Williamsport, Pennsylvania (WNEP) — The state’s auditor general has an unlikely ally in his push to relieve the backlog of untested rape kits.
Madison Wertz, 11, began gathering signatures to help pay for the rape kit testing after she was inspired by a crime show she saw last summer.
The sixth-grader from Lycoming Valley Intermediate near Williamsport brought her work to the desk of Eugene Depasquale on Thursday.
She said, “Do you want to live in a world where rape and sexual assault are not taken seriously? Do you want to live in a world where victims of sexual assault receive justice in less than 10 percent of cases? This is the world we live in and I think it has to change.”
There’s a backlog of thousands of rape kits used for evidence, mostly because it can cost up to $1,800 dollars per test.