Baltimore County announced on Tuesday the launch of a proactive campaign to empower sexual assault survivors to come forward for an update on their cases. County and community leaders are committed to this new effort to reach out to cold case sexual assault survivors from 1977-1997 who were treated at the Greater Baltimore Medical Center (GBMC).
This follows the county's pledge last year to expedite the testing of cold case sexual assault forensic evidence preserved on more than 2,000 microscope slides by GBMC emergency room physician Dr. Rudiger Breitenecker in the 1970s - evidence that was preserved years before DNA became a key piece of forensic investigation. As of April 2024, the county has sent more than 1,000 of these slides to a lab for DNA testing to be processed as lab capacity allows.
As more of these slides are tested, more and more survivors may be affected. Survivors are encouraged to contact MCASA's Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI) Information Lines to learn more about their evidence (or 'rape kit'). A key piece of this new outreach initiative is ensuring survivors know they can expect to be treated with dignity.
"...the women, the men, the children that undergo these exams, they should be seen as heroes. They have already gone through trauma. Then, they go to a doctor or a nurse of a health care professional and have another intrusive, invasive exam so the community can be rid of a sexual offender."
-Lisae C. Jordan, Esq., MCASA's Executive Director
