įric Eugene Wilkes was known to Detroit police for robbery and carjacking. Eventually 11,341 untested rape kits were found, some dating back more than 30 years-each one a hermetically sealed testament to the most terrifying minutes of a woman’s life, each one holding evidence that had been swabbed or plucked from the most private parts of her body. “I tried to do a quick calculation,” he later told me. The containers were still sealed, indicating that the evidence had never been sent to a lab. ![]() Spada pulled out a box and peered inside. “I’m assuming they’ve been tested?” Spada said. What are those? he asked a Detroit police officer who was accompanying him. ![]() He noticed rows of steel shelving lined with white cardboard boxes, 10 inches tall and a foot wide, stacked six feet high. ![]() To hear more feature stories, see our full list or get the Audm iPhone app.Īs Spada wandered through the warehouse, he made another discovery, one that would help uncover a decades-long scandal, not just in Detroit but across the country. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |