Credit: TBI
Would Eliza Fletcher, a mother of two and kindergarten teacher, still be alive today if a rape kit containing the DNA of her accused killer—Cleotha Henderson—was processed when it was received in September 2021, rather than a year later?
We will never know the answer to that, but Tennessee officials are working to ensure the situation does not happen again.
On Thursday, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced the state will fast-track money to hire 25 additional forensic lab positions to decrease turnaround times for sexual assault kits in response to the immense scrutiny following Fletcher’s high-profile murder.
The initial case
Memphis police say they took a sexual assault report on Sept. 21, 2021 and submitted the kit to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) for analysis. But, due to TBI’s rape kit backlog, the DNA was not tested until nearly a year later.
When the DNA was finally entered into CODIS, it returned a match for Henderson on Sept. 5, 2022—the same day Fletcher’s body was found after she was abducted three days earlier. Henderson was indicted in the initial sexual assault case just days after he was arrested for the murder of Fletcher.
According to the Associated Press, as of last month, Tennessee’s three state labs averaged from 28 to 49 weeks to process rape kits, and more than 950 rape kit requests were pending in labs. The Jackson crime lab, which handled the first rape kit linked to Henderson, reported an average turnaround time of 33 to 49 weeks between September 2021 to August 2022.
“The length of time to work these cases is attributed to the workload of the four scientists assigned to this unit,” the TBI said in a recent statement to Tennessee Lookout. According to the media outlet, in comparison to surrounding states, Tennessee has the highest number of requests to the TBI crime lab. Additionally, based on 2019-20 data, TBI would need 71 more positions to process requests efficiently.
TBI is well aware of the delays caused by staffing woes. In fact, they tried to address it in 2021 by requesting funding for 40 new forensic scientists and 10 administrative positions for the current year. However, the lab only received funding for about 20 of those positions—a fact that is now considered controversial in the wake of Fletcher’s rape and murder.
Improving turnaround time
The 25 additional positions the state will now fund include scientists, technicians and administrative support staff in all three TBI labs—8 in Jackson, 11 in Nashville and 6 in Knoxville.
A job posting for four positions—two in the forensic biology unit, one in the CODIS unit and one in the firearms & toolmark identification unit—was published on the TBI’s website Thursday afternoon.
Funding for the new positions will come from the state’s current budget, and Lee said he’ll push to fund it again in next year’s budget, which will be proposed and considered in early 2023. Thursday’s funding announcement covers the remainder of the positions TBI had sought for this year.
“We have been searching for solutions to these challenges for several years now, and we are thankful for Governor Lee and leaders of both houses in continuing to hear our concerns and work with us toward permanent fixes,” said TBI Director David Rausch. “The commitment to fund additional positions will help us get a jump on the necessary training time to get new scientists prepared to perform their duties. This is a critical step in the process.”
Rausch said the overall goal is to provide a turnaround time of 8 to 12 weeks for all evidence in 2023. TBI is now taking several additional approaches to immediately improve turnaround time including: providing overtime to current scientists and technicians to work pending cases; expanding operations to include weekends; outsourcing as many eligible rape kits as possible to private laboratories; and contracting with retired TBI workers to help provide training so current scientists can shift their time to more case work and less training.