JAN 26, 2019
Backlog of untested rape kits is 'a public safety issue,' may let offenders slip away
The discovery of the body of
Hania Noelia Aguilar, a 13-year-old girl who was raped and murdered after being kidnapped outside her home, broke hearts in the small community of Lumberton, North Carolina, last fall.
"It is absolutely tragic and makes me sad and a little bit crazy that this girl was killed, and if the case had been investigated properly, chances are she would be alive today," North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein told ABC News.
"If he had been linked in 2016, we'd be having a very different conversation," Monika Johnson Hostler, executive director of the North Carolina Coalition Against Sexual Assault, told ABC News.
The fact that the 2016 rape kit had been tested at all is remarkable, critics say. Between 14,000 to 15,000 other rape kits in North Carolina are waiting their turn in a massive backlog that's been piling up for years, leaving potential repeat offenders like Aguilar's alleged killer free to find their next target.
North Carolina has the highest known
number of untested kits of any state, according to data collected by End the Backlog, a Joyful Heart Foundation initiative. Knecht estimates it will take "years and years" to test them all. The next highest state is California with 13,615 untested kits -- and four times as many people.