Rape kits found in Detroit led to 257 convictions and exposed hundreds of serial rapists

For years, Brittany had given up hope that the man would ever be brought to justice after a stranger forced her into a deserted area on Detroit's west side and sexually assaulted her behind a garage.

At the time of the attack in 2007, she was 17 years old.

“I thought (police and prosecutors) would just brush this aside, it's just another case that's lying here and they won't worry,” said Brittany, now 35. “I don't think they took it as seriously as I did and the other victims.”

The Detroit News is not using Brittany's last name to protect her privacy as a victim of sexual assault.

Lionel Wells, the man who sexually abused her and four other teenagers between 2007 and 2014, was not charged until December 2021. He was found guilty on all counts and sentenced to 25-50 years in prison.

Brittany's rape kit was one of more than 11,000 found in a Detroit police warehouse in 2009. She and thousands of other victims were not compensated. Most of the kits were never tested.

August marked the 15th anniversary of the discovery of these rape kits. The Wayne County Assistant District Attorney was searching for ballistics evidence. The Wayne County District Attorney's Office is still working to solve and prosecute the cases to bring justice to the victims.

Prosecutors obtained 257 convictions based on the untested test kits; many of the defendants, including Wells, were serial rapists.

Although most of the 11,341 sexual assault kits – all of which were tested as of 2019 – did not result in convictions, the Wayne County Sexual Assault Kit Task Force has completed investigations in 5,446 cases. It has also found 853 serial rapists in Detroit.

3,228 cases remain to be investigated. These are more difficult cases for which there are no matches in a national database of DNA profiles or cases for which DNA cannot be submitted to the database.

Although prosecutions in the Rape Kit cases have been slow, Wayne County District Attorney Kym Worthy said she is immensely proud of the work the team has done to seek justice for these victims.

“I understand that some people may ask, 'Why is this taking so long?'” Worthy said in an interview with The News. “There's always a lot of work to do, a lot of investigation to be done in each of these cases. … We are making progress and have continued to make progress over all these years.”

People who worked with Worthy said she worked tirelessly to seek justice for these victims.

Peg Tallet, community engagement officer for the Michigan Women's Foundation, which was part of the “Enough SAID” campaign to raise money for the rape kit testing, said Worthy was “tireless” in raising money for the rape kit testing when everyone else advised her against it.

“She was determined to get justice for these people,” Tallet said. “She was extraordinary. … On the few occasions I had to meet someone whose test kit was tested and the perpetrator was convicted, it was amazing to hear someone say, 'I got my life back.'”

Worthy's passion for solving these cases has never changed, says Rebecca Campbell, a psychology professor at Michigan State University who studies sexual assault and has worked with Worthy on the project since 2010.

Campbell said she has worked with prosecutors across the country on unproven rape kit cases and has never met a prosecutor who has been as consistent in his pursuit of the course as Worthy. The Wayne County prosecutor decided her community needed justice, Campbell said, and she has stayed true to that belief.

“When I first met her and when we first talked about these children, she said very clearly that all of these kits will be tested, all of these cases will be reviewed and that we will bring as many of these cases to trial as possible,” Campbell said. “In 15 years, she has never doubted that.”

Using genetic genealogy to identify suspects

During the rape kit investigation, several serial rapists were arrested, including Wells; Charles Christmon, who sexually abused five people between 1996 and 2002 and was sentenced to 15 to 25 years in prison in September 2023; and Cortez Hill, who sexually abused three people between 2009 and 2013 and was sentenced to 28 to 50 years in prison.

Another man, Terance Calhoun, served 15 years in prison for one of the rapes committed by Wells and was exonerated after DNA analysis showed that Wells was involved.

Wells was the first case in which the task force used genetic genealogy, Worthy said. They were able to analyze the DNA in the rape kits to find out genetic traits, diseases, and eye and hair color, and found that Wells was linked to the six rapes. This tool can be used when the DNA database cannot identify the perpetrator.

Christman was also linked to five rapes based on genetic genealogy.

DNA analysis also identified Michael Bruce Williams as a serial rapist, but one of the victims had already died by the time of testing in 2015, one could not be found, and three did not press charges. The one victim who wanted to pursue prosecution for Williams' 2006 rape got justice when Williams was sentenced to 25-50 years in prison in 2020. He was also found to have committed rapes in Erie, Pennsylvania.

In examining the rape kits, prosecutors identified more than 850 serial rapists. Not all of those DNA profiles could be matched to an individual, Worthy said, but they were linked to other sexual assault cases in the DNA database.

“There were some very dangerous men involved in this project,” Worthy said.

MSU's Campbell said when she worked with Worthy's team at the beginning of the testing, the results came back and the cops in the room said they recognized the person whose DNA matched the rape kit, and they had been in and out of the system before. But cops didn't always believe victims when they said they were raped, Campbell said, so they were allowed to continue committing crimes.

“If perpetrators are not held accountable, they will reoffend,” Campbell said. “And they have done it again and again.”

Detroit becomes a national role model

The discovery of large numbers of untested rape kits is not just a problem in Detroit, but across the country, Worthy said. Detroit has now become a national model for how cities should deal with the consequences of finding untested rape kits, she said.

“The frustrating thing was that this even happened, and the fact that all of these survivors were denied justice for many, many years and people didn't care,” Worthy said.

Part of the problem, she said, was that police did not believe victims when they reported their rape, even going so far as to write in their reports why they did not believe them. This was especially true of non-white victims, who made up 86.3% of the untested test kits found in Detroit, the prosecutor said.

“Those of us who do this kind of work know that if you're blonde and blue-eyed, the rape will be solved and people will care about you. Your life is worth more,” Worthy said. “We just wanted to make sure we did justice (to all victims) in every way.”

She wants justice to be served for all victims. Worthy said she knows there is still work to be done, but things have been changing for the better. Police and prosecutors should always initially believe when someone reports a sexual assault, just as they wouldn't immediately distrust someone who says they were robbed or their car was stolen, she said.

Campbell said some law enforcement agencies have excellent sex crimes units that specialize in trauma, but there are still units that believe sexual assault cases are not worth their time and effort.

“Unfortunately, we are still in a situation where both realities apply,” Campbell said.

Worthy, a Democrat who played a leading role in implementing policies and procedures for handling rape kits nationwide, pushed for legislation that led to a statewide tracking system for the kits. Then-Republican Gov. Rick Snyder signed a law in June 2014 that required the testing of all rape kits turned in by a victim and set timelines for completing those tests.

Police must obtain a rape evidence box from a health facility within 14 days of notification. Police then have another 14 days to send the DNA to a lab, where it will be analyzed within 90 days if “sufficient staff and resources” are available.

Worthy said about one victim a year comes up to her in public and thanks her for her work on the Rape Kit Project. They say, “Thank you for believing me” or “Thank you for pursuing the case,” Worthy said. Another woman once came up to her and thanked her for saving her friend's life, the prosecutor said.

Now that Wells is off the streets, Brittany says she can move on with her life. She's finishing up her degree, her children are doing well, and she can talk about the attack and its aftermath without sobbing.

“My life is going great. I don't have nightmares anymore. I hardly think about the situation anymore,” Brittany said.

When she left the courtroom after Wells' sentencing in September 2022, she was relieved. Brittany said it was difficult to see Wells' face and sit in the courtroom with him, but she was glad she had the opportunity to speak with him at the sentencing.

“We all cried when we left the courtroom. It was a huge relief,” Brittany said. “I was able to smile again.”

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