The head of the state crime lab says significant progress has been made on working through Idaho's backlog of untested sexual assault kits, but the lab may be some distance away from reaching the mandated deadline.
The Post Register reports Idaho State Police Forensic Services Director Matthew Gamette gave an update Tuesday on the testing progress to a state House committee, saying the agency is still working to speed up testing as new kits are submitted to the lab on top of the backlog.
Gamette says law enforcement agencies are better retaining kits, but progress is still required to the reach the targeted 90-day average time for testing each kit submitted to the lab. More 130 kits have been in the lab for longer than 90 days.
