Maryland legislators consider bills to retain sexual assault kits for 75 years and track testing

Before DNA testing was used to solve rape cases, Dr. Rudiger Breitenecker began keeping samples from patients who came to Greater Baltimore Medical Center in Towson for treatment in the 1970s after sexual assaults. The microscope slides Breitenecker saved containing semen and bodily fluids have been used since to solve dozens of decades-old sexual assault cases. Now, Maryland lawmakers are considering legislation that would ensure biological rape evidence like Breitenecker’s slides are kept long enough to identify perpetrators.