DETROIT (AP) - A Virginia-based social media firm has donated $100,000 to assist in the investigation of hundreds of Detroit-area rapes as the prosecutor's office works to address a backlog of untested rape kits.
MOKO Social Media said in a news release that the donation will support the work of Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who's trying to bring justice to victims in cases resulting from more than 11,000 previously untested rape kits discovered in a Detroit Police Department storage locker in 2009.
As of last month, the prosecutor's office had identified more than 1,130 suspects, including 255 possible serial rapists, and 15 convictions already have been secured.
"We are trying really hard to eradicate this issue, and we want people to have a re-established faith in the criminal justice system," Worthy told the Detroit Free Press in an interview Monday. "Our main goal is to take care of these victims."
MOKO Social Media's donation, the largest single contribution since a private fundraising drive was launched in January to collect money to tackle the backlog of rape kits, will help the prosecutor's office along its quest to investigate more than 600 cases, Worth said.
"We are in desperate need of resources," she said. "That's why this money is so important."
Published: Thu, May 07, 2015
