First charges from Wisconsin rape kits testing involve Fox Valley case

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold

This is why @keegankyle has been investigating Wisconsin's backlog of 6,000 untested rape kits. In this case, a rape suspect was on the loose for 10 years after the victim provided physical evidence against him.

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Story updated with new details. 1) State authorities were first notified of this untested kit in 2014. 2) Police chief said kit wasn't tested in 2008 because state crime lab didn't request it

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First criminal charges from #Wisconsin rape kits testing project involve Fox Valley case. What we know so far:

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First charges from Wisconsin rape kits testing involve Fox Valley case

Keegan Kyle, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin Published 2:31 p.m. CT Feb. 20, 2018

Updated 4:22 p.m. CT Feb. 20, 2018

MADISON - The first prosecution resulting from Wisconsin's four-year effort to test thousands of shelved rape kits involves a Fox Valley case, Attorney General Brad Schimel announced Tuesday.

Aaron Heiden, 29, faces two felony counts of sexual assault stemming from a Menasha woman's allegations that a man named "Alex" assaulted her in 2008. ... Heiden could face decades in prison if convicted. State authorities said he was arrested Tuesday in Eau Claire and will be transferred to the Winnebago County jail.

DNA from an untested rape kit led investigators to Heiden, according to the criminal complaint in the case. The kit was collected in 2008 but never sent to state crime labs until a grant-funded project gained steam in 2017.

The project started in 2014 when a state Department of Justice survey discovered more than 6,000 untested rape kits that were scattered in police and hospital storage rooms across the state.