KY Gets $3 Million Grant to Investigate Sex Crimes

The federal government has given the Kentucky Attorney General's Office $3 million to investigate sexual assault cold cases.

The grant from the U.S. Department of Justice will pay for a victim advocate, investigator and prosecutor among others to form a sexual assault cold case unit.

Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear said the money will also pay for another Kentucky State Police detective focused on sexual assaults. And it will pay for more people at the state crime lab to test rape kits.

Rape kits contain physical evidence collected from victims in the hours after a sexual assault. The evidence can be compared to a DNA database to identify suspects. Kentucky had more than 3,300 untested kits. But nearly 95 percent of those kits have now been tested.