PARAGOULD, Ark. – It was in the middle of August that a rape was reported in Greene County. Now, mid-October, the rape kit is sitting unprocessed in the Arkansas State Crime Lab.
This is the reason the case has not moved forward, a reliable source in the Greene County Sheriff’s Office says. It is still an open investigation. Because of the effects of trauma on a victim’s memory, DNA evidence could be all investigators have to go on.
There is no evidence the victim has been intentionally misleading. Present limitations of science and the available resources to law enforcement could result in the public never knowing what happened.
The State Crime Lab is the only crime lab in Arkansas. Every piece of evidence submitted to it must be personally driven by a law enforcement officer to the lab, putting a strain on individual departments.
The wait, a Jonesboro detective recently told me, was as long as eight months for rape kits to be tested.
Greene County authorities believe they will learn of the results soon, based on what they had been told by staff at the lab.
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