Attorney General Mike DeWine says Ohio's crime lab has processed almost 21-hundred previously untested rape kits in its effort to solve more reported sexual assaults with the help of DNA matches.
He says more than 500 kits were tested last month, and investigators found nearly 200 matches with DNA in a criminal database. More than 4,500 rape kits have been submitted by 110 law enforcement agencies. Since the initiative began, forensic scientists have tested 2,093 kits and found 688 DNA matches. DeWine says suspects who have been charged as a result of the testing include 49-year-old Elias Acevedo in Cleveland. He has pleaded not guilty to two murders and 173 counts of rape.