Purplish: The human toll of Colorado’s sexual assault evidence backlog, Season 2025 Episode 28
The current wait time for DNA results in Colorado is approximately 18 months, with some cases waiting up to four years. As of February 2025, 1,407 people in Colorado were waiting for DNA results from their sexual assault cases. The backlog has doubled in the last year, causing delays in criminal investigations and leaving victims in limbo.
Elizabeth Newman said the harm victims suffer doesn’t just happen at the moment of the crime. “The harm happens every time you tell someone and they don’t believe you, when you go to the police to report and they don’t investigate, when you, you know, are waiting 517 days for your kit to be analyzed. When you are seeing of, you know, the DA not choosing to prosecute, when you finally get a court case, and you don’t get a conviction. Or you get a conviction, and the outcome is, you know, you feel like it’s not an appropriate level of accountability. We do not see sexual violence taken seriously in this country.”