Why thousands of rape kits sat untested in Michigan, and what testing them changed
In 2009, a prosecutor touring a Detroit police storage building noticed dozens of boxes. They held what turned out to be more than 11,000 rape kits. Seventeen years later, the cases are still reaching courtrooms.
Case file
Ingham County untested-kit case Decided
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Bench Watch Brief
In 2009, more than 11,000 untested rape kits were found in a Detroit police storage building. Michigan passed laws in 2014 requiring kits to be tested and tracked. Testing has identified hundreds of suspected serial offenders, and cases like a 2012 Lansing assault are still being tried and upheld.
On Aug. 17, 2009, police and prosecutors toured a Detroit police storage building. An assistant prosecutor noticed dozens of boxes. They were rape kits (National Institute of Justice report).
The count ran past 11,000. The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office puts it at 11,341 kits, collected from 1984 to 2009 and “never submitted for DNA testing” (Wayne County Prosecutor).
Bench Watch BreakdownRape kitShow or hide the explanation
- What it means
- After a sexual assault, a trained nurse can collect evidence, including DNA, in a kit. The kit only helps if a lab tests it.
- In this case
- In Detroit alone, more than 11,000 kits were found in police storage in 2009. Most had never been submitted for testing.
Why they sat
Researchers led by Michigan State University found chronic understaffing and lost resources, and police “victim-blaming beliefs” (NIJ report).
What testing found
By November 2022, the Wayne County Prosecutor said all 11,341 Detroit kits had been tested (FOX 2). In September 2024, CBS Detroit reported 257 convictions and 853 suspected serial rapists in 39 states (CBS Detroit). Counts differ by source and date; see our data page.
It wasn't only Detroit. In January 2016, Attorney General Bill Schuette said a survey of county prosecutors had found 1,819 more untested kits outside Wayne County (Michigan Public). State police say 3,440 had been submitted for testing by August 2018 (Michigan State Police).
The laws that followed
In 2014, Michigan passed laws requiring police to submit kits for testing, creating a system to track them and giving survivors the right to ask about their kit and their case (2014 PA 227; 2014 PA 318; 2014 PA 319).
Bench Watch BreakdownNo time limit for the most serious chargeShow or hide the explanation
- What it means
- Most crimes have a time limit. After it runs out, no one can be charged. In Michigan, the most serious sex crime has no limit. It can be charged “at any time.”
- In this case
- That's why an assault from 2012 could still go to trial in 2023, once the kit was tested.
- Why it matters
- For second- and third-degree criminal sexual conduct, a 2024 law set the limit at 15 years or the survivor's 42nd birthday, whichever is later. It covers only crimes committed on or after April 2, 2025.
A case from 2012
In Lansing, a kit from a 2012 assault sat after prosecutors declined to charge. Sent to a lab in 2016, it led to the conviction of Marshawn James Curtis in 2023, which the Michigan Court of Appeals upheld in March 2026 (opinion). Read the case file.
The work isn't finished
The attorney general's SAKI agreements with prosecutors in Ingham, Kalamazoo and Washtenaw counties were set to expire at the end of September 2026, and her office wrote that “it is almost certain that extensions will be necessary” (Attorney General). Bench Watch hasn't found a public record of an extension, but the attorney general's office was still announcing SAKI cases in November 2026 (Attorney General).
In December 2025, a House subcommittee weighed cutting the program's funding during a state budget fight; the full committee didn't cut it (Bridge Michigan).
Approach the Bench · How you can take part
Contact your officials
The money for this work is set in Lansing
The attorney general's SAKI agreements with county prosecutors were set to expire at the end of September 2026, and a 2025 bill to fund kit testing hasn't moved since it went to committee. State lawmakers set the money for this work.
Learn more
Survivors can track a kit
If a kit was collected in Michigan since the tracking system started, the survivor can check its status online, anonymously.
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