TUESDAY August 25, 2020: OVERLOOKED, FORGOTTEN, DISCARDED by award winning ZUMA Press photojournalist KAREN PULFER FOCHT. Karen worked together with The Institute for Public Service Reporting on this investigative project on Memphis area neglected rape cold cases. Memphis Police Department confirmed in 2013, the discovery of an estimated 12,000 older rape kits, many never tested for DNA. Susanna Parkinson, a longtime sexual assault intervention specialist and victim advocate at the Rape Crisis Center, saw the long ignored evidence, not as a 'backlog', but a way to get justice and possible closure for the victims. Working closely with MPD, on what she coined as 'The Mess', a colossal system of haphazardly stored and discarded evidence. To add to the victims injustice, was that police had destroyed evidence in hundreds, possibly thousands, of sex crimes cases. Many victims are still seeking justice, answers and closure from cases dating back 30 years or more. Welcome to: OVERLOOKED, FORGOTTEN, DISCARDED an Investigation into 'The Mess' System Failing Rape Victims.
© zReportage.com Story of the Week #750: TUESDAY August 25, 2020: OVERLOOKED, FORGOTTEN, DISCARDED by award winning ZUMA Press photojournalist KAREN PULFER FOCHT. Karen worked together with The Institute for Public Service Reporting on this investigative project on Memphis area neglected rape cold cases. Memphis Police Department confirmed in 2013, the discovery of an estimated 12,000 older rape kits, many never tested for DNA. Susanna Parkinson, a longtime sexual assault intervention specialist and victim advocate at the Rape Crisis Center, saw the long ignored evidence, not as a 'backlog', but a way to get justice and possible closure for the victims. Working closely with MPD, on what she coined as 'The Mess', a colossal system of haphazardly stored and discarded evidence. To add to the victims injustice, was that police had destroyed evidence in hundreds, possibly thousands, of sex crimes cases. Many victims are still seeking justice, answers and closure from cases dating back 30 years or more. Welcome to: OVERLOOKED, FORGOTTEN, DISCARDED an Investigation into 'The Mess' System Failing Rape Victims.
A badge belonging to retired Memphis police detective CODY WILKERSON a former sex crimes detective. He testified about observing the mishandling of thousands of rape kits and cases in the time he was with the Memphis Police Department. The Memphis Police Department confirmed in 2013 it was holding 12,000 older rape kits, many never tested for DNA. Evidence suggests other kits were lost or destroyed.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
CELIA REYNOLDS has carried the pain of her rape for 38 years. 'Every single day you feel it,' she says. She was raped in 1983 while walking to work. 'They did not investigate it at all,' she says. 'I don't understand. Why?'
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
A sample rape kit is held by activist MEAGHAN YBOS. She was attacked in 2003 by a serial rapist. More than 12,000 rape kits went untested in Memphis over the decades. Many kits held evidence that if timely tested could have stopped repeat offenders from attacking additional victims. Thousands of the kits, which contain DNA, hairs and other crime scene samples, went untested in Memphis for years, while others were simply discarded, according to a retired police official.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
MEAGHAN YBOS, 33, was raped at knife-point in her Cordova home as a teenager. Detectives never sent in her rape kit in to be tested. When Ybos heard that police had caught a serial rapist known as the 'Cordova Rapist' she contacted the Memphis Police. Her rape kit was finally sent to the state crime lab run by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and it was a match with serial rapist Anthony Alliano.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
Memphis police vehicles outside of a crime scene. More than 12,000 rape kits went untested in Memphis over the decades. Many kits held evidence that if timely tested could have stopped repeat offenders from attacking additional victims.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
DEBBY DALHOFF was raped and tortured in her home in 1985 by a masked intruder. She says the way her case has been handled by Memphis Police Department, including the loss and destruction of much of the evidence, makes her feel like she has been raped twice.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
Debby Dahlhoff became a special deputy following her rape and learned to use a gun. Memphis police failed to test more than 12,000 rape kits, the city finally acknowledged in 2014, with some dating back to the 1970s. Many of those victims are still seeking justice, answers and closure from cases that go back as far as 30 years.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
