Justice delayed: Forensic evidence left in limbo

WATCH ABOVE: 16×9’s “Justice Delayed”

When a teen we’ll call “Jane” was sexually assaulted in a Yellowknife park, she acted quickly – consenting to a sexual assault evidence kit and reporting the crime to the police. But her urgency, she’d soon find out, was not matched by the RCMP detachment, or forensic lab.

It was August, 2001, Jane was new in town, and eager to meet new friends. She met a group of local guys who invited her to the park to hang out, drink and talk. It wasn’t long before the vodka and the sexual tone of the conversation made her feel uneasy, and she had the urge to leave. “I just didn’t wanna be drunk and in the dark in a new town and not know how to get home,” said Jane. “I kept walking but somebody grabbed me I don’t really remember much after that,” she said.

When Jane awoke, she says she realized she had been badly beaten and sexually assaulted.

“I felt like I fell out of a plane. I just felt broken everywhere. Everything hurt,” Jane said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "I felt like I fell out of a plane. I just felt broken everywhere. Everything hurt," Jane said.

Jane went to the hospital and consented to having a sexual assault evidence kit done. The kit was turned over to the Yellowknife RCMP detachment to aid in their investigation. But months later, Jane says her kit was still just sitting on the shelf at the police detachment. “I phoned up there and I just asked what was going on and they said it hadn’t been processed,” she says. “They just shrugged it off and they just said well if it’s not processed today it might be tomorrow,” said Jane.

Sitting, collecting dust on a shelf, Jane’s sexual assault kit went untested for four years. “I tried to move on. I just tried to leave it behind. Instead of being mad that nothing was being done just forget it, push it away,” said Jane.

WATCH BELOW: Sexual assault victim “Jane” reads her victim impact statement

Then one day, four years after Jane’s assault, the Yellowknife RCMP finally got around to sending Jane’s sexual assault evidence kit to the RCMP forensic lab in Vancouver, BC. It took another five months, almost four times longer than the RCMP target, to process the DNA at the lab. Once the forensic work was complete, it took only seven days to find a match in the National DNA data bank and police took a suspect into custody. Jane was called back up to Yellowknife to testify in court.

“I clammed up, my airways felt really tight I started shaking I couldn’t really look in his direction I started hyperventilating,” said Jane. With the help of a sexual assault counsellor, Jane managed to testify in court.

On September 26, 2007 – six years after Jane’s ordeal – John Phillip Koyczan was sentenced to four years for sexually assaulting Jane, but Jane will never forget the assault and the long wait for justice.

An encore presentation of “Justice Delayed” airs Saturday at 7pm on 16×9.