More than 1,000 sexual assault kits sent off for testing since late 2019

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (KFVS) - Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced that his office, through the SAFE Kit Initiative, reached an important milestone in the effort to clear the backlog of untested sexual assault kits in Missouri.

Since late December of 2019, 1,021 untested sexual assault kits from across the state have been gathered and sent to a private lab in Virginia to be tested.

The SAFE Kits Initiative was launched in January of 2019 to inventory all untested sexual assault kits in the backlog, create an electronic tracking system, and send those identified kits to a lab for forensic testing and potentially eventual prosecution.

Shipping events have been held in O’Fallon, Lee’s Summit, Grandview, Springfield, Columbia, St. Joseph, Blue Springs, and Joplin, as well as the Camden County Sheriff’s Office, the Cass County Sheriff’s Office, the New Madrid County Sheriff’s Office and the St. Francois County Sheriff’s Office.

Regional shipping events will continue in the future as the Attorney General's Office continues to work to gather and ship backlogged untested sexual assault kits to the lab for testing.

“Since being sworn in as Attorney General, clearing the backlog of untested sexual assault kits has remained one of my top priorities. Judge Williams and her team worked tirelessly in 2019 to inventory every backlogged untested sexual assault kit in the state, and now they’re working diligently and expeditiously to get those kits sent to the lab," said Attorney General Schmitt. “Although this is major progress, there is still a lot to be done. My office will continue to work to obtain justice on behalf of victims and ensure this backlog never happens again.”