Exterior of the Shelby County Crime Victims Rape Crisis Center in Memphis.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
A drop box sits inside the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation office in Memphis with forensic evidence that has been collected.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
Retired Memphis police detective CODY WILKERSON testified about observing the mishandling of thousands of rape kits and cases in the time he was with the Memphis Police Department. The Department confirmed in 2013 it was holding 12,000 older rape kits, many never tested for DNA.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
Two rape victims visited the garbage dump where their rape kits may have been dumped by Memphis Police. The agency destroyed evidence in possibly hundreds of cases by tossing boxes of items in local landfills in a series property room housecleaning ventures starting in the 1990s. It's a concern that impacts the efforts of wrongfully convicted inmates searching for evidence to prove their innocence as well as the inquiries of long-suffering victims seeking justice.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
Rape victim MEAGHAN YBOS, 33, visited the garbage dump where she believes evidence may have been dumped by Memphis Police. The agency destroyed evidence in possibly hundreds of cases by tossing boxes of items in local landfills in a series property room housecleaning ventures starting in the 1990s. It's a concern that impacts the efforts of wrongfully convicted inmates searching for evidence to prove their innocence as well as the inquiries of long-suffering victims seeking justice.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
Debby Dalhoff holds a police sketch of the man she believes was her perpetrator. She was raped and tortured in her home in 1985 by a masked intruder. She says the way her case has been handled by Memphis Police Department, including the loss and destruction of much of the evidence, makes her feel like she has been raped twice.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
KAREN WILLIAMSON was a teenager in 1988 when she was raped by a former boyfriend. The trauma sent her into a tailspin. She dropped out of high school, got hooked on drugs and worked the streets for many years as a homeless prostitute before finally turning her life back around.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
South Memphis near the the scene of the rape of Celia Reynolds, a rape victim seeking justice and closure in her case. More than 12,000 rape kits went untested in Memphis over the decades. Many kits held evidence that if timely tested could have stopped repeat offenders from attacking additional victims. Thousands of rape kits, which contain DNA, hairs and other crime scene samples, went untested in Memphis for years. Others were thrown away, says a retired police official.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
TERRY BURKS was gang raped by three men over thirty years ago in Memphis. Her case that is still unsolved today. When she heard about the backlog of untested rape kits in 2013, she went to City Hall and spoke up at a city council meeting about the need to test the rape kits. She was told they would look into her case, but found out that police had lost or destroyed valuable evidence. She has yet to find closure or justice.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
DEBBY DAHLHOFF is moved to tears as she revisits the home where she lived when she raped and tortured in south east Shelby County by a sadistic series rapist. She revisited her former home recently with another rape victim.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
A statue honoring justice outside the court house in Memphis, Tennessee.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
Former room mates and rape victims DEBBY DAHLHOFF and JAN BOHNET CARROLL comfort oner another. In 2010 it was revealed that Memphis Police Department had failed to test about 1,000 rape kits. Then in 2014 that number grew too 12,000, one of the largest backlogs in the country.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
DEBBY DALHOFF was raped and tortured in her home in 1985 by a masked intruder. She says the way her case has been handled by Memphis Police Department, including the loss and destruction of much of the evidence, makes her feel like she has been raped twice.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
The old International Harvester plant in Frayser, Tennessee has served as a massive evidence warehouse for Memphis Police Department since the mid-1990s. Many of the 12,000 overlooked rape kits MPD had accumulated over the decades were found here. The Memphis Police Department confirmed in 2013 it was holding 12,000 older rape kits, many never tested for DNA. Evidence suggests other kits were lost or destroyed. Many victims are still seeking justice, answers and closure from cases that go back as far as 30 years.
© Karen Focht/ZUMA Wire
