by Catherine Rentz
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With the passage of new rules in Maryland, which included more than 1,400 cases spanning again to 1977, one of the nation’s oldest backlogs of unknown data from murder exams is scheduled to be processed by the end of the year.
In accordance with ProPublica’s 2021 line” Cold Justice,” a physician at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center began slowly conserving real information from assault survivors ‘ examinations in the 1970s, believing that one day the technology would be able to identify offenders.
The Baltimore County Police Department has sat idle because of advances in DNA technology that proved Dr. Rudiger Breitenecker straight and occasional assessments of his evidence that exonerated two gentlemen and solved 80 cold cases.
The outdated samples were not included in the state’s official backlog of unknown assault kits, which were subject to legal protections and prompt processing requirements, until ProPublica exposed this gap next year, triggering a new law that included them in the category of sexual assault kits.
Now they are all at a facility, which has a commitment to approach them by Dec. 31, 2024.
The analysis will look to see if the samples match any federal police databases that have DNA profiles. Police may need to conduct further investigation before pursuing a charge based on a breakthrough that relied on another clues that provided them with a fingerprint that they had on file. The most recent charge stemming from the trove was not based on a strong DNA match to a system user. They must also locate sufferers who may have since died or left Baltimore.
A third of the samples have already been tested, though police wo n’t say what they have learned. However, by December 31, 2025, they must submit all updates to a new recording program.
44 victims with new instances have logged in at least 269 occasions since the tracking system, which covers all assault kits in the position, went lived in late May.
Answers have so far been difficult for survivors who want to learn more about the data kits Breitenecker saved, which have not yet been incorporated into the system.
Although state officials urged survivors of the Greater Baltimore Medical Center’s treatment programs between 1977 and 1997 to dial a line for more information, ProPublica has learned that at least some of those calls are also awaited. A press conference was held in April. The Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault and TurnAround, two organizations that deal with names, have now stated they have worked through administrative and legal problems and are aiming to assist victims as soon as possible.
All the while, a girl named Melanie watches, frustrated. She requested that her last brand not be used because she still worries about her health. In 1978, a man attempted to rape her when they broke into her household while carrying a knife and a gun. She was taken to the Greater Baltimore Medical Center’s emergency room.
She had just returned from end school at the age of 13. She claims that the medical and police may still have preserved the evidence from the attack but that she recalls the emergency room visit but does n’t recall whether she underwent an sexual assault examination. He claims that the person did not rape her, but he did conquer her after she fought again.
She lives abroad, and after the province held a press event in the springtime, she learned about the testing through the local media. She claimed that she was still waiting for a police response more than two decades after calling the line.
She attributed the delay to the numerous different subjects, who she assumed had called. However, the nonprofit that ran the line claims to have only received seven calling in the month following the press conference.
Baltimore County police said they have a cap on the amount of information that can be made available to the public regarding Melanie’s situation, and they have not commented on it.
Before a nationwide movement began to combat backlogs and resolve cold cases, Baltimore County is unique among some authorities jurisdictions across the United States, which have long relied on and even destroyed DNA evidence from murder cases.
Shelly Hettleman, a state legislator who represents Baltimore County, has championed measures since 2017 to defend information and speed up testing. ” The more I dug into this issue, the more I learned that so much needed fixing”, she said.
According to End the Backlog, a project of the Joyful Heart Foundation, Maryland is one of 20 states where sexual assault cases are addressed through “full legislative rape kit reform.”
More than 6, 000 untested kits are still present in Maryland, which seems insurmountable. End the Backlog figures do not include the medical records the doctor collected at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center, making that figure one of the highest in the country.
Authorities have previously focused on testing kits obtained from cases where the offender appeared to be unfamiliar to the victim and may have been responsible for numerous attacks. As a result, many of the untested kits may prove to hold the DNA of people who were known to the victim and were suspects at the time, such as ex-boyfriends, family members or priests. However, research from academic circles has shown that well-known suspects can also engage in serial rape, switching between well-known and unknown victims. Because it can help solve other cases, the Department of Justice suggests that DNA be tested even after a suspect has already been identified.
Because authorities are less likely to use a known suspect’s DNA, those responsible may not even be able to identify themselves in law enforcement databases if they attack someone whose kits are currently being tested.
” There are some things you can legislate and fund, like the tracking system, and there are things you ca n’t, like culture and mindset”, said Anthony Brown, Maryland’s attorney general, who leads a committee overseeing sexual assault evidence in the state.
Many of the serial rapists arrested so far with this cold-case evidence had long criminal histories including assaults, attempted assaults, battery, Peeping Tom complaints and burglary. If crimes like Melanie’s physical assault and attempted rape had been subjected to more thorough investigation, some of the rapes might have been avoided.
Last August, for example, police arrested James William Shipe Sr. in connection with five rape reported rapes between 1978 and 1986. The majority of the attacks took place in the Melanie’s neighborhood.
Police connected the five cases through the slide-testing project. Four of the profiles matched each other, but not anyone in the FBI’s DNA system ( initial testing did n’t yield a profile from the fifth, according to prosecutors ). A fingerprint found in a 1979 attempted rape case, for which Shipe was detained and charged, provided the identification information that allowed investigators to identify him. It is unclear why the prosecution dropped the charges at the time. Shipe is awaiting trial for a number of rape-related charges. His lawyer did not respond to inquiries. He has not entered a plea, according to the Maryland judiciary’s online records.
The difference between the technology and the efforts to find Shipe and his replacement, who had been hired with money from the reform effort, was the one that led to his discovery.
Police began looking for holes in Melanie’s story after she reported the assault in 1978. ” The first priority of police was to prove the fallacy”, she said. She recalls that the police searched for a perpetrator, but she ca n’t recall how they located him. She now wonders if it was a serial offender who later attacked others.
She questioned,” How many cases could have been avoided if they had taken the case seriously and believed me.”
To request information about their sexual assault evidence, survivors who were treated at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center between 1977 and 1997 can contact the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault at 833-364-0046 or email notification@mcasa.org. Separated from law enforcement and members of TurnAround, a different local support group, survivors can work with them without interfering with the police.
Catherine Rentz, a writer, is looking into what happens when the Greater Baltimore Medical Center’s cold cases are analyzed by the local government. She is working on turning this series into a documentary with the Johns Hopkins University Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund as a journalist and fellow. She asks anyone who has had a direct experience with these cold cases to contact her.
