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Pursuit For Justice After Robbins Failed To Pursue Hundreds Of Rape Cases

Rape_Kits_Robbins_Evidence_Room
These evidence kits were found inside the Robbins Police Department. Some of the kits used to collect evidence after sexual assaults sat unprocessed since the 1980s.

CHICAGO (CBS) -- A total of 200 rape kits that Robbins police either never sent to the crime lab or never fully investigated have now been analyzed, and authorities say there are known suspects walking the streets.

Robbins Rape Kits Analyzed

Now, they're trying to figure out how to pursue them, WBBM Newsradio's Mike Krauser reports.

Authorities aren't saying how many of the rape cases involve known offenders, but Cara Smith, chief of policy for the Cook County Sheriff's Department, says there are many.

Investigators also have to overcome a legal hurdle to pursue them because the statute of limitations has run out.

"When a victim does everything he or she can do - reports the crime - when the state crime lab does its job, if that's the end of the road, if the police department that is responsible for that case does nothing further, whether it was through lack of training or whatever the case may be, that victim still needs justice," she said.

Robbins and the Cook County Sheriff's Department are asking victims to come forward.

One man who spoke with WBBM Newsradio said his wife was raped in 1995.

She knew her attacker and told police.

"She was traumatized and had never been the same, nervous about everything," said Darryl Perkins.

"It messed me up for a long time."

Like so many other cases, he said, police did nothing.

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