Evidence missing in LA rape cases

LOS ANGELES -- Hair, blood and semen gathered in as many as 6,000 unsolved rape and murder cases in Los Angeles County are missing and presumably destroyed, said a county forensic specialist.

"Every one of these cases we can't solve now means a violent perpetrator remains on the street," said Lisa Kahn, the deputy district attorney in charge of the forensic science section.

The missing evidence involves cases investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

She said that the evidence was apparently destroyed but that she is still trying to find out exactly who did it and why.

The cases were not under active investigation, but the statute of limitations for bringing charges in many of the rape cases had not yet run out. And murder cases have no statute of limitations.

Using a state grant, prosecutors had planned to extract DNA from the samples and put the information into a database. DNA would then be taken from defendants and compared to the database in hopes of finding a match with an old case.

Kahn said she believes the missing evidence could have helped catch some rapists and killers.

Los Angeles police officials did not immediately return calls for comment. But Detective Rick Jackson told KCBS-TV that evidence sometimes is destroyed because of limited storage space.

"We will look into that," Jackson said.

Sheriff's officials did not immediately return calls.