Colorado’s rape kit backlog is improving, but falling months behind schedule

Rape victims in Colorado wait 185 days on average for their forensic evidence kits to be processed. That’s a big improvement from the 500-plus-day wait time early last year, but still more than triple the 60-day goal under state law and double the 90-day internal goal set by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

These massive delays are due to a backlog of sexual assault kits awaiting testing at the CBI’s lab. At its peak, there were 1,462 sexual assault cases in the backlog at the end of February 2025. There are now 493 cases as of June 30, following millions in state investments, outsourced testing, mass public outrage and even a community-led fundraiser attempting to resolve the issue.

However, the progress is falling behind schedule. In January, the CBI said it expected to reach an average turnaround time of 111 days by July. The current 185-day turnaround time is 74 days longer than that projection. The CBI previously estimated it would reach its 90-day goal in September. The Bureau has since pushed the target date back to November.

“This revision is necessary due to recent, unforeseen staffing shifts,” CBI spokesperson Rob Low explains. “We appreciate the patience of our partners and the public as we refine our processes and work towards achieving a 90-day turnaround goal that can be sustained long-term.”

The CBI lost four scientists who were performing active casework after two retired and two were promoted to management positions, Low says. Two more team members are preparing to go on leave this fall. Similar staffing challenges reportedly caused the backlog issue in the first place.

According to the CBI, the problem began in 2022 when two scientists resigned and seven were on extended leave. As it takes up to two years to train new DNA scientists, the department quickly fell behind.

In late 2023, the CBI discovered that star forensic scientist Yvonne “Missy” Woods had manipulated DNA data and posted incomplete test results in some of her cases. All of Woods’s 10,786 cases had to be reviewed, taking most of the CBI scientists away from casework for months and exacerbating the backlog to peak levels.

Low points out that the CBI is still far ahead of its original estimated timeline. In February 2025, the Bureau predicted that it would take until April 2027 to reach its 90-day turnaround goal. The CBI updated the target date to September 2026 in January of this year.

Still, the delay is leaving some frustrated.

“CBI needs to work with urgency to reduce the backlog,” says State Sen. Judy Amabile, who co-sponsored legislation to reallocate $3 million to the CBI to outsource the testing of over 1,000 kits in private labs. “They have made good progress, but more needs to be done. It is hard to predict the workload and availability of outside labs.”

Unhappy with the state’s timeline, sexual assault survivors and activists Kelsey Harbert and Angelique Perrin launched a GoFundMe last year, seeking to contribute more funds. They’ve reported raising over $122,000 so far, with nearly all the funds donated to the Denver Police Crime Laboratory. Backlogs at municipal labs, like Denver’s, are separate from the CBI’s backlog, though the Denver lab has attributed its delay to retaining kits that would typically be sent to the CBI.

The women are dismayed by the perceived lack of prioritization by government officials regarding staffing for crime labs.

“It feels like rolling a ball uphill when our local leaders and elected officials work against survivors by not prioritizing funding for evidence processing,” Harbert and Perrin say in a joint statement. “The backlog delays investigations, handicaps prosecutions and exacerbates the suffering of the survivor exponentially. We need our leaders to meet us halfway. We can donate the money to process kits but they have to ensure the labs are fully staffed and funded so those kits can be processed in a timely manner.”

In February, a state audit concluded that the CBI would likely be unable to reach the state’s 60-day turnaround goal without additional resources and staffing.

Low says the CBI “remains committed” to achieving its 90-day turnaround goal.

“We have seven DNA analysts currently in training, three of whom are expected to complete their training in the next two months,” Low says. “We are utilizing vacancy savings from four recently vacated positions to outsource additional cases, ensuring we continue to provide service while actively hiring new scientists.”

Testing for sexual assault cases submitted to the CBI this month is still on track to be completed within 90 days, according to Low.