Cold case sexual assault unit expanding with $1.4 million federal rant

FRANKFORT, KY. (WTVQ) – Attorney Generals Office has been awarded a $1.4 million federal grant to expand its Sexual Assault Cold Case Unit and further investigate and prosecute sexual assault cold cases, many of which resulted from the state’s Sexual Assault Forensic Exam (SAFE) kit backlog discovered in 2015.

They say the three-year Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice is the second grant they have received.

In 2018, the office hired a victim advocate, investigator, prosecutor and a SAKI coordinator and established a Cold Case Unit after receipt of a nearly $3 million grant.

The original funds also allowed for the testing of an additional 1,424 SAFE kits not previously identified, the hiring of a cold case investigator for Kentucky State Police (KSP), a University of Louisville backlog research project and the formation of a SAKI task force.

With the new grant funds, they will hire another investigator, permanently detailed to the Louisville Metro Police Department (LMPD), and a crime analyst for the Cold Case Unit. In an effort to assist in the identification of a suspect in the cases in which a DNA profile has been developed but there is no identified perpetrator, funding will support specialized DNA testing for up to 50 kits. The funding will also support overtime for KSP lab personnel working to crack these cases.

Kentucky is only one of the few states that has tested every backlogged SAFE kit.