FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — A 19-year-old Spelman College student went to Grady Memorial Hospital the morning of March 8, 2000, and underwent a rape kit examination.
The previous night she had been picked up in a car by a man she at first thought she recognized as a friend. When she realized she didn't know him, she demanded to be let out.
Instead, according to the Fulton County District Attorney's Office, the man took her to a cul-de-sac and raped her in the car.
The rape kit conducted at Grady was not sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for 15 years. It was not analyzed and matched to the alleged rapist, Cleophus Ward, until last summer.
Ward was indicted for the rape of that Spelman student last month, 19 years, 5 months and 12 days after the rape kit was conducted at Grady.
That shocking delay in justice is just as shockingly common, with rape kit backlogs a serious issue facing law enforcement agencies around the country.
Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard, Jr. is hoping a nascent unit in his office dedicated to solving cold case rapes, the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative (SAKI), will be able to finally help correct these injustices in the Atlanta area.
The district attorney's office says in 2015 there were 1,500 untested rape kits discovered at Grady. Some had been there as long as 30 years.
"It's a joke that these rape kits stayed in one location for 30 years," Howard said.
According to Howard's office, a $1 million grant obtained from the federal Department of Justice last October helped establish the cold case unit. So far it has been able to "identify, locate, interview, and prosecute cases involving 156 defendants identified through DNA comparisons found in rape kits."
From those 156 possible rape suspects, 110 cases are under investigation. Howard said 40 are suspected serial rapists.
"This is a vital function," Howard said. "This is something that absolutely has to be done if we're going to protect people, in particular women, in our community."
So far three men, including Cleophus Ward, have been indicted by Howard's office as a result of the SAKI initiative. Ward has been tied to at least four other cases.
Howard said if it weren't for the indictment, Ward would have been scheduled for release in 2021.
"He would've been out in the community preying on other women," the district attorney said. "And that is why we believe this grant is so important."
One of the other three men indicted so far by Howard's office, Dandre Shabazz, faces 10 separate rape charges.
11Alive reported last summer that one rape kit tied Shabazz to as many as 15 other sexual assault cases.
The third, Taylor Spann, is in custody in Texas on a separate conviction. It is unclear when or if he would be extradited to Georgia.
Howard said there are three more indictments expected soon, as well.
With 156 DNA samples linked to suspects out of the 1,500 rape kits that were backlogged, that still leaves about 1,350 women still searching for something that leads to the man who victimized them.
The rape kits finally being processed was a long-overdue first step, Julianna Peterson, the director of the SAKI unit, said.
"I think the message is that we're working hard every single day to make sure that ever single victim has a voice," she said.
Peterson has been in contact with the former Spelman student. She said the woman has exhibited extraordinary strength, as Ward has finally been brought to prosecution in the violent violation committed against her almost two decades ago.
"She's an extremely strong woman, and of course she was very glad to hear that finally there was going to be some closure in her case," Peterson said. "She has been very cooperative. She has been incredibly encouraged and, I think, further strengthened knowing that we're actually going to hopefully finally get some justice for her, 19 years later."
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