Baltimore County promises to process backlog of rape kits by year’s end

Nearly 50 years ago, Rudiger Breitenecker began a quiet crusade for rape survivors. A doctor at Greater Baltimore Medical Center and a former assistant medical examiner for the state of Maryland, the handsome Viennese native calmly asked those who had been sexually assaulted if he could collect bodily fluids as evidence and freeze them to help police catch their assailants. Between 1977 and 1997, nearly 2,000 women, men and children, agreed.