DETROIT – Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office made the discovery in 2009: thousands of rape kits from so many sexual assaults, untested and uninvestigated, gathering dust in a Detroit police warehouse.
"What we were potentially looking at, at that time, was over 10,000 rape kits representing over 10,000 cases where women had reported, whose lives, it would have happened to them, was sitting on the shelves, and nobody cared," said Worthy.
Since the finding there has been neither the money nor the staff to investigate all of the cases, until now.
Local 4 has learned Worthy, Gov. Rick Snyder and Attorney General Bill Schuette are ready to announce the state of Michigan is stepping in to help.
The Attorney General's office will lend resources and funding to investigate and build the cases from the kits. Worthy's office will prosecute.
A press conference is scheduled for 11:15 a.m. Wednesday at the governor' office in Lansing.