Colorado sexual assault survivors share stories of struggle amid state DNA testing backlog

Survivors of sexual assault shared their stories Monday at the Colorado Capitol during a town hall centered on the human toll of the state’s delay in processing DNA collected in sexual assault cases.

It currently takes a year and a half or longer for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to process evidence in sexual assault cases. 

“You feel more and more powerless each week, you feel less and less like a human,” said Miranda Spencer, who has been waiting two years for the results of her sexual assault kit. 

“When my estimated processing time came and went, I spent weeks grasping at straws attempting to get anyone to listen to me to care,” she said.

The town hall was hosted by the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault.

Nina Petrovik described the process of going to the hospital after her sexual assault in 2020 to get a full medical examination and having medical staff collect DNA evidence.  

“That was probably one of the most lonely experiences I’ve ever had in my life,” she said, adding that nurses had to inspect everything. “It just felt so humiliating to me, not having anyone to turn to.” 

Petrovik’s kit took nine months longer to process than she was told it would.

“We are not meeting your expectations and we’re not meeting ours,” outgoing Colorado Bureau of Investigation Director Chris Schaefer told survivors and lawmakers in attendance.

Schaefer, who has been in the position for two years, announced his retirement just hours after the town hall. He said he always intended to retire on the heels of his 30 year anniversary with the organization and was not asked to leave.

“In fact, I have received nothing but support from my colleagues with the Department of Public Safety,” he said in a written statement announcing his departure. He said his office is committed to fixing the backlog.

A Colorado Bureau of investigation truck sits down the street from a home on Friday, Nov. 14, 2014, in Evans. (AP Photo/The Greeley Tribune, Joshua Polson)

CBI officials told lawmakers and survivors they would have all 1,407 current cases in the backlog processed by the end of the calendar year. The goal going forward is for new cases to be processed within 90 days.

“That 90 days is not an endpoint, that’s the target,” said CBI Deputy Director Lance Allen. “And then when we get there, we are going to continue working to drive it down farther.” 

The backlog came to light in January during a joint hearing of the House and Senate Judiciary committees.

CBI officials testified that the already long wait-time doubled in the last year, in part because of the discovery that former CBI forensic scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods allegedly manipulated more than a thousand DNA test results in criminal cases. Woods faces more than 100 criminal charges.

Schaefer told lawmakers the Woods situation took half of CBI’s DNA scientists out of commission while they reviewed her cases, leaving new cases to pile up.

The hearing shocked lawmakers in both parties. 

Democratic Sen. Mike Weissman of Aurora is working on legislation and policies to give CBI more money to outsource DNA testing and to require more transparency and accountability. CBI is already providing monthly progress reports to lawmakers, and has launched a public status dashboard on their website.  

“The people who’ve known about this are impacted survivors at the individual level who will check in ‘where is my case?’” Weissman told CPR News. “ And they get told, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. In four and 500 days, in some cases. What’s happened around here is that at least now there is awareness of how bad this problem is.”

He said he’s open to just about anything that will speed up the process for victims. 

“We use terminology like kits and turnaround up here and policy level discussions,” said Weissman. “But the reality is, behind every one of those is a human being who suffered something awful and we want to help justice be done following that.”

Democratic Rep. Jenny Willford has also kept the issue at the forefront at the Capitol and elevated the impact delayed DNA results have on victims. Willford said she was sexually assaulted by a Lyft driver in Thornton a year ago and is still waiting for the DNA analysis from CBI.