In 1993, seven men raped Jennifer Moore. At the time she was only 12 years old. Back in that year her investigation did not really go anywhere. The police were apparently not able to find much.
One month ago, the chief of the Cleveland police pledged to personally investigate the situation. The case in 1993 was never assigned a sex crimes detective for a follow-up. While the chief currently does not have answers on why the investigation has taken so long, Moore has said she has waited long enough.
Last month, a major news outlet in the city of Cleveland featured her story. it was part of a statewide DNA testing initiative and information campaign. Detectives all over the state of Ohio are opening up old cases like this and having a look.
While the negligence in the case could be deemed as critical and Moore received an open letter that apologized to her, the most important aspect of the case is that the investigation is now going on once more. A former lieutenant actually said that this news coverage was the first time that he heard of Moore's case.
Moore agreed to let her name be released for the statewide information series. She was initially abducted in 1993 when she was walking her puppy in the East Side neighborhood. Her attackers abducted her. They then took her behind a high school and ended up raping her. They raped her for three more days since they held her in a nearby house.
She eventually found a way to escape her captives. Moore then ended up in a hospital psychiatric ward. Her case was resurrected early in 2013. Older rape kits are being tested, and that gave investigators the opportunity to retest DNA evidence that was collected from Moore a few hours after she got away.
Profiles from seven men were identified as a result of the DNA testing. The suspects have been indicted, but the case is far from over. Each of the individuals was convicted of felonies since 1993. Two of them committed sex crimes.
So far the testing initiative has lead to the indictments of over 50 different men. At least a dozen are suspected serial rapists. Around 4,000 different rape kits have been sitting around in Cleveland evidence rooms for years.