Tulsa woman assaulted in OKC had rape kit untested for seven years, case overlooked.

Woman saved dress from sexual assault over 8 years ago for evidence

By: Lynn Casey
Update: November 22, 2019 - 5:35 PM

A Tulsa woman was raped in Oklahoma City in 2011. She believes she was drugged, so it took a few days to realize what happened. When she did go to the hospital in Tulsa and had a rape kit done.

A Tulsa police officer picked it up and relayed all the information to the Oklahoma City Police Department.

TULSA, Okla. — OKCPD told FOX23 they should have picked up the case to investigate immediately. Instead, for an unknown reason, nobody ever got the rape kit from Tulsa. The original detective told the victim no rape kit existed, that there was no evidence, so her case was dropped.

OKCPD says that officer is being investigated, and there’s an internal investigation into why her case was handled the way it was. OKCPD says “there is no excuse for what happened. She did exactly what she should have done. The case was not handled appropriately.”

Now her case is reopened, and she was interviewed for the first time Wednesday.

OKCPD says her rape kit will be prioritized and tested as quickly as possible.

Members of the Governor’s SAFE Task Force have been working on guidelines for legislation that would establish a statewide tracking system for rape kits.

It would also establish a required timeline for law enforcement to follow regarding the testing of the kits and their entry into CODIS, the FBI's DNA database.

State Sen. Kay Floyd, who is also a member of the task force, will get the first draft of the legislation on her desk today and will submit the final version by Jan. 13.

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